anyone keeping their horse outside 24/7- what are you feeding?

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oliviacharley

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Just wondering the amount you would feed a horse and old pony in a fairly bare field...?
I am feeding a bale of hay a day, as well as sugarbeet to my horse, three cup fulls of nuts, alfa a - three handfuls...garlic powder, and carrots....I am thinking of splitting it so he gets it two times a day....
my old pony has no1 baileys...which is barn mash, nuts, carrots and baileys digest plus, and garlic powder too....1 1/2 cup fuls of nuts and three of the barn mash...
They are keeping their weight but are not exactly fat....
My old pony comes out on 2 mile hacks with me on the horse, and my horse gets schooled twice a week as well....
what do you feed yours...? Just out of interest...?
 
I've got 3 ponies (2 Welsh Cobs & a Shetland) out on approx 5 acres which has grass cover but it's pretty sodden.

Between them they're on a bale of hay a day (1/2 a bale twice a day)

My mare that's in work is on:

1/3 scoop (dry) of soaked whole oats
1/4 scoop (dry) speedibeet
1/2 scoop of pony nuts
1/2 scoop minty chaff

That's all fed twice a day

The youngster, (Welshie) is on similar, just less s-beets and nuts and no oats and the Shetland gets a 'tast' of nuts, beet and chaff.

The youngster and the Shetland look fantastic, my other mare looks fit.
 
My three horses (all between 15.3 and 16.3hh) live out 24/7 in a bare field...I feed them twice a day as follows.
Just less than a muckbucket of soaked hay each...plus one skinny section of haylage each (Hi Fi stuff).
19yo TB - 3 handfuls of D & H 16 + mix and about 1 scoop soaked speedibeet.
2yo TB x warmblood and 3yo Shire x TB - both get 2 handfuls of Meadowherb blend, couple of handfuls of soaked sugar beet, and some Graze on chaff.
They all get some Equivite Vit Min stuff...at the moment.
And they're all....er.....well covered
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I think I might be over feeding mine then really...! I know people say you should feed small and often....
If you feed big meals is there a bigger chance of colic....
I was also told that a horse should never drink immediately after their dinner, but with my horses living out 24/7 it can be quite hard when I am feeding them at 11pm at night...!
 
Two large scoops Happy Hoof, one small heaped scoop speedy beet (soaked), apple, 3 carrots, superflex, splodge cooking oil, twice a day, (morning and night) plus half slab of hay, thats fed at the field, if I ride him he gets the same but as much hay as he can eat while grooming tacking ect, 14.5 year old 14.2 pony, his weight stays just nice for winter, just clipped him and no sign of ribs, did same last winter, seems to work ok.
He had just done 18 miles in 2.5 hours and cantered just about non stop the last 5 miles, he was up for it so I let him go for it, as you can see he isn't skinney.
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I completely re-thought my feeding a couple of years ago. I now feed as much hay as they want, 4 ponies share 1 round bale and get through it in about a week. Then I feed everyone Top Spec Anti-Lam balancer - a mug a day so that they get their vits and minerals, with a big scoop of chaff. The pony who does slightly less well has Alpha A, the others Hi Fi Lite. They all look amazingly well on this. One of these is an ArabxWelsh who supposedly had trouble keeping weight on before he came.
I think if they are living out the most important thing is plenty of forage, a good through-put through the gut helps them to keep warm.
My horse that comes in at night isn't quite such a good doer, but I sometimes wonder if he wouldn't be better off out and do better then. He's an Arab and does a bit more work, he gets 2 mugs balancer and 2 scoops Alpha A per day, and at night he has two soaked handfuls of Top Spec Calm and Condition cubes added to his tea.
... I have taken a few horses on in the past that I have been told have trouble keeping weight on. Without exception they have thrived being out 24/7, and become good doers. Interesting that one...
 
All six are out 24/7/365.
Only one (who has three acres to himself) gets fed. he has almost a scoop of Hi FI and half a scoop of supabeet. he is fat and well, as are the smaller non-fed beasties.
 
Yea I think your right about being out, his lordship hates being in, he is a lot happier and healthier since we moved yards and he has been out 24/7.
 
