How long without hay?

It depends a bit on the horse. My girl will finish a haynet with 3 slices in it within a couple of hours if she has the chance, but my arab boy will have a 4 slice haynet last all night.

With my girl (also a v. good doer) I give her 2 small sections of hay when she goes in at night, and she has 3 more at about 10.30 / 11pm ish. All of my gang have a little hay left in the morning when I do round.

If the horse is just stuffing hay then I would double net it, and put 2 smaller haynets at different ends of the stable. I did find that after my girly had her teeth done a couple of months ago she stopped stuffing hay just for the sake of it.
 
In the summer - happily most of the day.

This time of year, I would rather they have hay in from of them all the time. Or would at least double or triple net a smaller amount to really make it last.
 
My 15.2 and 16hh get a mountain of hay at 10pm - about 7kg and don't get fed until 6.30am. I assume they are finished with the hay by about midnight - 1am so they are maybe 5 hours without, although there is usually stuff left in the morning.

In the south the RS horses were fed twice a day and in the winter might get tea at 5pm and not be fed again until 10am - and they only got about 3 sections of straw
 
Our gets a medium sized net, but very small holed, at 8am and then nothing till about 4pm.
They then get two nets over night if on shavings, or if on straw get = value on the floor.
 
I give mine her dinner and last haynet between 5.30 and 7.30, she gets about 16lbs of well soaked hay, she has some on the floor and a small net at the back of her stable, she doesn't get fed again till 7 am.
 
My mare has about 2 sections of hay about 4pm, has hard feed about 5pm then gets another section of hay at about 9pm. She doesnt' get feed again until about 8am. She also has about a third of a section of haylage left from her lunch time net when given evening feed!
 
you could give a section or 2 of straw with night net to keep him occupied - takes a while for them to get used to but if they are really hungry they will eat it. It has little nutritional value so low on calories
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I wouldn't leave a stabled horse without hay! (Unless veterinary advice for a specific condition.)

Small holes, soaking or even leaving a muzzle on - anything to reduce nutritional content/slow them down if necessary, but something to go through the system at all times.
 
all my horses are out for a few hours a day on what are now bare paddocks and then when they come in they have a x large net full of good quality haylage i can barely lift it, at least a full section of a large square bale each at about 4 pm, and hard feed at about 7pm. Most of them have a bit left am except for my greedy irish draft who eats all of it and helps her mum eat hers over the stable wall to. But then again my horses are all greedy!
 
Horses are designed to eat all the time so if they are kept in they need to be given enough hay to keep munching at. The nutrition in the hay can be reduced by soaking it for 1 hour before feeding it. They should also eat from the floor as they do in the wild to help their sinuses to drain. In cases of stabled laminitic horses then one slice of well soaked hay every 4 hours.
 
No time at all!!!

If horse were a fatty, I'd just soak it forever until it had nothing in it. Would never leave him without.
 
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