is this too much hay?

[raggydoll]

Im not sure if im overdoing it with the hay, Bims out 24/7 and the grazing is pretty poor now. Also now its getting frosty and the field is well sheltered by trees etc which meants it doesnt thaw out till lunchtime ish and then its not long before its freezing over again I do want her to lose some of her belly but at the same time i want to make sure she is getting enough to stay warm and keep her guts ticking over properly. She gets three slices at night (4ish) split into three piles in different areas of the field and another couple in the morn. When it want frosty she was getting one in morn and two at night. My friend only gives her similar pony one slice a day tho unless the ground is covered in snow. Am i giving her too much? She is toasty warm when i check her morn and eve.

Feed wise she just gets a scoop of good doer and a carrot and parsnip. I thought it was better to up her hay than her feed as im wanting her to lose the weight and then i could always add speedibeet if she really needs a bit of extra central heating when it gets rough.

All opinions gratefully recieved!

 

[Fizz]

does she have any left?
i feed ad lib hay so that there is a bit left in the morn,my 2 ponies get more than your horse,how big is she?

 

[raggydoll]

theres normally a tiny bit left but not much. Shes a well built 14hh! weighing in at aroung 450kg according to the tape but it appears to be all belly!

 

[Jacquie]

Echo Fizz, although my horses are stabled each night now the cold weather is here, I do feed them ad lib hay (two large nets each horse). There's always some hay left in each stable every morning but I'd rather have it that way than worry I've not given them enough.

They're out from 8.00am to around 3.30pm each day and each have a small haynet in their paddocks now the grass is frozen.

 

[Pink's lady]

If there's a little bit left and she's still a little porky, she's getting a little bit too much. She will be able to graze on the graze, for a few hours at least, and she'll spend a couple of hours not eating anyway.

Try giving her one less leaf a day - 2 1/2 at night, 1 1/2 in the morn. Personally I'd put it into small holed haynets, tie up the rope she can't get caught in it and put them out free for her to play with. That way she'll spend just as long eating but she'll consume less.

However, if she's shifting the weight, keep her as she is. It's not extorionate amounts of hay by a long shot.

 

[Skyhuntress]

I would say she's getting a bit too much, although its not horrendous '_'

My horses are out 24/7 as well, and in winter, grazing is extremely minimal. Storm is 17.2hh and 1600lbs and gets 7 flakes a day in winter time (spread out) (just so you can get a comparison of their size ration) and gets a bran mash whenever I'm out (3-4 times a week) I prefer to keep my horses a little bit on the leaner side as opposed to heavier (that just a personal call because I keep them in shape so that when show season comes around, I'm set)

 

[Esther.D]

Rupert (13.2hh New Forest) gets a slice and a half when in at night and nothing during the day but there is still a reasonable amount of grazing on the paddocks. He also gets a handful of ponynuts, a half scoop of chaff and a little bit of unmolassed sugarbeet for his tea. He always has something left in his haynet in the morning and he is certainly not skinny

 

[Bay Mare]

I feed ad-lib hay/haylage too.

As PL says, feed from haylage nets or even put one net inside the other so that the holes are smaller and the hay more difficult to get out if she's a bit porky.

Just an aside about bran mashes, they are not advising you to give a bran mash anymore as it has no real value and adding something that isn't used regularly in the diet (ie fed every day) can do more harm than good.

 

[raggydoll]

Thanks folks i think that she is starting to lose a little of the weight now so i will keep it the same but maybe go and buy a couple of nets. Feel better now tho thanks

 

[Dummer&Drummer]

i have good doer, section D - chunky old fella (weighed 700kg when i got him and now a healthier 500 and slowly getting fitter) my cob also shares a field with my daughters section B xTB/Welsh and he is a finer breed. i was a bit worried given the 2 extremes and there is not much grass in their field. they have a bale of haylage, if i can call it that delivered by FORK LIFT (as it so large) delivered to their field whenever they run out, and my cob has put nothing on and is still continuing to loose a tiny bit of weight through exercise. i dont think there is much in the haylage very fattening

i have just started to feed my daughters horse after every ride and a couple of times in the week as well, my horse also gets the same but the same size portion as my daughters horse

this massive pile of haylage is great as on cold days they will spend hours pulling it apart and making a bed to sleep in at night

 

[KarinUS]

I don't think I'd cut the hay back. We mix it up. We have some regular hay and some native hay (prairie grass which is much higher in fiber and lower in everything else). The farmers here consider the prairie hay more of a filler than something to put weight on stock. It keeps them busy.
I would not leave them without any forage to nibble on.

 

[teabiscuit]

my horses get enough so that there is a tiny bit left, so that i know they arn't hungry-as you rightly say in this cold weather they need to digest their hay to keep themselves warm

 

[Guest]

I give Grady 3 wedges a day normally, 2 in a hay net at night or 4 if the wedges are small and one in his field in the morning.
He's on 2 feeds a day.
When he works he gets 2 small scoops of Alpha a and the same of cool cubes (which are basically fibre cubes) and then the other feeds are just one scoop of the alpha and 2 of the cc's.
I could give him more but I'm worried about giving him constipation one of the horses down our yard had it a few weeks ago and the vet had to come and flush him out. Not sure what to do about that actually. He's always hungry. I'm trying not to make him to hyper but he's certainly more 'alert'. If the weight continues to drop I'll have to up the fibre cubes I guess.

 

[Pink's lady]

I I could give him more but I'm worried about giving him constipation one of the horses down our yard had it a few weeks ago and the vet had to come and flush him out. Not sure what to do about that actually. He's always hungry.

Constipation is caused by a lack of fibre, not too much food. In fact, not enough food can cause constipation as the guts stop functioning properly. If he's always hunger, you're in trouble, as it causes stomach ulcers.

The amount of feed he's gettting sounds fine, and a sensible type (mostly fibre). But I'd do it the other way round - give him more chaff (Alfa-A) when he's not being worked, and less cubes. But for a horse that a bit of a hard-doer and is hungery, he needs more hay. So instead of giving him more hard-feed, give him an extra leaf at night and some more during the day to. Or better still, pad his dinner at night out with a couple of scoops of Hi-Fi (which is basically chopped hay and can be feed as a hay replacer)