Hay feeding amounts

neweventer

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As someone has already said they self regulate very well. I have a veteran fell pony who for years I’ve struggled with keeping weight off- he’s always been fat. I used to weight his nets and he’d have 3 x4kg small holed nets a day and there would never be any left. This year (for reasons I won’t bore you with)he’s living out with my wb brood mare. Neither are rugged the grazing isn’t lush and they get through one 300kg bale of hayledge every 2 weeks. That works out at roughly 10kg a day each ( and the mare seems to be feeding more regularly). There are a lot less squabbles then when they were stabled ( they even share the hay piles- which was unheard of before) and in far better condition then I’ve ever seen either of them before- overall consumption down! I make sure there is always hay there.
 

milliepops

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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.
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.

My WB has the opposite problem, she lives for her food but sadly can't have it ad lib which is a pain as she's got a sensitive tum :/
 

ElleSkywalker

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If your horse doesnt have shoes on try hay pillows, tuck the ends of haynets inside it as use a carabena to attach the top of net together. No strings for horses to get tangled in and they can graze it as it goes on floor rather than having up. Do not use with shod horses though as shoes can get caught in holes very easily 😊
 

spugs

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From what I’ve read it’s 1.5% body weight to lose weight, 2% to maintain and 2.5% to put weight on in a 24hr period. I have a 16hh Tb and 12hh pony. They have 24/7 turnout and get a small bale between them. Tb also gets a decent feed and pony gets a handful. Both are looking great.
 

Pearlsasinger

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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
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.
 

ycbm

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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.
 

catkin

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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.........)
 

Pc2003

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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.........)

There is never a scrap left the next day to put out!!
They had a bale and a half yesterday in total between the 2 of them and the mood was a lot happier at the gate.
Today I chucked them a small section between them when I got to the yard at 3.30 then went away to muck out etc then get them in after. My older gelding was a delight at the gate and him and the yearling were playing when I went for them so all good
 

Red-1

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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.
 

Pc2003

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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??😂
 

Red-1

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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??😂

I think they are very frustrating if they are hungry and not getting enough. So, often they have some of their hay in a bigger Shires one, so they are not ravenous. It is to slow down for some of the portion, not necessarily all of it. As I said, the time with all the hay (soaked) in a greedy feeder was when we also had spring/summer grass so their tummies were full when they came in.
 

ElleSkywalker

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Mine have normal hayledge nets as hay pillows most of the time and they do like playing with them and they don't get frustrated but I used a little piggy net (3cm) last night and today and they didn't manage to get (or go bored trying) all then hay out. The two ponies that had it didn't seem either unduly hungry or cross about it but I certainly wouldn't want them to only have those nets all the time as think they would get cross. I think red-nose has it right with swapping between different sized holes depending on tubbiness levels.
 

fidleyspromise

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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.

Agree that it doesn't always work. I have a Highland and New Forest that self-regulate but a Thoroughbred that did not - she had ad-lib for 2 years and never self-regulated.
 

Bob notacob

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Personally, 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
 

Cortez

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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.
 

catkin

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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.
 

Cortez

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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.
 

TGM

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Agree with Cortez, all the rations and percentages are useful as a starting point when feeding a new horse or changing a regime. But you then monitor the situation and adjust the diet accordingly.
 

Goldenstar

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The add lib forage mantra is making some horses fat if you have a horse that self regulates count yourself lucky .
H is an example he’s hunting three days a fortnight his hard feed is only to get a supplement into him but he would get fat if I did not watch his forage .
He get a mixture of hay and haylege it’s a question of managing it so while he is having very little to no time without anything
You have to be clever and find ways to break up their meals and sadly I think you need to net it so it takes them longer to eat .
But with H you need to have him tired you need to work him enough so he needs to rest .
I only have one horse out of five that I can let stuff itself with forage endlessly and they are not cobs .
They are all except one looking very very well too well.
 
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catkin

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...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.

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.
It is also useful to calculate amounts so that enough forage is ordered.
 

Goldenstar

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You do need to develop your eye and that includes watching for horses gaining wieght and doing something to stop wieght gain .
Using these percentages as a guide would kill Fatty he would be eating himself to death .
 

ycbm

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...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.


Completely agree, I've never weighed forage in my life. But I do feed ad lib from easy to get at racks, my 'feed it less' being ' feed it something lower calorie (Timothy, straw) rather than feed it less volume.
 

PapaverFollis

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I certainly couldn't feed The Beast adlib. She self regulates a little as in if I give her mountains of hay over night there are a few hillocks left by morning. But she eats enough to put weight on rather than just maintain.

At the moment I'm finding 12kg of soaked hay overnight (no nets but there's a nibble or two left in the morning so I'm assuming it's lasting her most of the night without nets) with a couple of scoops of oat straw chaff (mostly ends up on the floor I think) plus about 5kg of dry hay out in the field between two of them during the day (they're leaving some... grass still growing but their field is small and getting pretty chopped now)... plus an hour ish of work daily... and she's losing a little bit of weight but not quickly and she's not getting too grumpy or escaping from anywhere. She's 670kg ish of Irish War Cob (totes a real breed) for reference. And a handful of sugar beet with supplements is all the hard feed she gets. Not sure how that pans out percentage of body weight wise but I started aiming for roughly 2% then adapted it.

The Anglo Arab oldie can eat as much as she wants and she's still a bit skinny this winter, getting hard feed too.
 

TGM

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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.
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.
 
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tda

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I feed a mix of haylage and barley straw to the three dales I Have in the yard atm, they don't really like it, but most days it's nearly all eaten, it takes time to pick the haylage out from the straw thru a net , bad mummy, but they have all lost weight and I feel happy that they have something to nibble
 

Goldenstar

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Many people forget that you have to adjust those percentages if the horse goes in the paddock even in bare paddocks horses are eating .
My paddocks are bare but you can see from the droppings the horses are eating something .
I have a fenced off bale but they are only allowed on it in the afternoon if they are staying out late and those living out only get it at night if the others are in .
Sometimes I let them have longer if I am feeling soft but my New Years resolution is to get tough for the next three months .
 
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