My horse needs to loose a little bit of weight - he is on the no hard feed - but limited turn out due to my job i work very late nights - he is 15.2 arab 11 years old. how much hay should i be feeding him
I would still be feeding as much hay as he can eat really. Forage is something I wouldn't personally skimp on to get a horse to loose weight unless it was a real big problem. More for the fact it can cause stomach ulcers etc. if they don't have anything.
Maybe try and reduce the quality of the hay instead - maybe soak it overnight before feeding ??
You can cut the amount of forage you feed by feeding smaller nets and often. My horse gets a "hay belly" and this is how I control her weight. Its all about trickle feeding. Also feed the forage through small holed haylage nets if you can, it takes them longer to eat. I bought an overweight cob type and we have found that the more work he has the less he seems to want to eat anyway. Hes gone from 640kg on the weigh tape to 540kg since we got him back in October. Do you know anyone who could exercise your horse for you if you work long hours? Hacking out is the main ingredient to a slimmer fitter horse.
