Feeding hay in the stable

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A post on another thread I have done has reminded me to ask - how much hay do you feed when you leave your horse stabled? I always leave enough out so that on 99% of occasions my horse still has some hay left when I get back to the yard, but I notice every morning that no-one else's horses have hay left in the morning...

Is it just me who uses the ad-lib approach? I appreciate that with overweight horses you can't do that, but these are horses like mine - a TB - who are average good doers but not prone to excessive weight gain?
 
I always make sure my pony has more than enough for the night, and anything left goes in her field during the day. I don't like horses to stand for long periods of time with nothing to eat, especially when they are in at night in the winter and there is nothing for the horses to do except eat and sleep for long periods of time. Even if I had an overweight horse i would still provide ad-lib forage, it would just be very poor quality and soaked for 24 hours, changing the water regularly. I would also mix in some straw to keep up the fibre intake without the calories!
 
For our good do-er it'd be soaked in a small holed net, for the mare who drops weight it's loose on the ground, enough to last most of the night, the rest in a hay net (otherwise she trashes it, poos in it etc. when the early morning people come in at half five to see to theirs) Mostly she sticks to eating the stuff on the floor.
 
My mare never has any left in the morning, I give her a quarter of a bale a night (poor doer welsh a) she only ever leaves any if she's colicky or doesn't like the hay so finding hay left on the floor in the morning is more worrying imo!
 
my mare has straw to top her up so she always has something to eat, she would happily eat a bale and a half of hay per night, in fact when on livery that included hay and straw when she was being backed she was out at least 12 hrs per day in winter with fields full of decent grass then would come in and eat 2/3rds a bale of hay and a whole bale of straw, she is only 15.1hh.
so half a bale of hay and half a bale of straw, she has grass all year round usually due to me strip grazing carefully.
I am very particular about the weight of the animals in my care though so no fatties allowed
 
I leave a large fine holed net containing probably about 8KG of hay and another smaller net holding probably 5KGS. Constant hay is great for preventing ulcers and stable vices from boredom.

when he comes in from the field (out from half seven to 3pm) he has a small 5KG net to keep him occupied until I get there after work.
 
tin hat on.

I give good-doer ponies ad-lib hay. However, one has hind-gut issues and the other cushings so they are best with a constant supply of fibre going through their guts. They receive little to none hard feed and their grass is restricted (they live in a sand school with hay all spring and summer), and are worked daily to help their metabolism. We give hay in at least two small-hole nets tied in different places in the stable and have multiple feeding-stations in the school so that they are constantly moving to the next net to see if there's anything 'better' in it rather than standing and stuffing for hours on end.
 
Mines fat and on a diet. He cant have ad lib hay, but he does have forage that lasts him all night. He gets a trickle net with about 3kgs in, a second trickle net with 2kgs in, which is tied in a tub trug and left loose on the floor, and a tub trug that has 2kgs of chopped straw, which is 2/3s of a big trug. He usually has a tiny bit left on a morning.

If I fed him ad lib he would eat and eat and eat and eat. I know, because I tried it when he first started being stabled over night as a rising 4 yr old. He can eat his own volume in hay! So we compromise. Hes never left without forage, but he isnt allowed to gorge either. He also has a muzzle on when hes out.
 
I have a very good doer who is out during the day and in at night at the moment. He has a muzzle on during the day and then is in at night with steamed hay from a greedy feeder net (the big one). Having had a previous horse with ulcers, I too will now not leave a horse without enough forage to last the night. He has about 4 slices of hay in his haynet and is in from 6 pm - 6 a.m. He generally has a little bit left over which then gets left on the floor for him to hoover up the next evening. I have only fed him hay ad lib on the floor once. He had 4 slices which was gone within 4 hours!!
 
I'm struggling with this at the moment as I also have a good doer on a diet who would just eat forever if he was allowed to. At the moment although he gets a hay bag around 9pm he does eat it all by morning. I don't want to feed from a hay net tied up but will probably need to explore some other options over the winter once he's stabled for longer. Is there a way to feed from a hay net but on the floor? Or other ways to feed from the ground but slow them down, I imagine a hay bar wouldn't do the trick as he's still got easy access to his hay.
 
I've never worked out how much hay I'd have to give mine for her to have some left...a lot, I'm guessing! She is rarely stabled anymore though, just when the weather is horrific. When she is, my YO puts more hay in at around 8pm, which is a system I really like. I was on one yard where the YO used to put extra hay in at 10pm, then when I had to move elsewhere I used to do my own trip up in the evening (I only lived 5 mins away). When I was an SJ groom, the horses used to get more hay at 9pm.
 
