Guide on how much forage to feed (by weight)

[SWE]

How much forage do you tend to feed your hoses overnight?

I am going to start weighing my hay/haylage (one on each) as want to keep it consistent... I've got one who's a proper fatty and I want to know what I should be feeding him to control weight but not to starve him!

Any suggestions? He's 16.2 and will be in his stable from a boy 6pm-7am?

 

[SEL]

For my fatty I soak her evening hay so she can have plenty - she's had ulcers before. Dry weight is about 10kg overnight and she's currently around 560kg.

 

[ycbm]

As much as they eat.

If you want to avoid ulcers, you need some left at the earliest at five in the morning, though preferably a little when you arrive at seven.

The question is not really what weight to feed him, but what forage you can give him, and how you can slow his eating of it down, which will give him ad lib forage all night and not put weight on him.

I feed mine a low food value timothy haylage. Others use straw/soak out sugar/trickle nets, etc.

 

[Shay]

Total 2% of body weight per day - allowing for grass intake and hard feed as well. If you are seeking to reduce body weight this can be dropped to 1.5% of body weight per day. You can find out more on safely reducing a horse's weight here: https://www.bluecross.org.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/fat-horse-slim.pdf

You can increase the forage ration by reducing feed value -soaking or feeding mixed with straw. You can increase the length of time it takes to consume the ration by using small hole nets, double netting or putting nets in different places.

You can also control weight this time of year by reducing rugs so the horse has to use energy to keep warm.

 

[scats]

I have a 14.1hh EMS cob on a strict diet. She has 3.5kg of hay overnight, in a small holed net and a snak ball with a mug of fibre plus cubes.

My 15hh is 500kg exactly, but is prone to weight gain so she is on 4kg of hay overnight, plus snak ball. They do have very good grass in the day though so I have to limit the night stuff as I know how much they can eat during an 8 hour grazing session.

I fill and weigh small holes nets and then hang them low inside a hay bar. It would make my life so much easier to just be able to dump a large slice in and give them as much as they want, but then I'd be taking hippopotamuses out to do dressage, not horses.

 

[Follysmum]

All mine are good doers , only oldies rugged when raining or clipped, but I always feed hay/haylage ad-lib, they always have some left in morning . I also feed hay in the fields summertime on reduced grazing.

 

[shugmx]

Our boy eat way too much and was too fat. He is only 4 and ate all the time as i didnt want him standing with no hay. I have now bought trickle nets and 2 nets at night and one in the morning holds the correct amount for his weight. We never have empty nets in the morning, i would say, enough left to do an hour or more to see him through mucking out. It did take him a couple of weeks to work out how to use nets as its alot of lip action. 10 weeks in we have a horse minus swollen stomach and holding healthy weight and eating the clock round.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

As much as they eat.

If you want to avoid ulcers, you need some left at the earliest at five in the morning, though preferably a little when you arrive at seven.

The question is not really what weight to feed him, but what forage you can give him, and how you can slow his eating of it down, which will give him ad lib forage all night and not put weight on him.

I feed mine a low food value timothy haylage. Others use straw/soak out sugar/trickle nets, etc.

I agree with this.

If I feel that a horse is having too much hay, for its condition, I cut the amount down and supplement with plain oat straw chaff. You know that if they eat that, they really are hungry.

 

[Surbie]

Cobby Boy is a fatty too, and on minimal movement while he recovers from an abcess. He is 15.1hh, weightape now puts him at 582kg. He gets 3 nets, 4.5kg in the morning, 5.5kg in the afternoon and 8.5kg at night - he gets that at 8pm and the breakfast net goes in at around 8am. This is a reduction of 6-10kg/day on what he was getting when I didn't know any better and was desperately worried about his foot. I took my eye off the ball. The nets are trickle ones, and he doesn't seem to have an off button when it comes to food.

There is never anything left in the morning and I am also a bit worried about how long he stands without anything to eat.

 

[Leo Walker]

Mine gets ad lib. Hes 14.2hh HW, good doer and in slightly soft condition after a couple of months off but hes not overweight. He gets between 1/2 and 3/4s of a small bale depending when I bring in/turnout. He has it loose in a wheelie bin with the lid folded back. He also has a hayplay stuffed with hay. Thats usually 3/4s full and theres some loose hay left as well. If there was none left I would be upping it. When I had a very, very greedy pony he had low calorie hayalge mixed with straw, and big buckets of chopped straw. If the oat straw was all eaten I would up the haylage slightly. I wont have horses standing in without forage.

 

[cobgoblin]

Timothy haylage is wondrous stuff.

 

[ycbm]

Timothy haylage is wondrous stuff.

Isn't it!?!

I get 150-200kg bales from established crops for £30 delivered, and my Shetlands lose weight on it in winter, fed ad lib!

Anyone in Cheshire East and surrounding, it's from Roger Nicholas.

 

[cobgoblin]

Isn't it!?!

I get 150-200kg bales from established crops for £30 delivered, and my Shetlands lose weight on it in winter, fed ad lib!

Anyone in Cheshire East and surrounding, it's from Roger Nicholas.

Mine prefer it to ryegrass haylage....I've never had anything before that they would eat before ryegrass.

 

[ycbm]

Mine prefer it to ryegrass haylage....I've never had anything before that they would eat before ryegrass.

They know what's good for them, don't they? They prefer it, eat masses of it, and yet the fatties lose weight on it. Win win

 

[Cortez]

I rarely feed any of mine more than 8kg of hay a day, split into 4 feeds. All are good doers, and get no hard feed unless working a great deal. All are an easy-keeping breed. Most horses I see nowadays are grotesquely fat.

 

[OldieButGoodie]

My ultra greedy boy who's 16.1hh and prone to chub gets 5Kg of timothy haylage (low sugar version from Devon Haylage) during the day in the field and 5Kg at night. He also gets oat straw and two low calorie feeds a day. At the moment he is a really good weight and full of energy which is lovely as he can be rather lazy & behind the leg. Over Christmas when it was too snowy to ride / school, or for him to run about the field, he put on quite a bit weight with the above regime - so exercise is key for weight management.