How important is long fibre?

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Patches

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My horses have been living out for just shy of two weeks. They are on a very bald paddock by day and move into a not so bald (but not long grass by any stretch of the imagination) larger area at night, which I am also strip grazing.

Just been musing to myself about if there's any detriment to them not consuming any long fibre (meaning hay of course) in their diets if they stay on such restricted grass management for the summer.

Would it be beneficial to bring them in every few days for a couple of hours to munch some hay or is the lack of long fibre not considered a problem?
 
I've got one in starvation paddocks

I will chuck in hay morning and night to make sure the horse has enough running through the gut.

Its not the length of fibre, but horses aren't build to have nothing going through their gut for long periods.
 
Bert's paddock looks just like the one all yours are in on the group photos's you posted.

He is out 24x7 andI was putting haylage out for him but he is leaving it now andobviously getting enough of whatever he needs elsewhere. I tend to go by what he "tells" me and tkae this as a sign he has no need for it.

ETS WTF why can i not type!
 
This is my night time paddock. You can see what they're strip grazing in this pic. It's about an acre and a half. I've put all four in it now to keep it down as the strip grazing is getting longish.

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Day time paddock (you can see the night time area behind the ponies - the shut off leccy taped area)
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Problem I have is that Dinker and Tweenie both have grazing muzzles on so do struggle to eat hay. If I take the muzzles off I'm worried about Laminitis for Dinker and colic for Tweenie as she inflates like a balloon on too much grass.

I've a feeling they wouldn't eat hay if I was to put it out.
 
I offer hay to all of my herds 12 months a year even though I have good grazing here. Surprisingly they all do actually spend some time every day at the hay feeders even in the Summer. The only time they tend not to hang around them is in the Spring when they get that first sniff of fresh grass coming through.

Here's one of my pasture fields in May:
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By the time July comes around the horses tend to move back to eating more hay again.
 
I reckon I'll take some over tomorrow and see what they do with it.

Patches nose is better now too. I'm so relieved.
 
That's good news
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I wouldn't put out too much as this time of year I doubt they will want it and you don't want to waste your hay. My lot are all spending less and less time at the feeders - but they rarely desert their hay completely.
 
I've a feeling mine won't eat it. They wouldn't eat it all winter as they were on lots of grass then, once the cows had gone in for winter.
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Dentist is coming tomorrow anyway so I'll be bringing them in late morning. I'm sure they'll enjoy having some hay in the stables for a few hours.
 
My horse goes out from 10 until 4.30, I offer no hay and I know she wouldn't touch it anyway, and there is grass, but not as long as you have in your evening field. When she comes in she has hay given, but YO says she has seldom touched it when they get 10pm hay.
 
They only get a strip of the longer grass once a week in the night time paddock. Ideally I don't want to have to use it at all, but I need to really. Wasn't grazed last year and went to seed and then died off over winter. Hardly the nicest grass going I guess.

Most of the night paddock is only probably half a centimetre longer than the day time...if that.
 
OK well to put your mind at rest, if you sweep out a horses mouth when they have been eating hay, the residue bits you get are only half a centimetre to a centimetre long...
 
This is what I was thinking.

Thanks Weezy. I just wasn't sure if it was considered a bad thing for them to not have access to hay if they fancied it.

I always think of the Timothy in long stems in the hay. It's a great gut agitator and helps to keep the gut working. We feed Timothy laced hay to cows how get a bit impacted...helps to get things working again
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Cairo and Chancer are on grazing very similar to your day paddock all the time - suits me fine as they never turn from cobs into blobs.

They do come in two days a week normally for about 8 hours and have ad lib hay - if I don't do this Cairo tends to run out the gate and head for his stable and by the time you catch up is flat out snoring - that old boys loves his stable.
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They have been out for two weeks on occasion without the stable but do get two feeds a day of 1 1/2 scoops of simple system products in each feed so are adequately feed.

I do on occasion put out hay from September, but often this is left and they prefer to nibble away.

To date I have not had any problems with their digestion as they are constantly nibbling away. I like my chunky chaps to have to work a little for their grazing.
 
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