How much hay should a horse be fed when turned out all day?

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enchantedunicorn

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Hi, my horse is turned out for about 7-8 hours every other day. On a normal day when he is kept in he has two 42" haynets and two feeds (given every morning and evening.) I am unsure of how much hay he should have when he is being turned out for a whole day and whether he should just have one feed at the end of the day. Yes, he is fat and the fields have a reasonable amount of grass in them.
 
If he is fat and there is still grass I wouldn't be giving any hay. I'd also take away both of his feeds, or at the very least cut them right down to the bare minimum if you are giving any supplements etc.

Remember you don't want him coming into spring fat, ideally you should let them drop off weight through the winter, because before you know it the grass will be shooting through and you will be at much higher risk for laminitis.
 
On the days he does not go out the recommended amount of total forage to be given is 2% of his body weight in food. When he is at grass for 8hrs probably reduce by a third. It is a good idea to work out weight of the bucket feed, then weigh your hay nets it is surprising how bales can differ in weight.


Have you considered supplementing hay with some straw, you do not want him building up problems by going long periods without eating. Does he get exercise on the days he is not in the field?
 
If he's fat you need to look at his feeds first (perhaps give token low sugar, none cereal feed with balancer) and if there is plenty of grass no hay in the field. Obviously increasing exercize will be difficult at this time of year but you may need to consider soaking hay when in to aid weight loss.
 
If he's fat then you need to cut the hard feed back to virtually nothing. Last thing you want is an overweight horse going into spring. Is he a cob/heavy build? How much exercise does he get?
 
Hi , he is a connemara - so not a heavy build and he is exercised for at least 30 mins a day when he is kept in. I am a little reluctant to take him of his feed as he is only having 200g of lite balancer a day , to ensure he is getting the right vits and mins - I am just unsure about how much hay he should be having on the days he is turned out and kept in :)
 
enchantedunicorn said:
Hi , he is a connemara - so not a heavy build and he is exercised for at least 30 mins a day when he is kept in. I am a little reluctant to take him of his feed as he is only having 200g of lite balancer a day , to ensure he is getting the right vits and mins - I am just unsure about how much hay he should be having on the days he is turned out and kept in :)
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30 mins is not a lot of exercise in a 24hr period, you do need to be careful to manage his feeding, in nature horses and ponies constantly move and graze, and their digestive system is designed around and this lifestyle.

Can you hand walk or lunge him for other short periods on days he does not go out.

Let him have some straw to keep his system moving, make sure he is getting the recommended 2% of hay/feed or similar.
If you look on the internet there are some good guides to feeding, most of the equine charities have feeding advice on their sites.
 
Get him weighed and get a scale to measure your haynets, volume is not a very accurate guide, you need to look at mass. You'll also need to know his weight to work out how much balancer he needs.

A slice/section/flake of hay varies a lot but if you say each weights roughly 1.5kgs then a 450kg horse should only be getting 6 of them a day if that's all they are getting fed. As your horse is stuck in the stable for long stretches then I can't see this lasting very long so as other posters have advised you need to swap some of the hay for straw so he has less calories but more volume, plus I'd be double netting to make sure it lasts as long as possible and soaking to remove some of the calories.

When he's out in the field he shouldn't need any hay during the day and I'd just give him half to two thirds of his daily amount in the evening.
 
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