Amount of hay over night 😳

[Elf On A Shelf]

The tb's I've had seem to need a bit more than that and that includes when I've used bagged haylage which is consistent quality.

I notice Elf said the racehorses get up to 24kg a day and they'd weigh about 500/550kg?

Yup average horse weighs around 500-510kg. Bigger ones up to 570kg and smaller ones down to 470kg. But these guys are also in way way more work than your average horde so need more fuel. Some eat it all, some don't. Same with their hard feed. They get 4-6 scoops of nuts a day depending on size/weight etc as well as the best part of 2 scoops of alfa a a day all divided up into 4 feeds. The one thing they do all eat the second they get it are their carrots they are demons for carrots!

 

[Hormonal Filly]

Like PaCS, I feed mine a nets-worth of haylage PLUS a bowl of chopped straw - I buy TopSpec TopChop Zero.

Obviously, weights of forage will vary hugely between horse type and work, but I aim to find a few tiny whisps of haylage left, and his chopped straw nuzzled around a bit, but not really eaten.
So, I experiment a bit until I get the right balance. This tells me he hasn't gone hungry enough to eat the TopChop.

However, if the night is colder than predicted, I find the TopChop mostly eaten.
Win/win as it keeps his gut and internal combustion engine going until I arrive first thing without too many extra calories.

Those of you who feed straw chaff, how much do you give and do you damp it?
And how long do you leave it before chucking and refreshing?

Second this @Surbie although I’m adamant my gannet of a horse would scoff all the straw chaff straight away!

 

[Sossigpoker]

I'd provide a trug of straw based chaff as well to much on over night and for June cut hay , likely to be first cut ,.I'd be soaking it as well.

 

[UKa]

I dont’t currently weigh hay but she is stabled probably about 18 hours this time of year and I don’t like them running out too long. I Have a very good doer but she only gets a balancer and very little chaff as feeds. I have started mixing two versions of hay. One type she practically inhales and the other is much coarser and it seems to slow her down. I feed from nets in different positions around the stable and one is a net on the floor (pony is unshod). Any leftover hay will be left in a corner loose. I exercise her 5 out of 7 days.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

I'd provide a trug of straw based chaff as well to much on over night and for June cut hay , likely to be first cut ,.I'd be soaking it as well.

Would Top Spec Top Chop zero be suitable as it is mint and apple flavoured? If she scoffs it all, assuming it won’t give her colic.

 

[criso]

Yup average horse weighs around 500-510kg. Bigger ones up to 570kg and smaller ones down to 470kg. But these guys are also in way way more work than your average horde so need more fuel. Some eat it all, some don't. Same with their hard feed. They get 4-6 scoops of nuts a day depending on size/weight etc as well as the best part of 2 scoops of alfa a a day all divided up into 4 feeds. The one thing they do all eat the second they get it are their carrots they are demons for carrots!

So with the nuts and Alfa they might be approaching 30kg per day which would be about 6% of body weight, reflecting the workload as you say.

Mine in much less work probably still approach 4% and manage to keep their figure. If I restricted to 2.5% even with the high calorie haylage, I'd have an underweight horse.

 

[Cortez]

I have/had small horses that were very good doers, in light-to-medium work. They never got more than 8kg of forage, out on short pasture most days, and on straw bedding for nibbles. No hard feed at all. It's no wonder there are so many fat horses if you're all feeding that much.

 

[Sossigpoker]

Would Top Spec Top Chop zero be suitable as it is mint and apple flavoured? If she scoffs it all, assuming it won’t give her colic.

Yes that would be perfect . Just dampen it a bit so it's more pleasant to eat. The flavour won't add any calories , it's one of the lowest calorie chaff out there
As it's chopped and treated it won't cause colic like long stem straw can.
Hopefully she'll eat it , none of mine will touch it and would rather starve

 

[Jambarissa]

It does very much depend on the horse.

My young cob and old ISH are the same weight but cob is fat on 7kg plus 1kg breakfast whilst ISH gets 12kg and is just a nice weight.

I hate haynets but if I don't use a small holed one for the cob she can eat it in 2 hours! I put my small holed haynets into a hay bar so better eating position at least.

 

[Slightlyconfused]

My 16.3 15 yr old gets between 10 and 15 kg at night, normally he has hayledge but this winter he has preffered the hay. At the momenf he is only on 5 hrs TO, yard rules as so wet, so in 18 hours ploughs through about 18kg of hay. Which he leaves a bout 1 or 2 ish kg. Which i am.happy with. He is a good weight, i do not want any more on or off him. He has half scopp grass chaff and a small handful of grass nuts am, noon when comes in and for dinner with supplements in

How much hard feed are you feeding.

I wouldn't reduce the amount if she is eating it all.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

My tubby 15.3hh horse is approximately 750kg and gets 8-9kg of damp hay each night. He's out 5-6am to 5pm on short grass in very big field. I have to used small hole nets or it would be gone too fast, but I do put about 2-3kg of that on the floor to eat first so he is less attacking when he gets to the net.

Those of you who feed straw chaff, how much do you give and do you damp it?
And how long do you leave it before chucking and refreshing?

