Am I feeding too much hay...............

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Cloud9

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My horse used to be a lovely weight for a cob - 470 kg - he lives out and has no grass left to speak of. He is fed one scoop of hi-fi light for tea plus vitamins and calmer in the evening meal plus about 16lbs of hay - and for breakfast he has about the same amount of hay again - am I feeding him too much - other on yard say I am - but he is living out and has a tendancy to go through fencing if not kept occupied. Can calmers encourage weight gain?!?! Have upped his hay over last two days cause of severe frosts too - not thawing during day at all??
 
32lbs of hay is about 14.5kg

So you are feeding about 3% of his body weight in forage, which is not unreasonable in the cold weather. Are you saying he is putting on weight? Logically, if he is putting on weight you are either feeding him too much or he is not getting his usual workload.
 
i wouldnt have thought so, but then i have a tb cross who gets all the hay i can give him 24/7 plus good grazing and he never really puts on weight
 
Thanks all - yes he is becoming a littly chunky again - closer to 500kg now - maybe a tiny bit more - he used to be obese and I have worked so hard to get the weight off him so don't want him returning to that - I have not had chance to ride as much over recent weeks - weekends only like most people i suppose but missed last few weekends too due to family commitments, weather etc. Grazing is very good where I am in summer but have nothing left now but I stable him in summer when I can borrow one off one of the girls on the yard. Also wondered if his calmer could also encourage a little weight gain though? I use Steady up - I suppose a nervy spooky horse would always burn more calories in nervous energy- he is only like this hacking on own though.
 
I dont think you can reduce the hay as the minimal grass isnt enough forage IMO. I wouldnt try and reduce calories during the winter anyway. If possible, Id increase his exercise. Also dont over rug him so he can burn off some calories keeping warm.
 
If he is starting to put on weight then the amount of hay he is getting will be contributing to this. However, when it is snowy or frozen it is probably best to continue feeding at your current rate in the short term. When it thaws, however, I would be looking to reduce his calorie intake in some way - for example, you could soak the hay to remove excess calories, or perhaps give a slightly smaller amount in a small-holed net to make it last longer. Alternatively, you can increase his calorie requirement by giving him more exercise. Whatever way you choose to do it you do want to keep his weight under control otherwise you will really struggle to prevent him becoming obese when the grass comes through in the spring.
 
The horses who live out on my yard get ad lib hay of medium quality.

IMO if there was no frost they would be eating (and noone can measure how much they eat) and therefore when grazing is not available (becasue of freeze/mud/snow) it should be replaced in ad lib quantity.

My horses get a bale each a day (two out in the field together 24/7). They get fed according to workload.
 
I dont think thats too much, my 14.2 cob gets 24lb of hay overnight and currently more in the day because of the frost. They also have quite a lot of grass so I dont think what you are feeding is unreasonable.

I would say any weight gain is dependent on if his workload has dropped.
 
Thanks all - feel better know - I could not really give him any less to be honest - break up today so am gonna try and ride every day for next couple of weeks till I have to go back to work again
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so hopefully he will look a little fitter again soon - also going try and lunge a couple of times a week - might have to try and light up our round pen at night with my car headlights - my poor boy - he will hate it!!!!!
 
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