How much hay do you feed your horses that live out 24/7?

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Welshie Squisher

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I'm moving my horses in a months time to somewhere completely different to what I am used to. I have a 16hh gelding and a 14hh welshie mare, and the 2 of them will live together in their own paddock. The yard provides hay by the bale for about £4. I've only ever used the big round bales before so I've no idea how much I'll need to feed them bale wise. There will only be a nibble of grass at the height of winter so will mainly live on hay, and they will also get a feed am/pm of speedibeet, chaff and coarse mix. The YO says horses get hayed beginning Oct through to end of April so I am looking at 6 months of the year. How may bales a week do you think I'll have to feed? Thanks :)
 
I would say you are looking at a small bale a day at least. My 13.2 haffy gets a 1/3 a day in summer (no grass at our yard) and half in winter with some additional oat straw. He also gets a bucket of sugarbeet am and pm.
 
HaffiesRock said:
I would say you are looking at a small bale a day at least. My 13.2 haffy gets a 1/3 a day in summer (no grass at our yard) and half in winter with some additional oat straw. He also gets a bucket of sugarbeet am and pm.
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I'd say them same, at least a bale a day if not two if they are going to live out.

Glad I have a lot of grass!
 
It would be worth your while considering getting a round hay feeder and putting some mesh round the outside to stop them putting their legs through the bars. This works so much better than haynets or piles on the ground. You need to place it on a hardcore or well draining area, or put some stable mats around it so that it doesn't get too muddy.

Once it's set up, hayfeeding is easy and they shouldn't bicker over it.

I feed ad lib hay in the winter, but when the grass has gone/covered in deep snow I needed two bales a day. Most of the winter they only got through one per day but that's three horses on five acres that were rested from August ready for winter grazing (generally moved onto it during November and they don't need any hay to start with).


Old photo - but it shows what I mean.
Horseshayfeeder.jpg
 
You might be able to get away with a bale a day with hard feed if there is grass for them too...
But if only a nibble like you say, then I would allow for two bales a day.
Maybe look at getting in your own big round bale you can leave out so they can have adlib - will work out cheaper!
 
mine are out on a lot of ground so we normally don't even give hay unless snow cover, and even then they dig for grass! we also rotate fields- which if possible is always the best option long term, even if you can only section a tiny bit off during the summer to keep for winter. but when my mare lived out with another on less than 2 acres, from as early as October we started haying, as field not rested and sparse. they had 1/2 a small bale between them over 24 hours, as well as 2 large feeds a day, by January probably 3/4- hole large bale a day. but there is often a flush in grass in September. so like others have said, from late October-April i would plan for up to a whole small bale a day, especially if not giving much hard feed.
 
In the shoulder months Oct/ April a bale a day would fine - TBH by March the spring grass is usually coming through quite well. In peak winter Jan/Feb two bales a day is probably sensible - they do waste a bit in the field no matter how hard you try!!

I work mine out on around 150 bales a year each with very little in the summer building up to 2 bales a day in Jan - clearly if there is snow on the ground for 2 months it'll be more and 2 years ago when it was really dry all winter and little got wasted it was less.
 
Omg, my poor horses must be starving. Depths of winter 1/2 bale per day btw 3 15hh-15.2hh, unless snow / frozen ground then they get a whole bale. Spread btw morning & evening so they don't go too long without food.
Only get small hard feeds.
Don't usually start hay until Dec, finish usually by end march. They live on a 5 acre field that's been grazed by cattle all summer & they move in about September.
 


Our horses live out during the summer months and in during the winter months. At the moment due to the heat and flies, we are leaving out during the night and bringing in during the day and our horses aren't even eating two sections of hay as they are so stuffed from the grass. They usually are in for lesson than nine hours.

I'd rather give him more hay than is needed so I go back to my horse with hay on the floor than not giving him enough. x
 
w1bbler said:
Omg, my poor horses must be starving. Depths of winter 1/2 bale per day btw 3 15hh-15.2hh, unless snow / frozen ground then they get a whole bale. Spread btw morning & evening so they don't go too long without food.
Only get small hard feeds.
Don't usually start hay until Dec, finish usually by end march. They live on a 5 acre field that's been grazed by cattle all summer & they move in about September.
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Sounds about right if they are on 5 acres, even if the grass is sparse there will be something to pick at.

OP I would say a bale a day, possibly upping to one and a half in v bad weather. If you weight a bale and perhaps a section you can do the maths, your horse needs around 2% its body weight in hay, less (1.5%) if you are wanting to loose weight) and 2.5% if a poor doer or in more work.

I allow roughly the following per day for my lot day - 1 & 3/4 bales
1/4 bale for the aged 11hh, 1/2 bale for aged 14.1, 1/4 bale plus straw for weight watchers 14.1 cob and 3/4 for 16hh ISH

In bad weather I up it to 2 bales. I have 3 small paddocks I use for winter and when they go on to a new one I reduce the hay (as they wont eat it if there is grass), and increase when they have eaten it down.
 
Thanks everyone :)

Well from the advice given above and considering I'll have about 2 acres (split in 2 parts for rotation), I'm guessing with 2 decent meals a day, that 1 bale will be enough a day bar the height of winter when I'll probably need 2 bales a day. I can live with this, I'm budgeting £1000 for hay for the winter, that's 250 bales, 176 is a bale a day for 6 months so will have an extra 74 for the height of the winter. Now to work out the hard feed costs, but that has never been overly expensive as they don't need anything fancy.

The YO says she spends about £500 a winter for her horse on hay and he gets more than any other horse there as he's needs it to hold his weight, so I should be ok :)
 
Do you have to buy small bale ? it is the most expensive way of buying hay. If you have the storage space to put 250 small bales how about buying hestons, far cheaper way of feeding your stock.
 
Surely it depends on how much grass there is and how well they are holding their weight?

Mine lived out unrugged & no hard feed all last winter. He had ad lib access to big bale haylage Dec-April (plus reasonable grazing) and has come out of winter far too well. He has been moved off that field.

He is currently on sparse grazing, no hard feed and no extra hay and still is too fat. He will stay without extra hay for as long as possible and even if I do supplement it will be a couple of slices a day provided there is still a bit of grass to nibble on. Only in hard frost/snow would I be providing more hay for this horse.
 
How long is a piece of string it depends on how they look mine have a slice a day from january to march or if snow on the ground more than that they get the squits so they have about half a bucket of high fibre high protein feed per day too
 
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