anyone else NOT feeding hay yet?

lincolnlady

lincolnlady

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as title really my boys field still has lads of grass i put some hay out today and he just sniffed it and walked off n carried on grazing. hes not lost any weight and was feeling guilty as he didnt have any hay so thought id try him with some but he wasnt bothered. he has a half scoop of 16+ half a scoop of chaff and tablespoon of mag-ox.

i know we are very very lucky with grazing and some are less fortunate so was just wondering who else isnt feeding hay yet for any reason? :)
 
We are not feeding hay. One of mine is still muzzled when out and only just reaching the weight I would like him to be. Out 24/7 until today but decided from this evening to start bringing in at night as fields are quite wet and don't want them to get trashed before the grass starts growing again in spring. No supplementary food given to either of mine. The TB who is out naked is even still looking a bit porkier than I would have liked.
 
Nope mine aren't getting any hay out in the field either! Way too much grass about they just aren't interested in it, did put some the other day, but ended up chucking it on the muck heap!
 
I have 2 ponies and a tb out, they picked at a little haylage when the ground was frozen but when I lugged some down in the pouring rain on Friday they just looked at it and wandered off:( they obviously have enough grass and find it more interesting than haylage so they can go without for a while longer.
 
Our 24 year old pony is out 24/7 unrugged, I gave her some hay when the temperature was down to -5 earlier this week but she just picked at a bit and left it, other than that she hasn't had any hay and has no hard feed either. She still needs to lose weight !
 
Only having out when ground frozen. Have been bringing tb in a few times to have a net but he isn't interested.
They did eat it all when cold and frozen ground. But stuff put out Saturday has only been picked at so none out today. They can eat the grass
 
I've started the last two nights as the fields were quite wet and they broke into the hay barn (leaving the hay I'd put out for them of course).

They didn't touch their hay last night but were munching on it after their feeds this morning. We still have quite a bit of grass too, but like I say, now it's wet I'd rather put a wad each out than let them go hungry.
 
I put some out in a small bale net about a week ago when we were having -4 every night - 2/3rds of it is still in the net :rolleyes:

Also not losing weight despite being unrugged and only getting FF and balanced minerals grr! They really do live and cr@p on fresh air!
 
I put hay out on the days over the last couple of weeks when the grass was covered in snow... they ate it eventually, but seemed to prefer digging for grass :). I haven't fed any since (and they didn't finish what they got the last snowy day either).

I expect I'll have to start feeding it over the next week or so in small quantities, but for now the grass seems to be holding up well.
 
yes I put a large round bale out last week as there doesnt look to be much in the grass and I thought they were coming in hungry. Hmm they've had a pick at it and gone back to the grass. That was money well spent then
 
No Im not feeding hay, plenty of grass even when we have had a couple of hard frosts they wernt interested, all out 24/7 and working.
 
Gosh! All you lucky people with plenty of grass; its like a swamp here in Glorious Devon and my two beauties are in the "holding pen" being fed hay like its going of fashion at the moment.

Its not the issue of grass that's the main problem where we are actually, its the fact that the fields are way too wet and if I were to put them out in it then (1) we'd have Cobbie going down witih mud fever PDQ and (2) they'd hoon around it like crazy and pull all their shoes off and I'd NEVER get the farrier out again before Xmas! and (3) we need the grass for the sheep basically and if they went out and hooned around there wouldn't be any grass left - period.
 
I am seriously jealous, mine seem to be eating hay hay and more hay ! There is barely a blade of grass in their paddocks, so they have hay when they go out, which they scoff all of. They get another net when they first come in, which gets scoffed like they are savages, and then they have another net later to last the night, and that all goes too. I now dream of grass !
 
I am insanely jealous..!!!!!! :eek:
Our lot have been having hay for well over a month now :( Hardly any grass at all....in fact I think we have only had about 5 months of them NOT having hay :rolleyes:
If anyone wants to send some spare grass down this way please feel free :cool:
 
Aww I am also lucky that I have loads of long grass horsey hasn't touched yet. Gave her hay a couple of times purely because she likes it and wanted to make sure she was warm enough when the minus numbers first came, but she didn't eat it all. She is at an OK weight but would like her to lose a little more over winter as I can tell Summer is going to be a bit of a battle :-/ I have ten small bales of hay for the winter, don't think I'll even use them!

Please bring hungry skinny horses to me!
 
Grass is still growing fast (our churned paddock is sprouting up quickly whereas last year nothing from about late Oct).

Ours had a couple of haylage bales chucked out as decided they were incapable of crossing fields (so one herd in one field instead of 35 acres) but have got over themselves now and fine without.
 
HeavyHorseHugger said:
I am insanely jealous..!!!!!! :eek:
Our lot have been having hay for well over a month now :( Hardly any grass at all....in fact I think we have only had about 5 months of them NOT having hay :rolleyes:
If anyone wants to send some spare grass down this way please feel free :cool:
Click to expand...

As long as its not like last year, we had 5 months off winter feeding too, couldn't believe they were on winter feed in May!
 
im so sorry to those who dont have much grass :( im not feeling too guilty now that ive seen others arent having to feed hay yet either as was feeling rather bad lol
 
Mine have gone back onto restricted grazing, so yes, they're on hay, but only because the 'starvation paddock' has very little grass. Be careful with laminitis, people. Don't remember ever putting them on restricted in December, before, but the warning signs were there!
 
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