Hay left over in the morning

T

traceyann

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 June 2009
Messages
645
Visit site
How many horses still have hay in the morning? According to the books you are supposed to give enough so they have some left in the morning. I have four horses ranging from 17 hands to fifteen hands all in work except my cob not one of them have hay left in the morning in fact if i went down at ten at night they would not have any. Am i feeding enough half abale each at night all out during the day on good grazing all fed in large horsehage nets and winter they get a bale everynight. They all get a token hard feed morning and night of safe and sound each. None of them really overweight except my cob but he only looks at a blade of grass and is fat is this enough
 
What weight of hay do you feed and is this in accordance with the recommended percentage of bodyweight for their temperament, type and workload?
 
I think it might depend on the horse- if you have a fatty then you don't want him to be stuffing his face all night- however as grazing animals they are meant to be able to eat little and often.

With my tb I worked on an 'all you can eat' basis- he wasn't the best doer and our grazing was poor. Plus my haylage was included in my livery so I mixed with hay and let him stuff himself silly.
 
Oh im bad i dont weight i just shove as much as i can get in the hay net. My seventeen hand he events laid back sort my 16.2 id cross crosscountry showjumping and bit of endurance again very laid back 16.2 cob does nothing very very laid back my spanish 15hand does loads of hacking but is massive stress head. Im really bad i give them all the same only the supplements change.
 
It is a difficult one this

yes you are 'supposed' to have some left as they are 'supposed' to graze nearly all the time.

But IMHO it is not always possible some, in fact a lot are just too greedy and would end up with problems anyway.

Some do not cope with hours without as one mare on our yard had laminitis and owner was giving her what she was allowed for all day, it was gone by 11am and then she was looking ill and tucked up by 4/6pm I suggested she halve it and I would give it her later in the day. This has worked great

I guess what I am saying is if it doesn't seem to affect them then don't worry about it. my lad can go so long but then gets colicky if left too long as I found out when he came in from no grazing and nearly colicked cos he tried eating too quick, choked a little, panicked then had mild colic STUPID WB

your also doing good by giving the token feed before they go out, that way they don't stuff themselves full of grass
 
We have 2 horses, both 15hh, both ISH, but one is a touch on the tubby side!

We feed them both hay in a small holed hay net and they both have a little bit left in the morning. It took a while to work out the correct weights, but we got there in the end with trial and error!!

The slightly fatter of the two gets 10lbs of hay (no hard feed), and the other gets 12lbs of hay (small hard feed). They both have exactly the same left in the morning (just a handful).

They seem happy :)
 
I would find it impossible to give my boy enough so that he had some left over in the morning. I could probably give him an entire small bale a night and it'd all be gone! Mine is on a fairly strict diet, small holed nets doubled with a mix of hay and straw...he gets several a day to keep him munching - but if I were to ad lib hay him, he'd be HUUUUGEEE!:rolleyes:
 
traceyann said:
How many horses still have hay in the morning? According to the books you are supposed to give enough so they have some left in the morning. I have four horses ranging from 17 hands to fifteen hands all in work except my cob not one of them have hay left in the morning in fact if i went down at ten at night they would not have any. Am i feeding enough half abale each at night all out during the day on good grazing all fed in large horsehage nets and winter they get a bale everynight. They all get a token hard feed morning and night of safe and sound each. None of them really overweight except my cob but he only looks at a blade of grass and is fat is this enough
Click to expand...

When Kal was in at night and bedded on flax, he NEVER had hay left . . . despite being on very good grazing during the day, having a decent breakfast and dinner and being fed pretty much half a bale at night. But then he's a greedy pig and I suspect he was bored being in at night. If I was late turning him out, he turned himself inside out - bucking and rearing in his box (not to mention box walking).

Now he's out from 3 pm until about 9 am on OK grazing, bedded on straw during the day, gets a relatively small hard feed when he comes in and right before he goes out and gets haylage (about a large skip full) with his breakfast and at lunchtime. He is so chilled (and probably tired) from being out partying all night that he would actually prefer to sleep than eat his haylage. Plus, when he HAS finished his haylage, he amuses himself by wiffling through his straw bed looking for tasty morsels. The box walking has greatly reduced and he hasn't bucked or reared in his stable since we moved yards :).

I said all this to say that I do think some horses need forage to stave off boredom - and if they were mentally and physically tired would actually sleep rather than eat.

P
 
my 2 ponies eat whatever i put in the stable, it could be a handful to 2 big haynets and it will all be gone. they don't need the food for weight so i only give them 1 average sized net and it's all gone.
my horse gets 2 big haynets a night and has some left a few mornings but i've put that down to the hay not being very good and i think he can't be bothered with trying to eat it.
if i put 2 nets of haylage in then he will eat it all, one of each and the haylage net is always eaten. so it depends on the quality of hay/haylage with him rather than the amount.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top