Horse out to grass this winter how much hay should I get.

[vikkibeth]

Due to moving to my new yard I have gone from stabling my horses during the winter in the eve and during bad days to having them out to grass 24/7 so how much hay should I order? I have a 13hh shire x who is a great doer and I am in hunt for a new horse 14.3-15.3hh (some of you may have read from my other thread about finding black beauty). They will be sharing 5acres with two other ponys one 13.2hh and other 14.3hh. We have pleanty of grass due to there only being one on all that land till I moved in. I can only get small bales due to storing. So how many do you suggest?

 

[stencilface]

We have five horses on 12 acres and probably get through about 250 small bales from october to march with 2 stabled at night and three out 24/7.

We get 100 to start off with straight off the field as thats all we have room for and go from there. However, if we have a winter like the last 2 I will be getting a farmer to drop a round bale in the field to see if that works out cheaper

 

[flying solo]

I shared a field with 3 others last year and all out 8-9hours per day we went through a bale a week. They were all bigger at 16hh+ whilst mines was 13.1. Guess it depends on hunger and greed too x

 

[herewego]

Mine are out 24/7 but bit bigger than yours one is 17.1 one 16.3 then 15.3, 15h and a shetland. The two big boys have a bale each a day the other two 3/4 bale and the shetland 1/2 bale Usualy start off with a bit less at the begining of the winter, but due to grass not growing at all this summer I am nearly feeding them that now !

 

[FairyLights]

much depends on how much grass there is and how bad the winter will be . I would guess not less than 1 tonne of hay ie 50 small bales per horse. 5 acres wont keep 4 well over the winter so they will need supplementary hay.

 

[Mrs_Wishkabibble]

Mine come in at night but do have adlib hay and are out in the day and I generally use between 100-120 bales per horse.