how much hay

[sussexlife]

Have just got our first pony in 20 years . She's 12hh, 4 years old and a fairly good doer, and we have lots of grass.

Am now looking to buy some hay ready for winter, and would love some advice as to how much to get. Although we haven't had her through a winter before she won't be doing much work yet, so I'm hoping she'll be Ok on mainly grass and hay with a bit of hard feed if we find she needs it. The bales here are fairly well packed small bales, reasonable quality, any ideas at all as to how many I should order gratefully received!

 

[Mike007]

Congratulations on the pony. As for the hay.Since haymaking is well and truely over ,you will not save anything now by buying in bulk. What is more important is how much you can store without significant weather damage. Hay under a tarpaulin is likely to get damaged in parts.I would personaly just buy 50 conventional bales and see how you get on. Keep a reserve of about 2 months worth at all times in case of snow then work that down towards the spring.

 

[Honey08]

Hi. We used to have a 12h pony, and were in a similar position in that we had lots of grass. The pony didn't need much hay at all, perhaps one to two slices a night. So you're probably looking at 2 bales a week max.. Be aware that you really have to watch these ponies on good grass - ours got laminitus, even in winter. A grazing muzzle may be a good investment for prevention rather than cure.. You usually need extra small pony size for that height...

 

[Laine]

Not a lot!! My 12.2 welsh who ISNT a good doer and is already having hard feed piled into her has abot 3/4 slices of hay a night plus a large feed. I keep all mine on straw beds so they can pick if they finish their hay. I did the same with my fatty shetland. He used to have 1 slice of hay in a small holed net then had a nice big straw bed to pick through. If yo dont like the idea of then picking through the bed then you can do as my aunt does and put a net of straw up next to the 1 slice of hay. That way the pony's gut will stay active but with less calories.

So if you want to do just hay then say 2 bales a week (which i think will be more than needed) if you say for 6 months of the year?? so 26 weeks at 2 bales a week is 52 bales.

If you wanted to supliment with straw then you could reduce the hay and replace with straw which is also cheaper