Mine is out 24/7 on farily poor grass (albeit 28 acres of it!) and he has ad-lib big bale hay and one 'token' feed of fibre cubes, mollichop and a cup of blue chip lami light to make sure he's not missing anything.

He's also fat as a pig
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but i'd rather him fat this time of the year than thin
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Maiden is fat and on six acres (ish) of grass (would be good grass if there was absolutely anything in it, which there isn't!). She gets a tiny handful of HiFi Lite to put her Superflex liquid in, and less than the recommended amount of Baileys Lo-Cal so she gets at least some vits and mins.
The two youngsters (2yo and 3yo) out with her get a scoop of Alfa A, 500g Bailey's Stud Balancer, and biotin, each. The 3yo was out on the same fields last winter as a 2yo and she dropped a lot of weight. This year she's looking really good and the 2yo has put on condition too.
None of them get any hay or anything other than their one feed per day. All look fine (well apart from that Maiden's fat!).
I would personally feed your as much fibre (hay, Alfa A, whatever) as they'll eat. If they need any more condition or energy then top it up with concentrates or whatever, sugarbeet if necessary.
 
I agree Tinypony.

My Welshie that I find the weight hard to keep on does a lot better living out 24/7 than when she came in at night, had her own pile or hay, warm bed etc.

Even if the weather's crap!
 
Boo and Joey out 24/7 on small fields, rotating between two. Both have grass cover. They get 1/2 bale a day (1/4 in morn, 1/4 at night).
Shadow gets 1/2 scoop SB and scoop Chaff, 1/4 bale hay a day.
Trix gets the same.
Rocco gets 1/2 scoop SB, scoop alfa a oil, 1/2 scoop build up cubes. Twice a day.

All are looking ok, Rocco is gaining weight after losing it while on livery. Trixie suffers from severe choke and COPD so it can be difficult to manage her. She seems to be ok at the mo.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I think I might be over feeding mine then really...! I know people say you should feed small and often....
If you feed big meals is there a bigger chance of colic....
I was also told that a horse should never drink immediately after their dinner, but with my horses living out 24/7 it can be quite hard when I am feeding them at 11pm at night...!

[/ QUOTE ]

It's better to feed more forage and less hard feed if possible...but sugar beet counts as forage, if that helps. Colic incidence is supposedly reduced in horses that live out on a high fibre diet.
The bit about not drinking after feed is b*ll*cks (no offence,
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); it was an old BHS feeding rule...when they thought that the water washed the hard feed out of the horse's stomach into the intestines before the stomach had finished digesting it. Now it is known that the water just washes over the top of the feed in the stomach (which is U shaped) so rule now abandoned....just let your horses have access to water constantly if possible.
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My full TB is out 24/7 on a 3 acre field and doesn't get any extra food. I'm feeling rather guilty now though as everyone else seems to feed theirs. We are on a dairy farm though so it's good grass. He's thriving on living out. Usually the weight drops off him in winter but he's in perfect condition at the moment. Unfortunately he's going to have to come in soon so then he'll get fed a token amount when the others get fed.
 
Ad lib haylage, one 16hh warmblood mare 2 kgs of sugarbeet, 2kgs of alafalfa, 2ks grass nuts, 200g linseed one scoop seaweed, one 16.2 warmblood very good doer 2kgs of alfalfa, hanful sugarbeet and grassnuts 200g linseed and seaweed. Both a little to well will be cutting down soon to lose weight for spring.
 
my 17yr old mare is living out 24/7
she gets hay some to most days depending on weather
she gets a feed once a day of;

1 scoop of apple chaff
1/2-3/4 scoop veteran mix
2 carrots or other veg
2 squirts of cod liver oil
2 squirts apple cider vinegar
garlic
magnesium
 
my 27yr old mare(15.2hh) and my 9yr old welshie gelding (11.2hh) are living out together on a very muddy patch of field with token gestures of grass.

They get half a bale of soaked hay and 4-5 slices of (small bale) haylage a day to share.
Then she gets: 1 scoop happy hoof, 1/2 scoop sixteen plus mix, seaweed and a splash of oil and water once a day.
He gets: 1/2 scoop happy hoof, 1/3 scoop slow release energy mix, seaweed and a splash of oil and water once a day.

