Horse always hungry!

[Chianti]

Hi All,

I have a 500kg section D who is in no work at all (my issues rather than hers) and stabled 24/7. I give her 8kg of soaked hay a day split into two nets as i can only get there twice a day. She has no turnout over winter and puts on weight very easily. She doesn't wear a rug and has no hard feed.

She has a very small holed haynet (greedy feeder net) and she has her evening haynet at 6pm - i can't give it to her any later than this. Occasionally I have come back to the yard at 8pm and she's finished it all off which means she's then stood there until 7am the next morning with nothing to eat.

I'm concerned as I don't like the idea of her standing around for so long without eating. I can't get the haynet holes any smaller than they already are - they are only 1" as it is.

Should I be feeding her more hay? How can I keep her weight down without starving her??

I assume she's having time out of her stable at some point during the day. If you aren't able to ride her then can you get a sharer or pay someone to ride or lunge? If you can't ride could you/the yard walk her out in hand? One of my horses pulled a tendon and had to do box rest. I didn't want to walk her in hand in the dark so the yard did it for me. Is there a school she could be turned out in? if these aren't options then I really think you should find somewhere else for her. If she is getting out then you could give her a big tub of a low calories hay replacer - mine's on Top Spec - Top Chop Lite. He lives out but the paddocks quite bare so I leave him a couple of scoops of this overnight for when he's finished his haynet.

 

[Chianti]

Hi All,

I have a 500kg section D who is in no work at all (my issues rather than hers) and stabled 24/7. I give her 8kg of soaked hay a day split into two nets as i can only get there twice a day. She has no turnout over winter and puts on weight very easily. She doesn't wear a rug and has no hard feed.

She has a very small holed haynet (greedy feeder net) and she has her evening haynet at 6pm - i can't give it to her any later than this. Occasionally I have come back to the yard at 8pm and she's finished it all off which means she's then stood there until 7am the next morning with nothing to eat.

I'm concerned as I don't like the idea of her standing around for so long without eating. I can't get the haynet holes any smaller than they already are - they are only 1" as it is.

Should I be feeding her more hay? How can I keep her weight down without starving her??

Just to add - I do appreciate your situation. Years ago I was on a yard where the fields were on clay. It was a very wet autumn and early winter. Got to the yard at 6am one morning to be told that all turn out was stopped til further notice. Yard of about 15 horses and ponies. We did have a school but that was quite small and very wet. We walked them around the yard and shared the school. Can't remember how long it lasted but it seemed to go on forever.