How many slices of hay do you feed your horse a day ?

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niagaraduval

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Hi,

I was just wondering how many slices of hay do you feed your horses a day ? In small bales.



One hacks twice a week - walk/trot and the other is ridden out 4-5 times a week trot/canter and sometimes jumping. I feed them the same amount, the oldie who doesn't work a lot gets an extra scoop of coursemix morning and night though.

They both look quite plump, the one in heavier work looking the plumpest, the oldie is keeping weight on nicely.

I feed 3 slices of a small bay morning and night, Is this enough hay ? They both have big beds of barley straw and seem to eat this all the time ? I was told this was normal though and all the horses ate it.
 
Pretty much ad lib really.14.2 conniex tb age 23 in light work has a third of a bale a night, usually finishes it around 6am then has a half hearted pick at her bed till she goes out around 7.30- 8 till evening. If for some reason she is in 24/7 she'd eat 3/4 of a bale ad lib, would have
 
Depends entirely on how big the slices are! They can vary quite considerably from small bale to small bale.

I always find it is better to weigh hay with a spring balance to find out exactly how much I'm feeding, if they are looking a bit plump it may be better to drop the coarse mix and possibly increase the hay.
 
Hate this phone lol. Would restrict her to half a soaked bale in 4 smaller portions if stuck in.
11.1 of some form of nativex something finer (new forest x miniature is best guess) gets through a bale a week but only really eats 2/3 of it. Also only in light work.
 
My gelding is currently on box rest. He gets between 2-4 sections of hay (depending on how big the sections are) twice a day and a section of straw. This is approx 10-12kg each 24 hours. His idea of ad lib is 2 bales a day which isn't healthy even if I soaked it :p Even the vets commented on how much he eats :o

He maintains his weight on this, is about 490-500kg on the weigh tape (when he was 510kg on the tape he was 556kg on the bridge so he gets roughly 1.75% of his bodyweight daily.
 
My small bale sections tend to weigh about 2kg so lami prone Haffie gets (if in and not getting any grass as at present) about 4-4.5 sections a day (8-9kg). NB this is for gradual weight loss, for maintenance would probably be looking at 5-6 sections. Thats assuming no grass and feeding no other forage or feed.

In reality she has 4-3 sections of hay and some lo cal chaff in a bucket to replace the rest, just to add some interest for her, and in addition gets a vit/min supp and also some of the hay is replaced with oat straw so that she can have a bit more chew for her money!
 
My girls are turned out during the day - they have a covering of grass, but not loads. They are in over night, the orange one (15hh) has 2 sections soaked, the pony (13hh) has 1 section soaked. Orange one does half hour walks during the week at the moment, with longer hacks at the weekend, and the pony is only worked at the weekend until the clocks change. They both always have some hay left in the morning, and are both well covered at present
 
not sure what it is in sections so not much help but Rosie s 14hh in lightish work and is fed 7kg of hay a night. I keep meaning to count the sections but i dont always end up with 'proper' sections.
 
15.2 TB is a pig... He has feeds and 1 1/2 - 2 slices of the rectangular (heston?) bales per night... Baby QH is a 15.2 lump and has a single slice overnight, 13.2 Sec B pony has about half a slice...
 
Our 5 are now all out 24/7 they get about 2-3 bales a day between them so I think thats about 20-30 slices so about 4-5 each a day :)

Depends on who's haying them as to how much they get, my mum is tight, and I'm a sucker for their sad faces and a cute whicker ;) :D
 
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