Hard feed - how many times do you feed your horse per day?

[lucky7]

Horses who are out 24/7, good doers who arnt in work like mine.
I work most mornings (6/7) so only get to go down after work around 3pm once per day, they are checked every morning by the YO.
There routine is - good grazing and have hay of an evening - enough to last from 4pm till about 7am the next day and a small feed once per day also at 4pm (for vits) which includes sugar beet and chaff. There is always a bit of hay left over when i come up of an evening and they are normally grazing.
Weight is holding well and they are happy and healthy.

Am hoping come Feb my hours will change/reduce as am worn out at the moment so plan on riding again - they have had a while off (November) but will do them no harm

So who else only feeds once per day?

 

[ChesnutsRoasting]

Mines living out at the moment, has a net and salt lick and thats it. Why does yours need hard feed? Personally, I'd knock it on the head and just feed hay.

 

[lucky7]

Mines living out at the moment, has a net and salt lick and thats it. Why does yours need hard feed? Personally, I'd knock it on the head and just feed hay.

Its the TB that needs the hard feed the others just get carrots and a bit of chaff! saying that though the TB is looking fantastic under her rug and not loosing weight at all.....

 

[Jesstickle]

I don't feed at all and mine are stabled at night and BH has been working reasonably hard this winter. I just chuck in a reasonable amount of haylage. Both of them are looking well on just that.

 

[badgerdog]

My TB lives out 24/7 and he gets one smallish feed a day (Outshine + pony cubes - it's all he'll eat!) The grazing has been so good that we have just started to put haylage in the last few days and the horses have just been picking at it. He's in great condition, the best he's ever been in the year and 4 months I've had him. He's ridden about 5 times a week and he seems to be doing great on this.

 

[Megibo]

yep only feed once a day

 

[YasandCrystal]

2 of mine get 1 hard feed a day in the morning and hay/haylage in their stable at night. My WB is out 24/7 with good shelter but unrugged so he gets 2 feeds and a bale of hay a day. The WB is lighter than I would chose, but he is in rehab and is due to probably be turned away with a herd for 3 months so I cannot rug him now. The others look well.

 

[Chestnut mare]

Mine were being fed once a day in the evening whilst they were living out. They are in now since Friday and only have breakfast as the rest of the yard do. They are not getting anymore just have their meal split into 2.

 

[Batgirl]

My veteran is on three at the moment as he has dropped weight (he never gets fat and goes skinny in the winter). Biggish breakfast, small lunch and biggish tea. When on maintenance he is on 2 medium sized feeds (He is 17hh).

 

[milesjess]

Just the one feed a day as he lives out.

Handful of happy hoof and handful of horse/pony nuts with a couple of carrots as he can be a fussy sod He has to have 1 Danilon per day hence the feed and 1 slice of hay.

He's maintaining his weight nicely.

 

[TheBayMonkey]

Once. He gets 2 scoops of mix (max), chaff and water or spedibeet depends on weather and if he needs medication (spedibeet used as a carrier). He's not a good doer but we've finally found a feed he thrives from and he also gets 2 fat nets of very good quality, sweet haylage and is out in the field all day

 

[SO1]

once a day - good doer native pony living out with plenty of grass - he has a handful of good doer chaff and a handful of slim and healthy mix along with his supplements.

most of the other ponies and horses in his field get nothing so he is a lucky boy!

 

[Buds_mum]

Buddy's three and ridden lightly twice a week he gets breakfast and tea, in at night out in the day with ad lib hay and a big net of hayledge on a night. He gets cherry chaff, lesiure mix and supplements. He's a lovely weight

 

[mulledwhine]

I share his ration through out the day, he is a greedy boy, so he thinks he is getting fed 4 times a day!!!

Only gets hay and good doer

 

[unbalanced]

Twice - once is a bowl of chaff with her supplements - oil, cider apple vinegar and glucosamine and the other is her nut ball with her blue chip and some fibre cubes. I don't really feel the need for consistency between feed times! She is a bit thinner than I'd like so I am thinking of adding some speedibeet to the bucket feed.

