Done to death but....how much hay?

FabioandFreddy

FabioandFreddy

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With Fabio being rather 'rotund' at present, i'm having to cut down his hay. He was getting a small dinner of handful of chaff and tiny glug of beet to have his vits in but have cut that out to literally a teeny watered down morsel of beet (do beet for Raz's dinner anyway) with his vit mixed in. It wouldn't even fill a hand! So really just wanting to gauge opinions on how much hay.
Both horses out 24/7, Raz is 17.2 and Fab 16.3, both rugged with field shelter. Fab is clipped out and currently in 100g rug (he's still warm in that! hot boy in general temperature wise). Our winter paddock has literally no grazing (clay land and gets trashed fairly quickly) so do rely on hay. At the moment i've cut it down to a net each in the morning (4 slices in each) and same at night - double netted in small holed haylage nets. So working out around a bale and a half of small bale hay a day. I can't really start soaking the hay as although Raz isn't a poor doer, he is a finer type and doesn't need to lose any like Fab. (Raz is getting a sizeable dinner along with his hay ration and doing well on it.) Does this seem an acceptable amount of hay? If i reduce it much more they'll be standing about with nothing to eat. They were just finishing the night nets when i went out at 7 this morning.
I'm exercising Fab as much as i can but he did have a bit of a slack week last week but usually will be lunged/schooled at least 3 times during the week and then hacked at the weekends.
 
My 2 live out. My Haflinger gelding is an average doer while my New Forest mare is a mega good doer. Haflinger gets a large feed of beet, grass nuts and micronised linseed while NF gets a handful of fast fiber.

I try and get more into the Haffy by giving him hay while I work with the NF, but leaving her without when I work with the Haffy. He is clipped and rugged she is left naked to shiver!

She is only a baby so not doing much with her so it is a battle. I give the Haffy about half a bale a day and the NF about a quarter. Haffy is 13.2hh and NF is 14hh.
 
A bale and a half each a day? That's a lot of hay for a fat horse. I'd be giving that to something needing to maintain or gain weight. But a bale and a half between two big horses, one of them not a good doer, isn't very much.

Can they be separated over night or, even better, Raz won't share a haynet? It's going to be very difficult to restrict Fabios intake if they're together all the time. I wouldn't be restricting Raz's hay if he's eating it all and keeping weight.


Would it be possible to split them apart during day or over night? Either side of an electric fence maybe? Then Raz can have as much as he can eat and fatty could have half and half straw and hay. And if Raz will guard a bucket and not share, he could have his bucket feed when they're together and make it higher energy fibre (I.e alfalfa and sugar beet) and give them restricted rationed hay when together?
 
Its not possible to split them unfortunately. The winter paddock is very small anyway with only 1 shelter and 1 water trough. The only way i could really do it is to bring them in during the day - OH could do this for the next couple of weeks the days i'm working - and Fab could then have soaked hay. I don't like stabling him for long periods though as he has mild shivers and it is noticeably worse when he is stabled.

Raz will share haynets too although they both seem to get an equal share and Raz will only let him share once he's had the first bit - luckily won't share his dinners so he does get fed in the field as he won't let Fab near his dinner!

And its about a bale and a half between them a day - not just for fatty! Only just started on this though. They were getting a bale between them morning and night.

I guess i could try the stabling during the day from next week for a couple of weeks.
 
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