My horse and his grazing pattern - opinions please.

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showqa

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Hi there - can you tell me what you think about this please? My horse is in good condition - he could afford to lose a little weight, I certainly wouldn't want him to put any on. He's worked 5/6 days a week, and he's rising 6. A good doer.

He's on nothing but grass during the day - goes out at 8.30ish - comes in about 2 - 5 (for grooming, exercise, etc) - then out until 10ish. When he's not on the grass he's in a starvation paddock and there literally is nothing in it to eat. When he comes in through the night he and his pony pal have four folds of good hay between them.

My friend says I should give him more hay for through the night, but as he's in good condition I don''t want him eating anymore and getting any fattter. Opinions please? Thanks.
 
16hh, PRE, hacks out at the moment for an hour a half a day, mostly walk, some trot, the odd canter when the going is good, with some basic schooling movements on the hack..
 
If you're happy with his weight and condition then it doesnt matter what your friend thinks really, he is your horse and if you think he is happy then just carry on what you are doing i say!
 
Thanks for that Ladybones - just don't want to think I'm under feeding him, or compromising his gut function with too little roughage through the night. How long approx would it take for him to eat that amount of hay - if he stuck at it until it was gone?
 
Hi, my horse is 16.2 mw and a bit overweight. He is on good grass between 9am and 4pm 3 days a week and 12 noon and say 5pm for the rest of the week. He comes in at night, gets two small feeds of mainly dengi hifi and a small haylage net at night. My friend reckons I should halve it though. The amount I feed would fit in the smallest net they make. I dont want to give any less as I was always led to believe horses need it to keep the gut moving.
I think it sounds like your horse gets plenty of hay for summertime.
 
As long as he is able to trickle feed for 16 hours of the day he should be fine. Insufficient fibre can lead to all sorts of problems, not least ulcers. If you think he needs more hay than he is getting to see him through the night you could always soak it to remove the sugars. That way you can feed it pretty much ad lib so he gets all the fibre he needs without the calorific content.
 
Is the hay loose or can you put in a small hole haynet to make it last longer? That's what I do to make sure my ponies don't run out of hay during the day.
 
you say he is a good doer when he his not on the grass he is on the stravy paddock why dont you just put him on the stravy paddock in the day with a biscuit of soaked hay bring him in a little earlier give him more hay but soak it so he his getting the fibre but not the calories personally i would have him on ome kind of vit/mins as well!
 
Sorry Babybelles - don't quite understand what you mean. I am a bit slow in the morning though! Do you mean don't put him on the grass at all? He's on the grass at the moment for about 10 hours a day. For the remainder he's either working or on the starvation paddock.
 
you say when he is not out at grass he goes into a stravy paddock so why dont you just have him on the stravy paddock in the day with soaked hay then bring him in at night with lots of hay that is soaked so then it does not matter how much he has coz it will have no calories just fibre!
 
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