Making sure horsey has enough hay - how do you manage?

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Gorgeous George

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I am not concerned about George having enough to eat energy/nutriton wise as there's certainly no problem on that score! What worries me is that because of my routine/work shifts he is probably without hay in his stable for quite a long time. Most days I am there in the evening and he gets 3 sections of hay in a small hole net at about 7pm, fine, but 3 times a fortnight I have to do George in the mornings so the staff put his hay in and becuase of the hours she works this means George gets his 3 sections of hay at 3pm and this is probably gone long before the evening. Is this something I should worry about as it isn't every day, or should I go up in the late evening when I finish work as well to give him more hay? I could ask one of the other liveries, but as I'm new it's a bit of a cheek and I don't want to take advantage.

Thanks
 
Expecting a horse to go from 3 pm to say 8 am for 3 slices of hay is not good management. Personally I think a livery service that feeds at 3 is not that great.

Mine are normally given their last net about 9 pm but two days a week they are given their net at 5 pm as they are on full livery.

What I do is to put in an extra two slices those days - I feed huge nets so there is normally something left over, I like my boys to have hay at all times if possible. My YO is seen to stagger under the weight of my nets
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If you get on well with a livery, then I would ask them to pop in a net, and offer in return to help them out. If you don't have a problem with his weight, just stuff a large net with as much hays as you can.
 
I try to give my boy enough hay so he always has a little left over in the morning. As said above just give him a bigger net when he is going to be in from 3pm. IF you can't give him any more hay then perhaps a haynet inside another haynet, even 2 small hole nets as this will make the hay last longer.
 
I think this is something that comes with time.

Mine have 3 sections in their evening net. They get this at about 7pm and still have some left when i go to do breakfast.

Day nets are usually in the region of 3 - 4 sections but this is split into 2 nets and YM puts the second in either about lunchtime or just before she leaves at 3pm.

that is just a general guide, tbh as I weigh all my nets and make them up according to their requirements
 
The earliest I would leave my horse his night time net would be 4pm, so I owuldn't be impressed with hte livery service. I also feed ad lib hay, so the longer I was leaving him the more hay he would get (in a large small-holed net). I'd maybe do what horsegirl said an put one net inside another to see if I could make it last longer - that is a v. long time to go without food.
 
I would like to think there was just a little bit of hay left in the morning, so maybe I will try putting extra hay in and see what happens, at the moment he is having his hay on the floor because of his cough and to be honest he eats it so quickly he practically inhales it!!
 
Good job you don't have horses like mine

They can eat 3 sections of small bale hay in around 2 hours.

Mine are at home - so one thats in starvation pen gets 2 sections in a hay bag with haylage mesh at 8am, then gets ridden or let out at 6.30pm and finally has 3 sections on the floor at night around 9pm. By 11pm he's generally eaten the lot.

I'm at work so cannot have more during the day.

In the winter will be more ad lib, but he was really fat. I do however give him licks (big horselyx) to keep him occupied.
 
We have all been there and worried over such things so do not worry!!! I would pop in another haynet to be honest and make sure they are rammed full. I like to feed from the floor too but so much gets wasted and they get through so much! Perhaps put your 3 sections on the floor as normal and then a big haynet too?
I like to feed my horse ad lib so I have been known to have 3 haynets tied up if I am away for the day and not back till late or something! I am sure one of the liveries won't mind so long as you prepare the haynets in advance so they only have to tie them up.
 
I would just make up a second net and ask them to put that in. I like to say mine gets adlib but if I really gave him adlib he would eat a whole bale if I put it in....my 14.2hh Section D gets two nets over night (soaked to get most of the sugars out though, and off the floor don't like haynets), this would be from about 6pm til 8am.

If I was you I would be tempted to put an extra net next to the door and just ask another livery if they mind tying it up before the go home. No one would mind doing that 3 nights a month/fortnight. You could offer to feed theirs in the morning in return maybe.
 
Thanks guys some good and when I think about it obvious ideas, I think part of the problem was not knowing how much hay to give him and and as someone else said adlib would really mean him eating bales of the stuff each night!
 
At the end of the day I think it is a case of trial and error.

When I got sid,i was forever jiggling amounts, until I got "left overs"

and BTW there is NEVER a silly question, how do we learn and expand our knowledge if we don't ask. we may get 100's of different opinions but at the end of the day we can make a balanced decision, based on the information gained.

You carry on asking girl!
 
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