5kg hay allowance

coffeeandabagel

coffeeandabagel

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I went to look at a livery yard today where the allowance per horse is 5kg a day. You are welcome to buy your own additional hay but surely no horse is going to cope on 5kg day if in from 2.pm to 8.00am so why not charge a bit more and provide it all?

Another yard offers 15kg which seems far more realistic.
 
Ours is 10kg a day and considering turn out is 8am-3pm in Winter, 10kg is realistic for most horses. Possibly not when the grass gets very low (unlikely) or heavy snow. 5kg as a full livery allowance is a bit of a shocker IMO.
 
A 500kg horse who needs maintaining would need 10kg a day so assuming there is reasonable grass in the field you would be looking at the horse having at least 7.5kg to last 3/4 of the day (out for 6 hours). So you could say it was realistic if it was a yard that only takes ponies (we have a few in our area) but not for one that has horses. I think the best thing to do is charge per KG stops people using more than needed because 'they are paying for it'
 
Our horses average 16kg of haylage a day during the winter. If I only fed them 10 kg, they would all have gastric ulcers. Remember the average horse without dietry restrictions should be fed 2% of their (ideal) bodyweight in DRY matter. Haylage is less dry than hay and so horses need more weight of haylage than they do hay.
 
It's clearly not enough but I think it depends on what is being charged. If it's very cheap and even topping up means you are on budget then fine.

I was at a yard that had I think 6kg for the horses and 5kg for 14 2 and under. When I went to view I said that mine needed at least twice that (16.3 tb) and I usually feed ab lib. They were trying to get part and full liveries rather than DIYs and wanted me to come so said OK. It helped that the yard manager had reasonable expectations of what a horse needed and it was the owner who had imposed this limit. They were fairly flexible with the liveries but did police it for the DIYs and DIY was £250 for a big horse so not a cheap yard.

My current yard we get 3 smalls bales ( but they are big small bales) and that just about does me though sometimes need to buy an extra bale between two in the depths of winter.
 
coffeeandabagel said:
I went to look at a livery yard today where the allowance per horse is 5kg a day. You are welcome to buy your own additional hay but surely no horse is going to cope on 5kg day if in from 2.pm to 8.00am so why not charge a bit more and provide it all?

Another yard offers 15kg which seems far more realistic.
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The livery yard owners know that 5kg of hay per day is not sufficient for the average horse. They are planning on making a bit extra on the 'additional' hay - makes you wonder what else they're making a bit extra on. What irritates me is they want you to believe they're doing you a favour & getting a good deal.
 
I wonder if the yard has ordered and paid for the amount of hay they've worked out is needed to see them through the winter? And in that working out, they've been able to allocate 5kgs per horse.
 
weekly deep litter on straw I got through a bale a week so that would be fine.

I don't think I'd want to be on a yard that had such a bizarre concept of how much hay a horse needs in a day and would worry about their being other possible issues. Is there sufficient storage for your own too? How many can you store/will it be a PITA getting hold of some/putting it in the boot of the car :p
 
ester said:
weekly deep litter on straw I got through a bale a week so that would be fine.

I don't think I'd want to be on a yard that had such a bizarre concept of how much hay a horse needs in a day and would worry about their being other possible issues. Is there sufficient storage for your own too? How many can you store/will it be a PITA getting hold of some/putting it in the boot of the car :p
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This, it would worry me that the knowledge level of the yard owners or managers wasn't*sufficient if they think this amount is acceptable. I would question what else they didn't know or understand.
 
Its not a particularly cheap yard, £410 a month, the cheapest in the area I know for 5 day livery is £360 with ad lib haylage but less grazing. (thats where I am now). Other liveries seemed to have 10 or so bales stored and they all order at the same time so can get a reasonable price.
Other aspects of the yard seem fine (no charge for lorry parking for example) , its just the hay thing thats weird.
 
coffeeandabagel said:
I went to look at a livery yard today where the allowance per horse is 5kg a day. You are welcome to buy your own additional hay but surely no horse is going to cope on 5kg day if in from 2.pm to 8.00am so why not charge a bit more and provide it all?

Another yard offers 15kg which seems far more realistic.
Click to expand...

It is not a lot of hay but (sorry if I have missed it) what is the grazing like and how many hours per day will the horse be turned out for?, if there was heavy snow or the yard iced up and turn out was not available would the allowance be lifted?
 
Penny Less said:
I am obviously starving mine then they get 12lb in old money a night and are both on the chubby side, both 16HH
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If they are chubby clearly they are not starving but would you insist on that quantity if they were not maintaining weight. My two get twice that, one is just right, one I'm trying to get weight on. The lighter one doesn't graze as enthusiastically as the heavier one so I have to compensate.

I think ultimately I would expect on full livery my horse to get the basics of what it needs and I would expect there to be some flexibility as not all horses are the same. As a yard owner hopefully the good doers balance out the poor doers.

OP I don't think the price is so cheap that I would accept that low an allowance. It's certainly not expensive for the area but but I've paid that at several yards and had a more generous approach.
 
I am on part livery and I don't think there is a hay allowance.

The yard staff make up the haynets and the amount given depends on the horses, big horses get big haynets. I have a pony so he gets a smaller haynet and he gets soaked hay as well sometimes as he is a good doer which is more work to prepare than dry hay.

I think everyone pays the same price regardless of size of horse, the ponies don't have smaller stables and they can be more work with the soaked hay and some of them needing grazing muzzles which have to be put on and taken off. So it all balances out in the end.

If they come in early due to bad weather and need extra hay then that is included.

They keep an eye on the horses weight so if they need more or less then their diets are adjusted accordingly my pony is now enjoying some dry hay but if he gets fat he will go back on the soaked hay.

I think with part and fully livery the horses are all different and some are going to eat more, some require more work to look after or are harder to handle and some owners are more demanding or hard work than others so hopefully it all balances out in the end.
 
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