For those of you whose horses live out....

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L&M

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Trying not to panic about lack of haylage/hay made around here, but am thinking of a contingency plan just in case!

We own 2 X 15hh's and a 13.2hh, all native types. I have some hay/haylage left over from last winter, but not enough if they were stabled from Oct - March. Therefore I am considering whether it would be more practical to winter them out. They will have acsess to 8 acres of good grazing, with plenty of natural shelter, with stables available if we get any really nasty weather.

When will additional forage will be required? Is it a matter of when the grass runs out (hoping it won't with that amount of acreage), or when the grass looses its goodness? They would also be getting hard feed from Autumn onwards, and rugged appropriately.

Thanks in advance for a numpty question, but have never had horses out 24/7 in the winter mnths before.
 
8 acres isn't a huge amount for 3 horses to last over winter.

I'm not saying it's not doable, but, I'd be very worried about how poached the field would get.

I'm sure the horses will live out fine, that wouldn't be my issue, but if you don't want the fields wrecked, then that's what I'd be worried about.

Our cob babies live out all winter and we're keeping them out this year, but even whichever field they're in [30 acres or 15 acres], we still have to keep hay accessable to them 24/7 as the grass does not hold them. We had 14 out last winter I think, and went through a hay bale every 3 days. Plus oats and maize on top of that when it got really bad weather.

Currently, they're still on a small bale of haylage each a day in this weather at the moment.

You may save on straw and time....but probably will even that out in hay. Swings and roundabouts really!
 
I had 2 out last winter on about 7 acres, both native types 15/ 13.2 plus one joining them every day, they had no hard feed or hay all winter, the smaller one was rugged, they were not working and came out of the winter having lost some weight, which was much needed. I feel that having good natural shelter and plenty of rough or long grass is plenty unless we get snow. The previous winter there were 3 in the same field they had hay during the snow only and not a lot either:)
 
Weigh tape your horses weekly, if they start losing, start feeding hay. There's no hard and fast rule. It depends on your grazing, your horses, your weather etc when they'll start needing hay.
 
I have two horses and two miniatures on 10 acres, I do not feed hard feed at all and only feed hay if there is frost or snow on the ground. They all see through the winter with no loss of weight. They only come in if the weather is very wet and even then the stables are left open so they can choose and they will usually stay out even when there are hay nets up in the stables. The drainage in our fields is pretty good so they don't get to poached. I do feed Safe & Sound twice a day to all 4. The two big horses are a Welsh Sect D and a TB/Sect D cross. It can be done but it really depends on how well your horses cope with the cold and more importantly the wet.
 
3 natives on 5 acres live out24/7. They are on about 1/3 of it now & will gradually be given acess to the rest from around late Sept. Don't usually feed hay until December, then I budget about 1/2 bale a day through to April. Only hard feed is chaff and balancer.
 
We've got 5 acres of VERY well drained grazing & have had 2 15.2's & a 12.2 out on it since 1st Oct last year, with no resting. We've had to fence it in half now cos there's TOO much grass & i needed to restrict their access. Last winter i was only giving them a couple of flakes of hay each a day. The grass lasted fine, and they probably didn't need the hay, but they like a bit every now & then. They're all good doers. I'd say 8 acres is plenty, but then it depends on how good the drainage is & how bad the weather is...
 
8 acres is unlikely to be enough unless very well drained to sustain them without significant amounts of haylage over the winter. Remember what grass there is has very little nutritional value. Once they've trashed it (which living out 24/7 happens) it wont grow again until spring, & then you may need to look at re-seeding it. We keep 2 (16.3 & 14.2 neither shod) on 5 acres & they need 2 haylage feeds a day & they ruin the field.

I'd work on sourcing another haylage supplier.
 
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Thanks guys - all food for thought!

We are lucky as our ground is very well draining, recovers well, and atm am only grazing a tiny amount as the grass is way too good.

The other option would be to keep them out until dec, then go from there...I am sure the weather will pick up and hayalge will be a plenty, but quite fancy the thought of them living more 'of the land'.
 
They are unlikely to poach a field of that size and you are very unlikey to have to re-seed it! I had two on just under 6 acres and didn't put hay out until December. The following spring, I had too much grass!
 
We have a fair amount of horses (range of breeds) and fields.

Not one will go the entire winter without something. We hay the larger horses (fatties) and mix hay and haylage for the poorer doers. Fatties aren't on it full winter, but need something through their system.

Our fields are yet to have a cut, last couple of years for hay cuts have been bad, this is looking to be the worst :(

Pan
 
And also it matters what condition they are in going into winter.
Natives are usually good doers and pile on weight thro summer so actually losing a bit in winter is not such a bad thing going into spring and is quite natural in the wild where laminitis is not a problem. Note I said a bit, I dont mean getting down to like a hat rack:eek: My vet said the slightly underweight horses/ponies are usually healthier although I don't like mine to be under. He said keeping them at the same weight could be causing the metabolic problems we see now.
So, I wouldn't give hard feed, that doesn't keep weight on -lots of fibre does and provided there is plenty of grass left, I would only put hay out when it's frozen or snow covering the ground.
You could give a vits and mins supplement with a bit of chaff if you're worried about no goodness in the grass.
 
Mine stay in overnight from Dec to end of march, sometimes mid Dec to mid march. How much hay & when depends on the summer weather & how much grass there is, plus the autumn weather. Some years by mid October they are eating the same amount of hay as they would in, & again until early may. Other years late Nov I'm putting out a leaf each & they are wasting it. It really all depends on the grazing, which varies too much to give a definite answer.
 
I had 3 ponies 13.3, 14.1 and 14.2 on 4 acres last winter. They did not have access to all of it at any time. I only needed to give them haylage for the ground weeks when it was frosty or there was snow on the ground. If your ground drains well I would think 8 acres was plenty.
 
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