DD
Well-Known Member
I'd be inclined to feed a bale and a half a day
there are natives and natives though, I think it partly depends on their personality and general condition. My welsh eats and eats, I can barely get enough into her and at the moment she's not really working that hard (for her) Some, particularly the highly strung welshies can just worry condition off overnight, mine looks good at the moment but runs up easily. I think buzzy connies can be similar.Yep, I can tell you from experience that if you try and feed ad lib with native ponies they will get fat as pigs. Ad lib undersown barley straw worked ok though.
They probably won't self regulate immediately. They only do that when they don't think that they might be short of food tomorrow. If a good-doer genuinely eats too much when given ad-lib hay/haylage, I find adding oat straw chaff is a wy to allow them to eat as much as they like, without putting on weight. In fact I got a lot of weight off the horse that I bought when she was obese by giving big trugs of chaff instead of hay, so that she never needed to be hungry, so didn't gorge.I am going to experiment tomorrow and go all out. They will be out 7 till 4pm ish tomorrow so going to take a whole bale up and put that out and see what is left when I get them in. If any.!
Will then give them a further half bale each when they come in and see if we have any left in the am. I’m interested to know what their limit is
Theres a lot of confusion over the percentage of bodyweight feed rule. The percentage rule is dry weight. If your horse weighs 500kg, then the percentage rule says that it needs 10 kg of forage a day. But if your forage is 33% water, and most haylage is more than that, then you need to feed 15 kg to get 10 kg dry weight.
Hope that helps people.
Glad you said that - was just about to write the same!
Another thing you may find OP is that they will vary their intake depending on the weather. Our ponies eat more when it's wet and windy than when it's cold and still.
Also to cut down on losses a bit we put any forage left over from being in the stable out in the field the next day so they can pick over it again (someone else's is always better than the stuff you've got don'cha'know.........)
Mine are fed ad lib but despite being sport horses they don't self regulate... I regulate by feeding in a greedy feeder net when they are fat and larger holes when they are not. Never really go above a Shires haylage blue/black net though.
Currently we have a greedy feeder through the day, and for evening, and a Shires one for the night. Never without hay.
Worst I have had to do is soaked hay, in a greedy feeder: that was when there was good grass when out.
If there is no grass and they are unhappy out then I feed them out.
What’s the level of frustration with the greedy feeders? Just looking them up online. Like the idea for the adult Connie but how pissed off will it make him??😂
This does not always work. Some horses will just keep stuffing, and end up overweight. Cobs, natives, PRE's; all these types tend to overeat if allowed free access and not doing enough work. I feed weighed amounts of hay and allow access to clean barley straw if the horses are overindulgers.
You would only be feeding 2.2% of body weight as you haven't allowed for the water content of hay (roughly 12%). 2.5% equates to 13.6 kgPersonally, I would condition score & weigh. If the adult Connie isn’t in work then 2.5% of his ideal weight of feed (hay/grass) should be sufficient. Feed hay in small holed nets. If I left 20kg of hay out for my lot there wouldn’t be a bit left either & they would be the size of elephants!!!
You would only be feeding 2.2% of body weight as you haven't allowed for the water content of hay (roughly 12%). 2.5% equates to 13.6 kg
Semantics - the rule of thumb is 2.5% of your horse's body weight as weighed hay (which includes whatever moisture content there is therein) and grass at pasture as maintenance ration.
A rule of thumb is useful but it helps to understand the sums. If a horse needs its full 2.5% as a ration, and it's getting 12% per day under because of water-content, that's almost a full day's ration it could be short of by the end of a week.
...which is why the rule of thumb should probably be called the rule of eye, which is how I asses how the feeding regime is going. If the horse is too fat, feed it less/work it more. If it is too thin/losing too much weight, up the feeding. Not really all that difficult.
...which is why the rule of thumb should probably be called the rule of eye, which is how I asses how the feeding regime is going. If the horse is too fat, feed it less/work it more. If it is too thin/losing too much weight, up the feeding. Not really all that difficult.
If someone doesn't have the skill to see whether their horse is gaining/losing weight and know that it is time to adjust the ration, then they either need to learn pronto or need supervision or assistance from someone who does (yard owner, relative, friend etc). You can't just stick a horse on textbook rations and leave them to it regardless. That is what Cortez is trying to say - the 'textbook' amounts are a rough guide so you can't be too pedantic about them, as you will probably have to adjust for the individual animal anyway, as well as variation in type/amount of grazing and the type of grasses/time of cutting of the hay.I agree.
However it takes an eye which comes with experience, correct learning and (in some cases) self-confidence to be able to do this. We are not all lucky enough to have these skills.