How much haylage to feed?

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Oscar

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Just thinking out loud really, I have a 17.2hh WB, he probably weighs about 700kgs and he's in light work. He's turned out from 8am til 4pm on not much grass. I am currently giving him about 22lbs of haylage which is 10kgs. Plus he has 3 heaped scoops of Happy Hoof over two feeds a day. His haynet is huge and his weight is fine but should he have more? Can you really feed ad-lib haylage? I honestly think he could eat twice as much as he does but he'd be the size of a house!!
 
Mine are always on addlib haylage/hay and they are all good doers, they are allowed to put a bit of weight on at the end of summer and then they loose it over winter as I don't rug except a rain sheet when it's really wet, or feed hard feed unless in heavy work/in foal, they get a vitamin lick for all they need.
Horses need something going through their gut 24/7, so limiting it to just one haynet isn't great - he'll probably have finished that within a couple of hours so will be standing for 7 or 8 hours with no food which can cause stomach ulcers, behavioural vices from the stress and boredom, and they can be more prone to colic and geting cold as the breakdown of the fibre in their gut acts as an internal radiator.
When I used to do haynets for mine, instead of the hay feeders I use now, they had 3 huge fully stuffed haynets per average sized TB horse to last the night, my friesian stallion is about 790kgs and he had 4 haynets which was just fine for him - you'll know if you are feeding enough if there is still a little bit left in the morning, if it has all gone then you're not feeding enough.
If you are worried about his weight cut back on the hard feed and either feed soaked hay instead or mix the haylage with some really stalky end of season hay - so he has the essential fibre but with less calories, and use smaller holed haynets.
 
I was told that the average horse requires 8 - 10kg haylage when stabled overnight. As your lad is a big boy I would stick to the 10 kg he is on, especially as he is only in light work and holding his weight nicely. You could always increase the amount if he starts to come in more due to the weather, or if you increase his workload.
 
Mine are all on ad lib haylage throughout the winter, and even the real fatties look good on it.
My big lad is 24, and on ad lib haylage 24/7, 365 days a year, and looks fantastic on it! He refuses to touch hay, and even though haylage does give him a little bit more oomph, he's never unmanageable, and he always smells yummy!
 
If he is a good weight and you don't want to give him more haylage, could you just give him a small net when he first comes in and get someone to pop a large net in later in the evening, so he doesn't go so long without forage overnight?
 
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