My horse coughs on dry hay. I used to feed dry chaff, but got a bit confused about how long it could stay there if it was left, and just ended up chucking, which was a waste of money.

I gave her fresh chaff every day, she had emptied.the trug! At first I used 2 bags of Honeychop pjain oat straw chaff, each week. I didn't dampen it, she ate it quite slowly, because it isn't tasty.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

How much hard feed are you feeding.

I wouldn't reduce the amount if she is eating it all.

She gets a small scoop (probably 2 handfuls) of Dengie Alfalfa, small amount of micronised linseed for the health benefits, Equimins balancer and pea protein. It’s not a lot and only once a day.

She must be eating a good amount of grass in the field and is then coming in to scoff good hay. She could live out, but she likes routine and enjoys coming in. Probably because she knows how much hay she gets (was getting)

 

[holeymoley]

Crumbs that’s some amount!

14hh gets 8kg of hay overnight. He’s out muzzled during the day as lamintic.

13hh youngster gets 6.5/7kg of haylage overnight. Always leaves some much to lamintic’s delight as he gets a little bit of left overs to cheer him up. Youngster would rather eat straw.

 

[Slightlyconfused]

She gets a small scoop (probably 2 handfuls) of Dengie Alfalfa, small amount of micronised linseed for the health benefits, Equimins balancer and pea protein. It’s not a lot and only once a day.

She must be eating a good amount of grass in the field and is then coming in to scoff good hay. She could live out, but she likes routine and enjoys coming in. Probably because she knows how much hay she gets (was getting)

I would change the alfalfa so the meadow grass. I only used the Alfalfa to put weight back on the TB when he had his ulcers and tape worm infection.

Mine is pretty easy to mamage weight wise, he is also fussy which helps. But he is a demon on Alfalfa, even a small amount.

My old boy who was 730kg at his target weight, and a good doer who we battled hard with to get his food right had 12kilos hay over night and a a tub, about a water bucket size, of honey chop lite and healthy in the winter. Out at 7am till 4pm. He was under rugged as well. Thou i know yours needs to be warmer doesnt she?

Summer he had 6kg of hay, he didnt eat soaked hay at all, and 3kg of honey chop lite and healthy, was always a bit of both left. Was in from.7am till 5:30pm off the grass

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

My mare has been in over night for a month and has put some weight on. She isn’t obese, I can feel her ribs but definitely chunky. Shes in a herd with long grass.

I always give her 2 haynets emptied out on the floor over night.

I weighed the amount of hay I’m giving her today just out of interest.. 20kg! She eats it all every night and is out by 7am.

A friend was saying hers (15.1 and 15.3) get 6-9kg a night of hay and don’t always eat it all.

I’ve reduced it down to 15kg, but might have to use a net to slow her down a bit.

How much do you feed over night? And how do you work out the amount of hay they should have?

MY ID mare is 16.1 hh and she has about 18 pounds a over night give now 10pm and about 1 1/2 sections 5pm plenty for her in a small hole haynet.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

I would change the alfalfa so the meadow grass. I only used the Alfalfa to put weight back on the TB when he had his ulcers and tape worm infection.

Thank you, very helpful. Will use the left overs of this bag and order that.

She had a high tape worm count a couple of weeks ago, so was wormed last week although it hasn’t affected how much she wants to eat clearly!

 

[Slightlyconfused]

The TB, ex racer, had grade three ulcers and wouldnt put weight on until we found the tpworm infection and treated that. He had four meals with the below in each and went from hat rack to perfect weight in six / 8 weeks.

Scoop alfalfa a
Scoop wet alfa beet
Half scoop ERS pellets

Then 12 -15 kg of hay over night plus turnout into a crappy grass field with two of his feeds fed mid morning and late afternoon on the gate. Once up to weight it was all cut down and the next few winters he had just half scoop chaff and alfa beet twice a day.

The honey chop is a.great hay replacer for good doers.

 

[Surbie]

I gave her fresh chaff every day, she had emptied.the trug! At first I used 2 bags of Honeychop pjain oat straw chaff, each week. I didn't dampen it, she ate it quite slowly, because it isn't tasty.

Thank you. Am feeding Honeychop oat straw now so will see how it goes.

 

[nikkimariet]

Some horses really aren’t into long fibre, mine isn’t. He stands and eats it but I sincerely doubt he eats more than 6kg a night and is always provided with plenty more than that - fairly extreme ad lib if you like. He does however, like using it as a pillow.

 

[Goldenstar]

Overnight here is from around eleven pm till morning
I feed two kilos of netted haylege on a swinging ring not against a wall and a pile of straw chop which is about four heaped scoops .

 

[SilverLinings]

I have/had small horses that were very good doers, in light-to-medium work. They never got more than 8kg of forage, out on short pasture most days, and on straw bedding for nibbles. No hard feed at all. It's no wonder there are so many fat horses if you're all feeding that much.