Bernster said:
I'm struggling with this at the moment as I also have a good doer on a diet who would just eat forever if he was allowed to. At the moment although he gets a hay bag around 9pm he does eat it all by morning. I don't want to feed from a hay net tied up but will probably need to explore some other options over the winter once he's stabled for longer. Is there a way to feed from a hay net but on the floor? Or other ways to feed from the ground but slow them down, I imagine a hay bar wouldn't do the trick as he's still got easy access to his hay.
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Have you looked at a hay pillow (http://thehaypillow.com) can be fed on the floor safely.

I have a good doer on a diet but she always has enough so that theres a handful left in the morning. She won't eat soaked hay (which I'm half glad about) but is still losing weight. I find that the more i restrict her, the greedier she becomes therefore eats more. She's learnt now that she wont ever be without so doesn't stuff herself when it first goes in.
 
ShadowHunter said:
Have you looked at a hay pillow (http://thehaypillow.com) can be fed on the floor safely.

I have a good doer on a diet but she always has enough so that theres a handful left in the morning. She won't eat soaked hay (which I'm half glad about) but is still losing weight. I find that the more i restrict her, the greedier she becomes therefore eats more. She's learnt now that she wont ever be without so doesn't stuff herself when it first goes in.
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Ooh interesting thanks. He's a bit of a paw-er so the hang up one might be best, which I could use to supplement his usual soaked hay ration, so that he has something left to eat overnight. He does make out like he's starving the whole time!
 
Mine get about half - 2/3's of a small bale or two huge wheelbarrow loads if pulled from a big round bale per evening each when they come in during the winter. I don't like to leave them without forage and whatever they have left just stays in the stable for the next night providing it is clean.
 
the poor doer and the average doer have ad-lib.

for the average doer i would rather he had less grass and more hay overnight so he is eating fibre constantly.

the piggy good doer is out on poor grass and comes in to about 1/2 a slice of hay then stands for 3 hours (which i believe is the length of time it takes for the stomach to empty) before he gets more.
he then stands for another 3 hours until he gets his night hay and gets enough to last to within 3 hours of morning feed and turnout approx (as far as we can tell without getting up at 3am to check constantly lol).

as the temps drop he gets more hay at more frequent intervals.

i hate restricting him but he is one who would eat until he blew up and cant have a haynet of any form as the pulling on it sets off spasms in his neck and hes fallen over due to the spasm a few times.
 
Mine are average doers. A always seems to be a perfect weight and never seems to change. M will put a bit on in the summer but drop it in the winter. They both have ad lib haylage in a hay bar and always have a bit left (I aim for about 5% of what I gave them) in the morning. M gets less than A as he eats less and just throws what he doesn't eat around his stable. They have pretty good grass for most of the year so don't eat loads, maybe about 8-9kgs each a night which for two big boys isn't a huge amount. Neither is greedy and they only eat what they want. A friend's horse will eat every last scrap, no matter how much she gives him. She set up a camera one night and he didn't leave his haybar from 6.30pm when he came in until 3 am when he'd eaten everything, then he went to sleep!
 
Mine is a fatty and would be obese if fed adlib.. he gets 2-3 big wedges of hay at night if he's in, sometimes there's some left and sometimes there isn't. He also has a feed bucket of chopped oatstraw with breakfast before he goes out so he's not going out on an empty stomach. He is only in for 3 or 4 months of the year though, the rest of the time he lives out on good grazing
 
I have two piglets who would eat and eat and eat given half the chance. My youngster has no off switch, and last year he gained 50kg in 4 weeks (no kidding) with access to ad lib hay (and then it took 6 months to get it off again!).

As they are both in overnight, they get weighed hay, Tartine (480kg) gets between 5-6kg and Blitz (600kg) gets between 8-9kg. This is fed in a "greedy feeder" haynet with 1in holes. they get that at about 7pm, and it will last all night, or almost all night. The YO then gives them a small (2-3kg) net of haylage at 5am which lasts until t/o and also when they are brought in before I give them the evening hay.
 
I am very precise and weigh mine. The big boy gets between 10 and 14kg when in at night and the little mare will get between 6 and 8k.

I dont like them being left without but equally dont like waste, and as the big boy point blank REFUSES to eat 'yesterdays' forage I up it in small increments until there is a bit leftover, then go back a half kilo.
 
I have found over the years that horses which get used to ad-lib forage do NOT gorge on it.

Years ago I had a mare who was very proud of all her food, having been kept very short in a previous home. We cured her protectiveness by making sure that she was never short of food again. After the first year, she ate no more than any of our other horses.

