HAY CONFUSION

What percentage of bodyweight you feed depends on several factors, such as do you want to maintain weight, lose weight, gain weight? what hard feeds does horse get etc.
 
2.5% of body weight is total amount of feed per day for average horse
This can be reduced for overweight horse or increased for under weight
Feeding ad lib hay can prevent horse becoming stressed etc but some horses can be very wasteful and trample it into bedding.
Proportions of hay to hard feed depend on work done, as above whether you need to put weight on etc
Overfeeding hard feed when horses on little work can cause loads of problems, better to feed hay plus other sources of forage like Alfa A, Hi Fibre cubes, Speedibeet or Hi Fi Lite if over weight
 
Its 2-3% of body in total rations including feeds. I feed my horse 1.5% of his body weight because he is highland and a good doer.

Temperment, type, workload and time of year need to be considered.

Sugarbeet is weighed by dry weight and not after it has soaked as that would include the weight of water.

My horse is on 14 kg a day, he is about 700 kg and does light work. He is a laid back person.

He has 1 kg of fast fibre
2 kg of mollichaff
and 11 kg of horsage high fibre.

As Cuffey says, over feeding hard feeds can cause problems such as tying up.

Hope this helps.
 
i've always found this a good rule of thumb & never managed to get away with feeding less than 2% of bodyweight in hay

my warmblood currently has about 5% of his body weight in haylage per day
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top