It is good though that most people on this thread appear to weigh the hay/haylage they feed; the last time I was on a yard (20 horses, 18 different owners) not a single other person weighed any of the food they gave, despite nearly every horse being obviously overweight, and two regularly getting laminitis. I was apparently 'cruel' for weighing food, and positively evil for giving no hard feed to the native good doer in light work that I owned at the time. Everyone seemed to think that you 'had' to give horses hard feed twice a day, even if they were out of work and overweight.

OP, cutting the hay sounds like a good start. I sympathise as I have struggled with a few equine compulsive eaters over the years, and have had to accept that there really are some horses who cannot self-regulate if given access to ad lib forage.

With regards to straw chaff it just needs to be lightly dampened, if it's too wet then it breaks down quicker and won't be appealing to the horse when it's been sitting there for an hour or so. Some horses may take a couple of days to start eating it, but if they are actually hungry then they will eat it. I would suggest that if after 2-3 days of putting chaff in your horse still isn't eating it then he is still getting too much hay. When I introduce it to a new horse I start with a small amount and increase it gradually until there is enough that a handful or two are left by the horse (so I know they haven't gone without forage).

I have owned one horse who had to have long cut straw instead of chaff (under the vet's direction) as he would gorge on the chaff too, but he appeared to have something like an equine equivalent of Prader-Willi Syndrome as he was never satiated and wanted to constantly eat. He was an exception though, and I felt very sorry for him as he always seemed hungry, but unfortunately was also a good doer. He would snaffle anything he spotted that might be edible, including a whole large sausage roll at a picnic once

 

[criso]

I don't actually weigh every time but I weigh my haynets when full so I then know what that haynet holds. However it's more for my curiosity as I weightape to track changes before it's noticeable to the naked eye and feed more or less depending.

Although I'm in the feeding too much according to the book category, vet commented last year before I switched to the higher calorie haylage, he was "running light" and this year is about right.

 

[criso]

Everyone seemed to think that you 'had' to give horses hard feed twice a day, even if they were out of work and overweight.

On a yard especially an indoor barn like I'm on, some horses get stressy if they don't get anything when they see the others fed however that "hard feed" might be balancer/minerals with a handful of chaff.

 

[Surbie]

With regards to straw chaff it just needs to be lightly dampened, if it's too wet then it breaks down quicker and won't be appealing to the horse when it's been sitting there for an hour or so. Some horses may take a couple of days to start eating it, but if they are actually hungry then they will eat it. I would suggest that if after 2-3 days of putting chaff in your horse still isn't eating it then he is still getting too much hay. When I introduce it to a new horse I start with a small amount and increase it gradually until there is enough that a handful or two are left by the horse (so I know they haven't gone without forage).

Thank you. That's helpful. I don't feed long stalk straw as the only time it was tried my horse colicked.

Everyone seemed to think that you 'had' to give horses hard feed twice a day, even if they were out of work and overweight.

On the first yard I was on I had to feed twice a day - it was a yard rule that the first in the barn fed all the horses and the YM didn't want any to have nothing. I ended up putting a wodge of hay and half a carrot in a trug for mine just to keep the peace.

 

[Elno]

The feeding guideline of 2.5% of bodyweight per 24hrs (for horses that don't need to lose weight) means if they are brought in for the day/night (12hrs) they getting 5kg of hay (dry weight, weighed pre-soaking); they are grazing for the other 12hrs. I also put in a bucket of straw chaff to keep them busy if they scoff the hay. They are 14.2hh-15hh and 430kgs-480kgs. Iif they are spending time in and need to lose weight then I drop the % to 2% (over 24hrs) and make it up to 2.5% with straw chaff.

20kgs if fed over 24hrs would be enough food for an 800kg horse. If being fed over just 12hrs whilst being in overnight then that would be enough for a theoretical 1600kg horse. The 2.5% guideline obviously depends on variables such as age, feed type and quality, workload etc, but I can't imagine there can be many horses who wouldn't gain a substantial amount of weight if they were managing to eat 20kgs of hay a night for a prolonged period of time.

If an apparently healthy horse is needing significantly over 2.5% of their BW per day in order to maintain weight then the feed quality needs to be improved, and if the problem persists then a vet should be consulted.

I have owned a few horses who unfortunately could not be fed ad lib hay (or grass) as they wouldn't stop eating until it was all gone, however much there was. I couldn't give them enough to ensure they had enough hay all night as they would have quickly ended up obese and laminitic. Their hay had to be rationed and the bulk made up with straw, and I used grass nuts in feed balls to keep them entertained and slow down the hay consumption.

This

My very large breed of warmblood (Silesian) is roughly 750-800 kg and eats around 20-25 kg hay/ very dry haylage per 24 hours in winter when on zero grass. She gets 12 kgs out in her paddock (4 x 3 times a day) and a large haynet with 13-14 kg at night, of which she eats around 10 and leaves the rest. First of all, even if I wanted I couldn't get her to eat 20 kg per night, and second- IF she somehow would manage to eat that much she would look like a blimp.

Oh, and she is not fed any hard feed or balancers at the moment since it goes straight to her head and also since she apparently reacts to something currently unknown in commercial feeds (she gets "protein lumps" and galls in her fetlocks).