Shocking!! POLL...

[Zebedee]

QR. My horses are all fed by weight - forage is weighed as well as hard feed.
At this time of year they are in by about 5pm, & I don't go back to the yard until 8am ish.

Some of them have food left in the morning, some dont. They all look well & are content - they certainly show don't any signs of having stomach ulcers anyway.

Edited to add a crucial "don't" !!

 

[sonjafoers]

I was reading this post with a bit of concern about the fact it seems a regular thing that horses are left most of the night without hay. Then I read poppymoo's post and had a big sigh if relief -mine are stabled for 14 hours a night when they are in, and I ALWAYS have hay left in the morning too. Thank God it's not only me, I was starting to think mine get fed far far too much and it is actually normal to find a completely empty net in the mornings. I'm not commenting on right or wrong here by the way, just relieved someone else feeds as much hay as me overnight!!

 

[mickey]

My horse gets breakfast at 8am, goes out around 8.30 am.

There is no grass in the field so he stands there til he comes in at 3pm - Although he does have some hay chucked over the fence but tends not to eat it as he prefers the haylage he gets at night!

When he comes in he has ad-lib forage (haylage) which I know lasts until the following morning because his nets still have haylage in them. He has 2 big nets - 1 of the trawler nets and an excellent big-sized net from shires with very small holes.
Tea is around 6 o'clock.

BTW As he eats haylage which is high in protein, he has little hard feed (which is all high fibre and low energy). He is a good weight as he is worked most days.

Having been at a few yards over the yrs I would say it is very common for horses to be given a small net/pile on the floor which is gone even as early as 8/9/10 o'clock in the evening, which I think is wrong, esp if the horse then has to spend all day in a field with no / little grass. That could mean just a few hrs with forage during a 24hr period.

Could such practice lead to an increased risk of colic? Based on past situations, I wonder? (not with my horse who has never had colic). I realise some horses are just prone to colic anyway.