How much hay?

Rache

Rache

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Following on from another thread how much hay does your horse get per night? How long is that for? Are they fat, thin or just right? How do you feed it? What breed? And what work?

Here's mine.
1 and 1/2 nets
11 hours
Fat but not obese
Double netted-dry horse won't eat soaked
Welsh cob x
Not in work as having the winter off

What do you guys think, it's mostly all gone by the morning and he does have a straw bed to pick at
 
mine has ad lib haylage and looks spot on at the moment (maybe do with losing a few p9ounds), his an ID x TB :D he usually has a bit left in the morning... his in very light work at the moment.

I would just give yours one haynet? Or leave him with less rugs (if rugged) if you want him to drop some weight. Like you say, he has straw if he gets that hungry..
 
the question is... How big are your nets!!!? to get a better idea of if your horse is getting the right ammount, you really ought to weigh it... and know his weight too.

My boy is a 5 year old, 17.2hh, 680kg CB... currently worked for 40 minutes - and hour 5 or 6 times a week.

He's prone to weightgain and sensitive to grass sugars so I'm trying to get him coming into spring on the lighter side...

He is out 10 hours a day on fairly good but unfertilised grazing and in overnight he has 8kg of Haylage in two nets - one double netted and one single netted or fed off the floor...

At the moment he is having to stay in during the day so he is getting 4kg of hay during the day too - double netted.

He also only gets enough bucket feed to carry his vits and mins. and give him the energy required -one mug of micronised linseed, one mug of fast fibre, one mugful of oats (cut out while he isn't working) and a 3rd of a stubbs scoop of ERS pelets twice a day...
 
Mine is a very good doer and her weight is spot on, she is a 16.hh Dutch warmblood x welsh d. Normally she get 3 x Elim-a-net's (pony sized), as these have the smallest holes and there is 5lbs of soaked hay in each net. I have been up the yard at 11.00pm and she still has hay left. Because of the weather the last 4 days I haven't been able to soak and she hasn't been out in the field so I'm giving her 20lbs of hay at night instead of 15lbs.

I also have her fully clipped apart from legs and half a head and she's just in a medium weight rug with neck.
 
The formula used (and this has to used with due consideration for your particular horse) is, for horses needing to lose a bit, 1.5% of the TARGET weight of hay/forage (this includes chaff and straw) per day. For instance if your horse should weigh 500 kgs, then he should get 7.5 kgs of forage per day split into however many feeds. To maintain present weight, then he should get 2% = 10 kgs per day. To gain weight then it should be anything over this, or preferrably ad lib / as much as he will eat.
 
Mine is a 14.1 Connie x and is 435kg, just about right weight wise. Gets 6kg haylage overnight, turned out 7.30-4 on very poor grazing and gets 1.5kg fast fibre plus a balancer split over 2 feeds. I had to double net his net to slow him down as he's a greedy buggar. Is worked 5-6 times a week (mix of schooling, jumping, hacking and lunging).
 
In order to know what you are feeding it is essential to weigh ALL feed. For info: the average small bale of hay weighs approx 20KGs; haylage is much heavier than hay, and different types / makes weigh differently, so the best way to work out is to compare the volumes of hay to haylage and use that weight/volume. Soaked hay should be weighed before soaking.
 
My two get a whole section of a large bale of haylage each overnight to last 5pm-6am ish. There is usually some left in the morning. I'm naughty and gave no idea of the weight of the haylage they have!
They also share a section in the morning to go out with and two bucket feeds a day.
 
My horse is a Welsh cob cross who is prone to getting overweight. She was a broodmare before I owned her and I took her on with a huge foal tummy.

She is out on poorish grazing from 7.30 until 4pm and stabled overnight. Usually she is worked 5 times a week for 40 mins in school or an hour and a half hack.