 

[MiCsarah]

Just the once.He has a large scoup of just grass and speedibeat. This will last him all night though as he just picks at it when he wants. If he did eat it in 1 go I would split it up as horses dont really have big stomachs.
Oh he also gets half a scoup of nuts in his treatball

 

[bryngelenponies]

My fatty only gets fed once a day. She's out 24/7 unrugged and gets a scoop of hifi lite and fast fibre once a day. She's coping well with the colder weather and looks good.

 

[LiveryList]

Ellie is living out at day and in at night and has done since October. Irrelevant whether mine are in or out i always feed them the same- one feed per day during the summer (living out 24/7) usually after working them, then two feeds a day (am and pm) when they come in and then i increase or decrease the amounts depending on how they are holding their weight. Once it starts to freeze at night i also start feeding sugarbeet in feeds also. Have always doen the same routine with my horses whther they live in or out

 

[Lyle]

Mine lives out and gets hard fed twice a day At the moment there is a decent pick of grass and he also has access to a round bale ad lib.

When winter rolls around, he will be getting as much hay as he can eat fed out with the hard feeds instead of the round bale. Too much spoilage if only one horse is eating them over winter

 

[Cluck]

4 feeds of grass hay per day in small mesh hay nets (approx 2% of body weight in forage), 2 feeds of vit/min supplement with a few soaked timothy/alfalfa hay cubes to soak up the supplement. They get hay first at 7am, 'grain' feed at 9am, hay at 12.30 and 4.30pm, 'grain' at 5pm and last hay feed at 7.30pm.

I could easily cut out the two middle hay feeds but prefer to spread it out as my two are utter pigs and airferns.

They are turned out 24/7 on all-weather paddocks, and can walk in to their large stables whenever they like, and they get a couple of hours to pick at pasture (if it's not too wet), but there really is no grass left and what is there has absolutely no nutritional content remaining.

 

[Archina]

I dont feed hard feeds to mine who are living out, they get 2 bales of hay a day and they are doing great on it, all fat and happy. The ones that are living in get 2 feeds a day, am/pm and only then do they get hifi (non molassis) and sugarbeet though ive just introduced soaked grass pellets aswell.

 

[MagicMelon]

Ive always fed all mine (who live out 24/7) twice a day, not sure why exactly just always have! Nowadays I have a reason being that my competition horse is a lightweight so need the food to keep weight on him and my other 2 are elderly ponies (one with cushings) who are prone to losing weight through the winter now so again, I feed twice to try and get some calories in them (and one feed would be too big). They get as much hay as they can eat, which at the moment (with snow on the ground) is generally 3 big haynets through the day. In the summer, I continue feeding them pretty much the same because then the competition horse is competing and the two ponies are on very reduced grazing (both lami prone) so they need their vits & mins!

 

[heidiharvsnroo]

She gets fed once when she is out in summer, and that's always just a small feed to get her supplements into her.

In winter she has 2 feeds. One at night, with a large and small net, medium net at brekkie along with her feed and a bag full tipped over the door at lunch.

 

[diamondrockharvey]

Horses who are out 24/7, good doers who arnt in work like mine.
I work most mornings (6/7) so only get to go down after work around 3pm once per day, they are checked every morning by the YO.
There routine is - good grazing and have hay of an evening - enough to last from 4pm till about 7am the next day and a small feed once per day also at 4pm (for vits) which includes sugar beet and chaff. There is always a bit of hay left over when i come up of an evening and they are normally grazing.
Weight is holding well and they are happy and healthy.

Am hoping come Feb my hours will change/reduce as am worn out at the moment so plan on riding again - they have had a while off (November) but will do them no harm

So who else only feeds once per day?

I have a cob and an ISH, they live out 24/7 with good grazing and they have a Hay Hutch, the large one, which I fill once per day and have 2 mugs of Balancer for breakfast but no other hard food. They both look great and the cob is un rugged!

 

[Suechoccy]

I've always fed twice a day, small feeds both times (1 scoop chaff, few carrots, half or even quarter-scoop mix for each meal), and they're hayed twice a day too as I have no grass.

They live out most of the year and feeding them gives me a chance to check them over close-up, pick out feet, rug, flyspray, etc.

 

[skydancer]

My horse gets fed x2 a day of fast fibre - a huge haynet at nigh and decent grazing during the day