Help with feeding

[domsmith]

This is my first winter with Buddy. in fact any horse that needs feeding over winter. he is a 16.3 wb gelding. he seems quite soft.

although in a field with some grass left in it he is not to keen on grazing this last 10 days or so. he stays around his field shelter and really seems to be waiting for me to feed him. he seems very hungry when i do feed him.
he is getting hay 2 or 3 time a day. but not quite half a small bale in total. he gets a mug of balancer, a scoop of alpha a, once a day.

i suddenly get the feeling that is not enough and i am under doing it by quite a bit. with his rug off today, i get the feeling he has just lost a bit of weight off his withers.

what should i do? do i feed hay adlib now he seems to not be wanting to graze? do i need to use a hard feed now. he has been excitable when we got feed wrong in the summer. too much sugar.

he is hacked out 3-4 times aweek nothing too much.
he is out 24/7 at this moment but with all the rain forecast this week i hope i can have him in at night.

thank you.

 

[be positive]

He probably needs more hay, he is a big horse and if the grazing is poor may require up to a bale in 24 hours to maintain weight, are teeth, worming up to date as that can cause weight loss.

 

[twiggy2]

at his size would be giving 2/3rds of a bale a day and if he eats all that then a whole bale, if he eats all that then more hay. my friends 16.2 WB eats 1.5 bales a day if he is only out for 2-3 hrs a day

 

[Buddy'sMum]

Weigh your horse and your hay. Don't guess. Hay bales can be totally different in size and weight from different suppliers.
As your horse is only in light work atm, aim to feed about 2% of bodyweight per day. Forage (grass, hay, alfa-a) should make up at least 70% of the total daily feed.