We do not use haynets in the stable, as they can be a danger to horses. My Draft mare was obese when I bought her but she had access to forage all night because I topped up her hay wth oat straw chaff. Now that she is a healthy weight, she gets ad-lib hay and always has some left in the morning. She eats a similar amount to my cob and only slightly more than the Appaloosas. Although I didn't have her scoped, she showed some signs of gastric ulcers, so I certainly couldn't leave her without forage for any length of time. I think all horses should have access to ad-lib forage of some kind, in order to a avoid a huge range of problems.
 
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When my maxicob was on box rest for a month, I allowed him ad lib soaked meadow hay.

He put on 40kg in a month :o (as measured on vets weighbridge). I really do believe that some horses will eat, and eat, and eat some more.

His best management option is to be turned out 24/7 on very sparse grazing, topped up with hay twice daily.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
I have found over the years that horses which get used to ad-lib forage do NOT gorge on it.

Years ago I had a mare who was very proud of all her food, having been kept very short in a previous home. We cured her protectiveness by making sure that she was never short of food again. After the first year, she ate no more than any of our other horses.

We do not use haynets in the stable, as they can be a danger to horses. My Draft mare was obese when I bought her but she had access to forage all night because I topped up her hay wth oat straw chaff. Now that she is a healthy weight, she gets ad-lib hay and always has some left in the morning. She eats a similar amount to my cob and only slightly more than the Appaloosas. Although I didn't have her scoped, she showed some signs of gastric ulcers, so I certainly couldn't leave her without forage for any length of time. I think all horses should have access to ad-lib forage of some kind, in order to a avoid a huge range of problems.
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Did not work with mine,
 
Mine always have some left in the morning, it worries me horses standing in for hours with no forage but I don't want them to eat tonnes as they are on haylage so I have a giant haynet that I then put two smaller haynets inside so that they are not eating masses but it takes them the night to eat it. I've made mistakes, let my mare (now deceased) get pretty fat last winter, but I also try and ride most days to help

Does that make sense?
 
Pearlsasinger said:
My Draft mare was obese when I bought her but she had access to forage all night because I topped up her hay wth oat straw chaff.
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I've had mine from 2yr old and he had never been restricted or even stabled for any length until he was rising 4yr old. I used to believe every horse would be fine if given truly ad lib,even if they gorged a bit at first. Mine was not! I do similar with chopped straw, but I restrict his hay with trickle nets, no matter how much it pains me :( I think if I didnt, he would go through a sack of chopped straw a night. He really is an eating machine, and he has pony smarts! Doesnt take him long to figure stuff out!

I watched him eating his trickle net hay the other night. He has a brilliant system. He puts his muzzle close to the net and uses his lips to tease strands out, then inhales them, like that scene from Lady and the Tramp :lol: I watched with a mixture of horror and awe! He ate a quarter of a 3kg trickle net in 20 mins! Putting another one in a trug slows him right down and gets him moving about, as does the chopped straw. I suspect he doesnt eat all the time,and stops to sleep and rest as I make it such hard work for him. It does make me sad, but thats the down side of a good doer cob.
 
I feed between 8 and 9kg - this lasts from 10pm to 7am with some spare. I never feed less if they are putting weight on, I just soak it or swap for straw (my fatty was on straw when on box rest).

When I first had my horses at home I was horrified to find that if I put in a normal sized big net at 6 ish, that it would all be gone by 11pm...
 
Maybe my two ponies are odd, they dont seem to eat a lot at night. My section A gets one wedge of a small bale to last all night and there is always some left in the morning. they seem to spend a lot of time resting when in

to answer the question I like to see a very small amount left in the morning, if there is too much left I reduce the next nights hay accordingly
 
Depending on the time they are stabled. E.g stabled for 12 hours I would give half (1.25%) of their 2.5%/ ideal bodyweight forage allowance in a 24 hour period. I bulk the hay out with barley straw. Cannot bear horses going without forage for hours on end.
 
Erm going off the estimated weight of the haylage I was feeding at the time about 8kg if in for 12 hrs or about 10 if in for 14. If it was all getting eaten I'd start giving more, if lots was getting wasted then I'd feed a bit less (I did try to recycle the wastage as much as possible). Mine's a native but because I sourced haylage that was rather coarse and stalky so took a lot of eating and was also late cut and meadow / timothy grasses so relatively low in sugar his weight stayed stable on this. I started off using trickle nets and the like but after physio expressed concerns re the way he attacked it I ended up feeding from floor and after the initial greedy period of a week or so getting used to this he actually self regulated really well
 
twiggy2 said:
Did not work with mine,
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How long did you try it for?

I have to say that almost every horse I have owned, with just a couple of exceptions has been a good doer. But under no circumstances am I prepared to leave a horse unattended with a haynet in a stable - far too much possibility of disaster!

My Draft mare DID go through 2 bags of chaff per week but it was worth the expense, imo, to avoid her standing around with nothing to eat for hours on end.
 
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