She has 1/2 scoop of hi-fi lite mornng and evening with a vit supplement. She has her tea at 6pm and a small portion of hay (1kg) . I put in the bulk of her hay ration between 8.30 and 9pm which is approx. 5kg. She usually has soaked hay but our current hay supply is late cut and stemmy and she won't eat it soaked.

I have found feeding her from the floor is better because she actually eats it in phases rather than wolfing it all down in one. When I used haynets she would stand and eat every mouthful in one session.

She is trace-clipped and wears max 100g weight rugs.
 
Mine is a 15hh cob who hunts twice weekly (when not snowed or flooded off!!).

Although he is a good doer, I use the 2.5% ratio of forage to bodyweight, as he is in reasonably hard work. Therefore he gets 8 kg haylage per night with grass and hard feed making up the rest.

He usually has a little left in the morning.
 
My 600Kg Show Cob is currently in as the fields are iced up - turned out for approx 30-40 mins in sand indoor school per day - we can't ride in it as it's too deep :(
He's getting 7.5Kg wetted hay at night and around 4 Kg in the daytime plus a small section of hi-fibre Horsehage while he's being fussed and groomed at night when I get there after work.
Around 12Kg a day, so 2% of body weight - he's looking good but unfit - but then, he hasn't been ridden for nearly a week and before that had a bad reaction to his flu jab so I've been taking it really easy with him as his bloods had been low until just after Christmas.
He has 0.25 kg Safe N Sound, Top Spec Lite Balancer, Echinacea and iron at the moment.
 
Mine is similar type to yours, only ridden at weekends due to facilities/work. He gets 1 medium haylage net of dry hay per night (2-2.5 slices), of which there is sometimes a little left in the morning, he has a straw bed to nibble too. He is nicely slim. He is allowed a small feed of 1/2 scoop light chaff and 1/2 scoop high fibre cubes now that the weight is off him, as I don't want him any thinner. He gets a net of 1.5-2 slices of hay by day if he's in.

if your horse is fat I would only give him 1 haynet. you are meant to feed 1.5% bodyweight in forage as a weight-loss diet. I did this with mine and he is now nicely thin so his feed has increased very slightly. The Dodson and Horrell website has an excellent guide to feeding a fatty.
 
My idxtb gets approx 7kg a day now we have snow. He lives out, needs to lose a bit of weight, and tbh can go forage if he really needs to :) slices vary so much in weight and size from bale to bale that i find that it has to be weighed
 
Vast quantities.

All of ours get adlib - a mimimum of 13lbs a night each, but it is fed loose from the floor. Some are greedier than others, some choose to eat their beds instead....
 
My two get it ad-lib. They're both out (there's no grass) 24/7. One is a 14.1hh Dutch Riding Pony (small TB type) who is usually skinny but is at the top end of her average for coverage. The other is a 16.2hh mostly TB who is currently skinny. Both coming up 17yo and neither in work right now. They get three barrows of hay from a large bale between them, per day (imagine a normal small wheelbarrow stuffed with hay and multiply by three!) Very un-scientific but it works as the skinny is putting on weight again.

I hate leaving horses without food of any kind. I agree with Amymay, OP - if yours is on a straw bed and would be able to munch on that, then you could cut some of the hay out if you're concerned about weight?
 
Poor doer,has 4-5 slices of soaked hay(not sure how much in kg). Always has some left,also has large fibre based feed which he picks at all night. Turned out all day,hay/haylage out in field at the mo due to snow. Also picks st straw bed. I would like him to eat more but he's got a frankly pathetic appetite,refuses to eat breakfast but a friend who's earlier than me put up a fresh haynet which he'll pick at. He does eat more when it's as cold as this so also currently having a scoop of dried grass as well(in seperate bucket to his usual feed)
 
16.2hh tb - ad lib hay. Ridden 6 days a week for about an hour a time. Overnight he probably gets through about 20lbs - more if it's cold :o On ad lib hay he's a perfect weight, without it he gets ribby no matter what hard feed he gets.
 
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