How Much Haylage/Feed Should I Be Feeding?

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Holzdweaver

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Im so confused about this percentage thing... a friend mentioned that i should be doing it on body weight, not on just 'How things are going' type thing which i have been doing.

My horse weighs approx 500kg, which means i should be feeding him daily 5kg of concentrates? Or not? Does this Include chaff? or is it just 5kg of oats/barley/sugarbeet? is sugarbeet even included? :confused:

And for haylage, Its good quality stuff, but how much in kg should he be getting a day?

:confused::confused::confused:

Can anyone shed any light for me?
Or even explain things easy so i can understand it?
Lol, i thought i was doing fine but she has made me feel like i havent a clue about the feeding of my horse...:(
 
Echo Bravo said:
If your horse looks ok and is doing ok on your feeding regium, does it really matter what other people say.:)
Click to expand...

This ,but no he is not likely to need 5kg of concentrates, if you are thinking of 1%-1.5% bodyweight this is all his feed and hay, but you should feed for the work, type, weight etc and if you are happy with how he is that is what matters.
 
I would rather cut right back on hard feed and allow ad lib haylage...obviously depends on what work you are doing with your horse??If he looks well and is holding his weight then I wouldnt worry :)
 
The horse world is full of opinionated know it alls...if you are happy with how your horse looks and he has the required energy levels for the work you are doing...tell them to piss off and mind their own :D
 
Holzdweaver

If I fed my 500kg horse 5kg of concentrates a day no one would ever be able to ride him.
Even competing regular ODEs or XCs and lots of travelling he never went above 2kg a day
But all horses are different and getting the right balance for your horse is important.

If your horse is the correct weight, not too fat or too thin then you are looking at feeding a total of 2.5% of body weight a day ie 12.5kg
Unless you are working your horse hard or he tends to drop weight easily most of that should be forage with very little concentrate.

Some guidelines from Spillers but do remember with good quality haylage horses should need little else unless you are eg hunting through the winter
http://www.spillers-feeds.com/feeding-guide/

Invest in a weigh tape and record his weight on your calendar eg every Sat or Sun morning at the same time of day. Learn to condition score
 
I thought 5kg concentrate was way too much, id have been feeding a bag every 4 days, Thats what was getting me, i was thinking that if i was meant to feed 1% of his weight in just hard feed, iv been way underfeeding him and he must be an amazingly good doer! xD rofl

2.5% total and including haylage, now that makes a lot more sense to me and that link is very useful too, working it out that way he gets just over the recommended amount, he gets 15kg of haylage and 2.5kg of hard feed i have just upped his haylage though as he has dropped a bit of weight, He usually looks well on what i give him, so i wont worry, but at least i now understand the percentage thing :D

Thank you
 
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