Hay consumption help.

[Erow4945]

Please can someone give me a rough guide on how much hay I should be using a week for my mare, I have a 15’2 warmblood/thoroughbred. We ride out 3 times a week, and she has one feed a day, she is out during the day and stabled over night. I’ve been using 2/3 small bales, just wondering how much roughly other people use. Thanks in advance xx

 

[milliepops]

How much grazing does she get when she's out? duration and quality of grass, cos both will make a difference?
And is she a good or poor doer?

 

[Erow4945]

I would say medium quality grass, she has been out 8-4 most days weather dependant and she is a good doer.

 

[Shay]

1.5% of body weight in forage, feed and grazing. It is a bit of a guess because weigh tapes are not accurate and it is really difficult to figure out how much she ingests grazing.

So - grab a weigh tape or get her to a weighbridge if you have one handy. Figure out what she weighs. Personally I'm a bit of a math twit so I would go with 1% of bodyweight to start with because I can work that out. 0.5% of weight might be a bit generous for 8 hours grazing and hard feed but its easier than getting tied up in the mathematics and she's a good do-er. That gives you the weight of your nets. Check after 2 weeks using the same weigh tape as you did before. If shes loosing condition up the hay a bit. If she's gaining, reduce it. But you shouldn't drop below 1% total weight for grazing, hard feed and hay. Check every couple of weeks.

You can't really judge on how many bales because your bales might be tightly or loosely packed. Weigh your nets for a while until you can develop an eye for how full it should be.

Just doing a bit of thinking.... 2 - 3 small bales a week. Its been a while since I fed small bales but I'm fairly sure we got through 5/6 a month for two. 2/3 a week sounds a bit too much unless your bales are really loose? But weighing horse and nets is the best way to work it out.

 

[milliepops]

I'd easily get through 2 or 3 small bales in a week for a horse that was in overnight. I feed the equivalent to a big round every 20 days per horse in the winter as the grazing is pants. Mine are reasonably good doers but I like them to be able to have hay adlib and base their hard feed ration around that.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

When I had Heavy Horses, they could each easily eat a full small bale overnight. The smaller ones, (15-16hh) more likely had 1/2 to 3/4 of a bale every night. i agree with Shady's advice to weigh your horse and your hay (although I think her memory might be a bit faulty, sorry S). I, too, like my horses to be able to eat ad-lib, so if hay was making them fat, I would offer plain oat straw chaff as well.Condition score your horse, monitor the weight and be prepared to adjust the hay ration up or down as appropriate but remember that horses are evolved to trickle feed, so they need constant access to forage. 1.5% of bodyweight is the usual suggestion for horses which need to lose weight, those that are a sensible weight are best fed at about 2% of bodyweight.

 

[Pinkvboots]

I would get through about 2 or 3 small bales for my horse that was in overnight he is 15.1, I do like them to have plenty though the person that used to look after them for me used to tell everyone I was feeding too much hay, but I think as long as they are not overweight and they are eating it they obviously need it.

 

[Surbie]

I weigh my haynets as, like others have said, some bales are lighter than others. I give 6kg overnight for a 15.1hh cob in for 14 hours overnight, split between 3 small hole nets and one of those is doubled netted. When it does get colder he'll get a bit more. I watch him on the weightape to make sure he's not increasing.

It's tending to work out to about 2 bales a week at the moment, currently £4.75/bale here though we've been told that will go up soon.

 

[ihatework]

I’ve never weighed a haynet in my life!

But a 15.2hh good doer on grass through the day getting through 2-3 bales of hay overnight in a week, this time of year sounds about right to me.

A decent 1/3 of a bale. If horse inhales hay I’d small hole net it.

 

[KittenInTheTree]

Based on how you describe your grazing, I would estimate that she's probably getting through about half a kilo per hour of that whilst turned out, which would mean about four kilos of grass. For a 15.2hh I'd expect to feed around six to eight kilos of hay on top of that per day, obviously adjusting that to allow for any other feed.

 

[Sussexbythesea]

1.5% of body weight in forage, feed and grazing. It is a bit of a guess because weigh tapes are not accurate and it is really difficult to figure out how much she ingests grazing.

So - grab a weigh tape or get her to a weighbridge if you have one handy. Figure out what she weighs. Personally I'm a bit of a math twit so I would go with 1% of bodyweight to start with because I can work that out. 0.5% of weight might be a bit generous for 8 hours grazing and hard feed but its easier than getting tied up in the mathematics and she's a good do-er. That gives you the weight of your nets. Check after 2 weeks using the same weigh tape as you did before. If shes loosing condition up the hay a bit. If she's gaining, reduce it. But you shouldn't drop below 1% total weight for grazing, hard feed and hay. Check every couple of weeks.

You can't really judge on how many bales because your bales might be tightly or loosely packed. Weigh your nets for a while until you can develop an eye for how full it should be.

Just doing a bit of thinking.... 2 - 3 small bales a week. Its been a while since I fed small bales but I'm fairly sure we got through 5/6 a month for two. 2/3 a week sounds a bit too much unless your bales are really loose? But weighing horse and nets is the best way to work it out.

I thought it was 2% including grass unless you are trying to get your horse to lose weight?

In winter on that turn-our regime I’d be feeding my 16.1 WB 6kg overnight in a small holed haynet as he’s a good doer and greedy. He may have an extra 2kg as he comes in earlier and the grass dies back. He’s around 600Kg. In summer he’d have around 4kg but he’s out overnight now on good grass so only has a very small amount when he comes in. I usually soak my hay all day or overnight to reduce dust and sugars.

 

[meleeka]

I don’t weigh hay. I know that I want them to have enough not to be standing around with nothing for hours so the fatty gets a teeny holed net. If he puts weight on if gets soaked. The oldies have a large normal nets and eat as much as they want overnight. I’m fairly sure they all eat more than 1.5% though.

 

[Cortez]

1.5% of optimal body weight is for weight loss; 2% is for maintenance. If you don';t want to faff about weighing stuff (although it is useful to know exactly how much you are feeding), I'd say up to half a bale a day for a 15.1 is about right. Really the best place to see what you need to feed is to look at your horse, run your hand over their back and ribs and adjust accordingly.

My horses (15h, 15.1h, 15.2h) would get a bit less than that, but they are very good doers and only in medium work. They also are out grazing, and get no hard feed.

 

[catkin]

If you are calculating weight of hay on % of bodyweight please remember that the guidelines are on dry-weight of forage. Most forage, even hay, has some water content so the calculation can be a bit more complicated. So if your forage is say 80% dry weight then the actual amount of hay should reflect this. An example: 500kg horse needing 2% maintenance rations will need 10kgs dry weight of forage per day. If hay is 80% dry weight then 10kgs is only providing 80% of daily ration.........

 

[Polos Mum]

How does she look? and how stable is here weight?
If she looks good and her weight is stable - what your doing is probably good
If she need to change and is going in the right direction then also probably good.

It is horses for courses - I had one which would eat a bale a day when in for 16 hours a day to maintain good weight. 3 a week is less than half a bale a day - which isn't loads for 16 hours stood in.

 

[Follysmum]

I weighed mine for interest as I normally just shove their nets full

15/16hh horses get approx 9/10kg
17.2hh approx 15kg
13.2hh approx 7/8kg

In from approx 4pm -8am
Always some left in the morning

 

[twiggy2]

It depends on the horses weight.
But I don't like them to have nothing to eat for ny length of time so I would give enough that there are a few small strands about but the time more forage is given in the morning, if th horse is overweight then I would add some straw to the hay.

 

[Erow4945]

Thanks everyone really appreciate the advice xx