How long can a horse comfortably go with out eating.

Fieldlife said:
How about a few haynets - one with fairly small holes, one with very small holes, one double netted. Can leave the ones that are very hard to eat in a few days, and shouldnt finish them. Plus a trug of straw / straw chaff.
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Yeah I'll split the hay between small hole nets and double netted nets tomorrow and see how that lasts.

I think if it lasts past 1pm they'll be OK.

Now we've got damp weather again I'll need to reduce the size of the paddock their in the rest of the time.

It's so hard! Reggie is a skinny mini but is only young so I don't like him being out alone all the time. He's going between the rested (winter) field in the day and the bare summer field at night so he can be with his friends.
 
I have two fatties to manage as well. I muzzle them when they are out, then they can have ad lib soaked hay when they are in , which is during the day from about 8 or 9 to 3 or 4 pm. That seems to work for me, and for them. Years ago I kept a pony who had nothing all day and grass at night. That would be considered very wrong now, I know. He must have had ulcers. But he seemed to be ok. I remember watching him as he was turned out after his long incarceration one day, and he just wanted to play with the water trough, with another pony. Didn’t seem desperate to start eating.
 
dorsetladette said:
Thinking about the other end of the horse for a minute.

My ponies generally create 8-12 piles of poo per 24 hour period. In the simplest of calculations to me that it takes approx 2-3 hours to clear their system?

If their stomach cleared in 20 mins then they would be leaving us presents 3 times an hour?
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Very definitely not how it works! Horses are hind gut fermenters so the transit time through the stomach can be quite short if it’s not a protein rich meal (the stomach only really breaks down protein chemically, with some mechanical digestion to help get the rest into smaller bits), but then it’s going to take up to 24hours to get though the rest of the gut as fibre digestion is slow
 
I envy you all for the horses that have something they don't eat.

Rigs is on a constant diet. He used to only go out for a few hours a day, muzzled, and need a net every 4 hours if in during the day.

Straw? Delicious!
Top Chop Zero? Delicious!
Tiny holed nets? Easy!
Raviera bedding? Reluctantly eaten (not supposed to be palatable at all!).

I made it a rule that I could leave it for 6 hours, for my own sanity once, my husband died, as otherwise I could never go anywhere as I was a slave to Rigs and the dogs. At night, he'd have his last net at 9pm and next at 7am.

My new boyfriend has helped. TBF, he had never so much as touched a horse before, nor owned any pet but a cat, but likes days out at the beach etc. The concept of not being able to go out for the day because of the animals was alien to him.

He is a problem solver and happens to have a factory 🤣

He made an outside kennel with run and further extended run, for the dogs, who can now be left for the day.

For Rigs, he designed and made a muzzle that stays on and restricts grazing so efficiently, Rigs can now go out for 12 hours no bother. As a side benefit, Rigs' seasonal asthma seems to have disappeared as the new muzzle is very airy and the plastic food grade and very hygenic. For winter (when our grazing is too mushy to use and Rigs has a stable/patio enclosure), he has designed and made (but not yet fitted) a device that will deliver a haynet remotely. That will mean days out are viable without buying in a groom or pestering friends each time. It means spontaneity for days out, with the boys all cared for.
 
For your skinny one I would not be limiting to one haynet, I would be leaving more hay than he could eat. For the other I would be thoroughly soaking, double netting and leaving more hat but so soaked that it has lost all of its calories.
 
I am dealing with exactly this with mine atm, they are fat .
I would much rather deal with ulcers than the orthopaedic issues caused by being too heavy or laminitis .
However I would give your horse you lunge something before you lunge it .
I would try swapping to chopped straw which mine do eat slower than hay.
Horses don’t need to come in to a hay net .
Ideally catch them give them a treat of some type ( I give mine a snack for their balancer ) then leave them, if you can give forage later and I would use straw do it at between between half eleven and twelve .
If you can’t be there to do that leave them at half seven with straw .
 
dorsetladette said:
As title really.

I have two fatty's who are spending their days under house arrest with a small hay net as the grass is just to much, even though my fields are bare.

They go in around 7.30am and come back out around 4.30/5pm - I've noticed (on the cameras) that by 10am the nets are gone. which means they are not eating for 6 hours, obviously stomachs aren't empty the whole time but is this OK?

My gut feeling is yes as it's to prevent a worse issue, but what do you guys think?

Also I generally lunge B in an afternoon so he will be working on a potentially empty stomach - whats peoples view on this? should I give him a handful of chaff before his exercise? or does that defeat the objective of reducing intake?

Am I over thinking it all?
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Do you soak the hay fir a few hours before feeding?
 
Orangehorse said:
They don't eat as much at night.
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Really ? My horses get a snack in the morning two scoops of straw at lunch time another scoop of straw at fiveish and go out at ten .
They are on a bare paddock of less than an acre .
They do an average of thirteen poos a day each .
Not sure where they are getting it if they don’t eat much at night .
 
Mari said:
Do you soak the hay fir a few hours before feeding?
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No I don't have running water on site so the water I do have available is sacred this time of year.

Goldenstar said:
I am dealing with exactly this with mine atm, they are fat .
I would much rather deal with ulcers than the orthopaedic issues caused by being too heavy or laminitis .
However I would give your horse you lunge something before you lunge it .
I would try swapping to chopped straw which mine do eat slower than hay.
Horses don’t need to come in to a hay net .
Ideally catch them give them a treat of some type ( I give mine a snack for their balancer ) then leave them, if you can give forage later and I would use straw do it at between between half eleven and twelve .
If you can’t be there to do that leave them at half seven with straw .
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I'm going to pick up some straw at the weekend. I'll have a look at chopped straw while I'm there.

Unfortunately I can't pop out of work everyday to give nets at lunch time. I'm thinking a compromise might be a couple of small nets with a handful of hay mixed with straw to keep them busy for longer.

I'm going to change my afternoon routine so they go out while I do jobs and then come back in for exercise. should give them half hour or so browsing the hedgerows. as long as I can catch them that is!
 
If it’s any help - I have one in off grass every day, and while my other has access to the field and her field shelter as she’s not overweight. She actually spends most of the day dozing in the field shelter next to his stable, she could go and eat but actually, we barely see her outside eating grass. If the default for horses was to just keep eating I don’t think she would stand in for hours at a time when she could be eating?

Bizarrely I went to a talk last night about EMS and ulcers. Unfortunately it wasn’t what I hoped it would be and the speaker mostly said no horse should have straw chaff ever, and that all horses should be on tracks with no grass, just limitless hay. So I have recently concluded however you manage these types - there’s always someone who will suggest an alternative!
 
So today they had the same amount of hay but double netted. On getting back to them at 4pm this afternoon there was still a good handful of hay in each net so I'm guessing they are not as bothered about food if they have to work a bit harder for it.

I'll still get straw so I can reduce the hay down further and reduce the calories a little more.
 
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