Anyone else not hay during the day?

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Or am I alone?! I have natives and they will never,ever, be allowed adlib hay, they would be enormous if I fed them like that! My welsh cob has a good net in his stable overnight then goes out at around 8am and is left to forage around until 6pmish, I did relent this week and sprinkle a section of rubbish hay over the field as it was covered in snow but he had to look for it! I have 2 that live out who get a decent amount morning and evening, as well as a small feed, TBH I have to say they are all looking great and feeling well and the cob could in fact do with being a bit leaner but while everyone else piles the hay to the rafters I do feel a bit mean!!!
 
If there's nothing out there to eat then I'd definitely feed hay. I've seen injuries from fights when resources were scarce and mine do get touchy with each other when they've got nothing to eat. However, just as in a stable, I restrict how much they can stuff at one time. I'm using my Blue Peter stylie slow hay feeders, which are working a treat. Maybe you could tie small holed nets up somewhere?
 
At my horse's yard they dont have adlib hay. They are out 24/7 (altho in tonight!). They a small section each in morning and at night.

My boy and another horse have feed but the 3 cobby ponys do not.
 
Both mine get hay twice a day, especially in this weather! They go out at 6.30am every morning, 8am at weekends with their bucket feed of chaff and high fibre nuts plus a section of haylage and then come in at about 3.30 to a very full net of haylage and another bucket feed.

One of mine is a dutch warmblood who doesn;t have a weight problem and the other is a connemara x tb. He gets extremely grumpy when he is hungry. I watch his weight carefully but I never not feed him. He just gets less than my other. There is no grass in the field at the moment ( before the snow) Both of my horses are very good at not over eating, probably because they have little an often.
 
They have individual paddocks and plenty of rough grass and a hedge to browse in, would rather have them working for the little bit they get than standing stuffing all day, They are natives born and bred to live of very sparse grazing in very bleak weather, I'm sure my mare could metabolize cardboard TBH!!
 
I don't hay outside. Too many of them and it would cause fights however many piles were put out.

They get plenty of haylage when they come in and they are topped up last thing before bed.
 
mine are out 24/7 and get hay in the morning and again late afternoon, so i guess for a few hours they are without hay, i did try putting a big bale in the field but that caused fights and bossy fat boy got huge while the others struggled to hold weight so that was a no go. plus the amount they wasted by treading into the ground and crapping all over was infuriating!!
 
maisie06 said:
They have individual paddocks and plenty of rough grass and a hedge to browse in, would rather have them working for the little bit they get than standing stuffing all day, They are natives born and bred to live of very sparse grazing in very bleak weather, I'm sure my mare could metabolize cardboard TBH!!
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Well, if they've got plenty of rough grass they don't need hay.

Mine are out 24/7, not a lot to eat on the field at the moment, and they are having about half - a third a bale of hay a day in slow feeders. Obviously this is going to depend on the environment isn't it?
 
My lot only get hay outside when there's snow on the ground but tbh honest their not that bothered by it. They'll pick at it for a bit and then leave it, the only one making use of it is my old boy and strangely none of them are eating as much of it while their in over night I think their sick of the stuff :D.
Even more strangely the fat orange one seems to of got fatter!
 
my welsh ponies are you with ab lib hay mares ab lib hayledge, they get big bales in round feeders nothing is over weight, would leave anything without anything to eat, would rather feed really rubbish hay or straw to a real fatty than nothing, cant stand seeing ponies stood in muddy fields with nothing to eat, you wouldnt leave them i a stable all night with nothing to eat, i cant see the difference
 
Ours aren't ad lib but they do have 2 small nets when they're in the yard after 5 or 6 hours out on the paddock. The skinny on has bulked up a little and the porker has slimmed down I think, the routine seems to be working well. They always get hay nets in the yard though, grass or not.

Oh and they're welshies, used to living out.
 
We have loads of grass. Mine are in at night with plenty food and water but in the day they can move snow to find all the yummy grass underneath!
 
We have 14 horses living out, in two fields. There isn't a lot of grass, but enough to pick through, and they all have their heads down unless its raining!

They get hayed with either a quad or a tractor every day, 7 in each field. 4 bales of small bale hay, or 1/3 of a bale of big bale haylage in each field. Spead over a 30 - 50m length to avoid fighting.
 
with being on a DIY livery yard and in a field of 14 its not possible to feed ad lib and like OP i wouldnt want to - winter is time i trim my lass down slowly - she has 2 ( 3 if minus in temp ) of hay at night when in and though grass is not good now its what a native would expect - come spring she is slight below body weight so as in nature she uses spring grass to get condition and she is totally rugless to - as worked well for 6 winters and no signs of lami :) x
 
Cupcakes and Horses said:
My lot only get hay outside when there's snow on the ground but tbh honest their not that bothered by it. They'll pick at it for a bit and then leave it, the only one making use of it is my old boy and strangely none of them are eating as much of it while their in over night I think their sick of the stuff :D.
Even more strangely the fat orange one seems to of got fatter!
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Mine only had hay the last couple of weeks when very frosty/snowy. Apart from the fact mine are out 24/7 I thought I had a 'forum double' as I have a fat orange one too!
 
No I dont hay in the field. Now the snow has turned to ice he ocasionally gets a section of straw so he has something to keep his gut moving but he is normally seen digging his own way to the grass.
 
Our paddocks don't have much in them, but have bramble around the edges so they tend to browse these. If we hay, my gelding just runs riot and bullys the other gelding, if there's no hay they don't fight. They are coming in earlier than usual though so get 1/2-1 section of hay when they come in (between 1-3pm) and then get bedded down fully between 5-6pm.
 
We don't. About 16 out in a large field. While there may not be be much in the grass, there is plenty of it. They are all in at night. Nothing is thin, a few have weight to lose.
We have only had one snow day and everyone was in as it was too icey to walk across the road to the field.
 
Mine are in at night, in winter they usually get a bit of haylage in the field in the morning as the grass isn't great. But atm there is no grass at all cos of the snow so they are getting haylage twice a day. Not huge amounts, I put lots of little piles out to encourage them to move around.
 
We don't hay in the fields as they're only out for 5/6hrs and there's plenty of grass.

My 15hh connie gets 22lbs of hay in a 24hr period so he's eating non stop in the stable anyway and it would get wasted in the field.
 
No hay in the field, she would ignore it and carry on digging for grass anyway! Only out for a few hours while there is snow on the ground though, and ad lib in stable.
 
The farmer at the yard I am on doesn't allow us to put it in the field as he says it causes fights (even though we can space it all out) - we can't seem to get him to understand that it actually causes fights if they don't have anything to eat. So at the moment mine are only staying out for a few hours and then they come in. I don't agree with horses standing around for a whole day with nothing to eat. Our fields are disgusting - just mud with no grass. My native doesn't seem to mind, but my TB is starting to look a bit lean now. :(
 
Mine is out 24/7 and no grass to be seen. Very good doer and in fact since he has had adlib hay he has lost so much weight....in this freezing weather. Its done him the world of good! The hay he has is about 2 years old so its poor quality stuff really, just what my good doer needs. I know as soon as he is back on grass he will blow up again!

I dont think he should starve there is nothing to eat............if there was he would find it.
 
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