feeding at night

[4whitesocks]

ok again I know before I ask that this is a dumb question but just want to confirm a suspicion....

if your horse was turned out during the day but brought back in say around 3/4 in the afternoon how much hay/haylage (if any) would you leave them with.....

and how long would you expect them to take to eat it?

are there any other reasons than allergies etc that you wouldn't leave them with hay/haylage?

 

[piebaldsparkle]

My 15.3hh Cob has ad lib hay so would chuck 7-8 sections in Haybar and expect some left in the morning. If didn't have Ad lib would give her atleast 12-16lbs (depending on how much grazing she had) to take her well into the night. The only reason I wouldn't leave her with hay would be due to vets instructions e.g. Colic or Sedation or something.

 

[4whitesocks]

hmmmm - that exactly what I would do.....

is there anyone who doesn't wouldn't give much hay at night, say due to the amount of hard feed they feed for example? Or what about an alfalfa/sugar-beet combination - could that reduce the hay requirement?

OK to be honest I really want to know before I go sticking my foot in it in my new yard in the morning - am on full livery, first time with this yard, last yard was a friends and horse was either out 24/7 or when he was in he always had hay or haylage to munch on....

Sid moved last weekend and apart from seeing a very nice feedroom with good quality feed in it I was too dumb to ask exactly what their feeding routine was....I have been down every evening this week (between 6 and 7.30) and on none of the 5 days have any of the horses had anything left to eat.....
just want to make sure there's no sensible answer to this before I shoot my mouth off!

 

[piebaldsparkle]

I would check what the routine is first as possible (if someone onsite) that they hay later if they do late night checks (but probably unlikely). I personnally won't want my horse to go for so long, with nothing to nibble on (what 12-14hrs till they get their breakfast?). It is also unlikely that all the horses are soooooo greedy that they eat their hay that quickly. However if on haylage, they won't be getting the volume, so wouldn't last as long. Alfa & Sugarbeet can replace some fibre, but still need sufficent to maintain a healthy gut.

 

[piebaldsparkle]

Have to admit that this is a pet hate of mine and one of the reasons I am now DIY. Sparks was on working livery at an agricultural college, but when yard manager became more office base, I often found her with no hay @ 18:00hrs. Now they had no turnout and were supposed to have been hayed up at 16:30hrs, thus I thought it was totally unacceptable, got fed up complaining, and left. Basically what seemed to happen was the horses got hay chucked in their racks (from almost impossible to reach door at front of stables), and if it got stuck half way down rack, they only got half/quarter what they should have got - staff only checked that top of the rack had hay via said door, so if bottom 1/2-3/4 empty it didn't get noticed.

 

[4whitesocks]

hmmm a little investigating from me required this morning - will let you know how it goes...

 

[sleepingdragon10]

Given..that..horses..are..designed..to..be..eating..23..hours..out..of..24..I'd..be..unhappy..
about..any...horse..of..mine..being..left..without..sufficient..forage..to..alst..the..night.
An..alfalfa/sugarbeet..combination..CAN..be..used..as..a..partial..hay..replacer,
but..again..you'd..need..to..make..sure..there..was..enough..to..last.

 

[Blizzard]

the only reason Ive known for horses only to have a small amount of haylege on a night was with our pointers when they were racing, they got a lot of hard feed and still got a biggish armful of haylege 3 times a day though.

My horses live out but when they come in for whatever reason they always have a haynet to munch on.

Would def ask some questions!

 

[KatB]

yeah we used this feeding regime at an eventing yard too. They just got three "bundles" of hayledge a day, plus a heaped scoop of alfalfa twice a day in there feed. I didnt like it to start with, and found it difficult to adjust, but all the horses seemed happy and healthy, and performed well?! I still feed mine alot more than when he was there, but know this can work, its just not nice

 

[fletcher]

if i bring my horse in at 4pm until 8/9am i give him atleast 5 slbas sometimes 6 because i cant bare to think hes standing there with nothing to eat.

 

[MagicMelon]

If I ever stable mine (for a show next day etc.) then I give them as much hay as possible! It depends on the horse, I know how much one tends to eat so I try to give him a bit more than that. I would never want my horse to have nothing to eat, thats just wrong!

 

[UKa]

hi, personally I dont think there is a sensible answer, horses have evolved to tickle feed and that all day and night (bar a bit of time for sleeping or dosing) - it is in my opinion bad neglect leaving horses so long with no long fibre whatever the hard feed that will never make up for it. It is one of the reasons why I left last yard to go DIY - the hay allocation was really bad all horses out by 7 or 8pm til following morning. I just dont understand yard owners who are willing to pay out for expensive hard feed but they dont see that hay/ grass is the very basic and much more important ...

 

[4whitesocks]

well I was down there this evening at feeding time and they all got a couple of large armfulls (crap at estimating weight) of haylage at 3.30 followed by their hard feed at 4. They are using alfalfa etc. and the quality of the hard feed is good but my boy has definitely lost weight in the last week - granted he was a bit of a porker having been living out 24/7 on good grass with no work and it has gotten colder but.....

So I was last to leave the yard and supplemented his feed by another couple of armfuls of haylage so I think this may be the way to go from here on - I can be down there every evening and no-one has said there's any limit to the haylage etc. so that's what I am going to do...

I know the rest of the horses there are happy healthy looking horses, not a rib showing and fab glossy coats but to be honest Sid is not a 'stable' horse, needs to have something to do when he's in even if that is eating, and unless someone gives me a reason why I shouldn't supplement his feed then I'm going to...
might also invest in some f those 'stable toys' which may also help to keep him occupied

Thanks for all the comments folks (for the up side of teh new yard please see my 'we jumped 90cm with no fear post!!)

 

[fletcher]

i feel so sorry for horses left in for long periods and no hay given. and another thing i hate is people spend all this money on horse feed and suplements ect when all the horse needs is a grass and hay, people people try to hard, i give my horse a small bit of cool mix as much hay as he wants and grass and hes in a perfect state. no offence anyone.