Am I feeding too much?

[flirtygerty]

Recently moved horses (and house) to being out 24/7, since 24/12/13 my four horses have gone through 4 and a half round bales of hay, at the old place I could monitor their intake, but my purse says this amount is excessive, they are all keeping weight on, but not overweight and also have grass to eat, they are even seen to move away from the bale at times.
Are they getting too much, I've never had to feed ad lib in a field before, or are they just being pigs

 

[be positive]

Thats about 1/4 bale per horse per week which does not seem excessive, this is about the worst time of year as whatever grass is there has little value, the days are beginning to get longer and as long as we do not have a late spring like last year the grass should start growing fairly soon. If they are looking well and not gaining weight I would continue with adlib for a while longer.

 

[flirtygerty]

Thanks for that, it's nice to know they aren't pigs, at the old place they had two feeds as well as hay and 24/7 access to the field, mow they get a token chaff feed with linseed

 

[Scarlett]

Sounds about right to me. My 2 Tb's, yearling and weanling went through a round bale in about 9 days. IMO adlib hay is the best thing you can do for them now. I would keep going a little while longer until the grass starts coming through.