She is well enough although could do with a bit more muscle and he could do with losing some more weight but then he gets fat on thin air!
 
I have 23 of my own horses and they all live out 24/7 in fairly extreme conditions. They are all fed ad-lib top quality hay and all of the big horses are rugged. The foals are not rugged.

The big horses are fed once a day and they have approximately 1kg of feed each. This feed is made up of whole triple-clean oats, black sunflower seeds, hi-fibre pellets and 12% coarsemix.

The mares with foals at foot and the weanling foals have about the same as above but they also have about half a pound of Grow'n'win each aswell. They are only fed once a day also.

The other 20 horses who board here are fed the same as my big horses.

All horses are in large fields and they now have lots of green grass - they shouldn't have lots of green grass at this time of year - their fields should be under 2ft of snow!
 
If there is plenty of grass I dont think you need to be supplementing with much, my beast stops eating once he is full, he wont eat his happy hoof if he is on plenty of grass.
 
I have four out, ranging from 13hh to 16.1hh. They get plenty of hay in the field and the three smaller ones get some AlfaBeet twice a day. A scoop (soaked) for one and half a scoop for the good doers. My big veteran mare gets AlfaBeet, veg oil and micronised barley which helps her hold her weight.

The two good doers are in regular work - one just hacking and the other hacking, schooling, PC and hunting. All look in the correct condition - not too fat and not too thin.
 
You just need to make sure they have plenty of forage, so if there's lots of grass in the field then I think you probably don't need hay. I don't have much grass left in my field. Grazing alone is unlikely to give a good mix of vitamins and minerals, and at this time of the year it has low nutritional value, which is why I give balancer. In fact, I give balancer all year round, because most pasture is lacking in something. I used to stop feeding in the summer, but since I have kept on giving balancer I have noticed better condition.
 
We have a few wintering out.

They have 24 hour access to good quality haylage, have a very good field shelter, and high hedges. There's also quite a bit of grazing in the field.
 
I have 5 that live out 24/7 all year round. I have alot of grass still and they leave any hay I put out so they have a daily feed of Good Doer and a H & P nuts.. just to make me feel better of course
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Mine kind of live out.....little one does and youngest does aslong as weather holds, my mare who is in work at the moment comes in from 7-1.30 so i can ride a dry pony!!

Merry - 11.3 Welsh A - 1 small scoop hi fibre nuggets - thats it!!
Jess - 14hh NF - turned away for winter
1/2 big scoop hi fi, 1/2 small scoop pony cubes, 1/2 big scoop sugar beet!

Flo - 13.3 NF in work - 1/2 b.scoop hi fi, 1/2 scoop mix, 1/2 b.scoop sugar beet.

Jess and flo have mint or garlic and a hoof supplement.

If they come in jess and flo have 2-3 sections of hay in a net and merry has 1-2 in a haynet - but they only come in if its chucking it down and field gets too boggy. They have about 3 1/2 acres between them
 
2 Welsh D mares (not in work) - big round bale of hay.

Dales mare (not in work) - big round bale of hay.

3 boys (in work most days) - big round bale of hay, 2 feeds a day - scoop of speedibeet, scoop of alfa oil, half scoop of calm and condition and half scoop of mix.

Other 4 (one in work but she is Welsh D and fat
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) - big round bale in field.
 
Its nice to see so many people keeping their horses outside....
I sometimes wonder if the condition of my horse could be better if he was stabled but I believe that he should be out and about in his field as much as possible to help with the movement of his joints and his happiness....
thanks for all the advice :0) I have a better idea of what I am doing...:0)
 
nothing. my 22yr old shares with 2 others in a medium sized field, not huge by any means with what looks like poor quality grass and is still the size of a house living out 24/7, unrugged, no hay or hard feed!
 
have 2 sec a's and a sec c out 24/7 on bare paddock

they have a bale of hay a day

2 a's

double handfull of chaff
2 small scoops pony nuts
1 small scoop build up mix
1 small sugar beet
soya oil

sec c
2 big double handfuls chaff
3 small pony nuts
2 small build up mix
2 smalls sugar beet
soya oil

above spilt into 2 feeds a day
 
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