Snow and no hay in fields - would you turn out?

The snow has started to lay up here in Newcastle now! Getting quite thick!
Luckily my YO's are great and there is 7 horses in my boys field - if it is thick snow we each take down a large haynet and spread it around the field in piles. In proper snow I turn out at 8am and bring him in between 3-4pm - one livery adds some extra hay around midday.

On a usual day I turn out at 6.30am if not riding and 8-3.30am if ridden and bring in at 5pm so he only gets slightly less time out. I don't like having huge changes and bringing him in really early if he is happy out.
 
R.I.D said:
Why so? Have you considered the cost of hay/haylage? Have you considered that YO is just trying to save on not wasting good fodder as opposed to avoiding the mess it makes? I'm amazed that no one has mentioned this, or have they?? I rarely feed any hay in the field, with the exception of the 2 brood mares, who have a round feeder. But no other hay is fed in the field, mainly due to the amount of waste it incurs and yes secondly, this waste leads to a mess..Mess i can deal with but having forked out hard earned money to both make and buy my fodder, fodder which is in short supply this year, last thing i need to see is excess hay wasted and trampled into the muck in the field.

So perhaps those of you who are critical of your YO's reasons for not feeding hay in fields or in the yard, had to fork out a fortune to buy/make your own fodder, you might understand the logic and sense behind it all & think differently.
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We share the costs of the field hay with the other liveries, the yo doesnt pay for it. She sources it and has it put out for us, she would rather that than have the horses tearing round because there is hardly anything to eat (which they do if they have ran out)
 
Stencilface said:
I still never get how hay is 'mess' Its just a brown version of the green stuff. It rots if not eaten and adds bulk and seed to the soil. Yes, you don't want wads of it covering the grass, but I think the levels most of us would put it out at, that would never happen anyway - too many greedy horses for that. :)
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Totally agree, I have my own yard and would not dream of not putting hay out in this weather!
 
ShadowFlame said:
Quick question.

Our yard doesn't allow hay in the field, even in snow. I work 9hr shifts, so if I turn out just before work and bring in straight after, pone has around 10hrs out. Is it fair to expect a horse to dig through snow and attempt to forage, if he has plenty of hay when he comes in?

WWYD?
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that's a silly rule. If the YO is worried about it all blowing about then I would soak it and leave it under a couple of plastic tubs. This way it won't all blow about.

I taught my horse last year to kick over a tub in which another tub was concealed that had haylage in it. This kept out the frost and the rain and I left the haylage under the tubs the night before he was turned out by my friend the following morning. He used to go up to the tub and give it a swift kick or turn it over with his nose.

I thought it would take him ages to learn how to do it so I started practicing in his stable. I placed the two tubs (the outer one is quite thick and hard plastic and heavy) over his tea. Within about three seconds he'd mastered it! I then did the same in the field before leaving hay in it the following day. When I went the following night to replace it I saw he'd kicked it over and ate the contents.
 
I simply don't understand why a good doer must have hay in the field as long as the field is not an sea of disgusting mud .
Yes horses are trickle feeders so all my fit clipped competition type horses are out digging in the snow ferreting around today why do they need hay ? They are 'working ' their minds and their body's digging through the snow for grass if they had hay they might well standing in one place eating it not exercising them selves combing through the snow for the grass.
Horses in their natural enviroment don't stuff them selves 24/7 they have to work for their food and move long distances to find it.
Locking a horses in the stable for nine hours with no food is very different to a good doer turned out for nine hours ferreting about under the snow.
 
Spotsrock said:
No one else at my yard hays the field so i'd be paying to hay theirs also they fight over the piles.
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I would give my horse a little hay/haylage to stop him running around through boredom. Also because eating icy grass can cause colic. And my horse is on his own anyway so doesn't have to 'fight' for his share.
 
applecart14 said:
I would give my horse a little hay/haylage to stop him running around through boredom. Also because eating icy grass can cause colic. And my horse is on his own anyway so doesn't have to 'fight' for his share.
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Horses are fine eating snow covered grass as long as they are not starving when you turn them out .
Frosted grass on a sunny morning is far more likely to cause colic.
 
If you are not allowed to put hay out in the paddocks how about using something like ReadiGrass..you could fill a couple of small Trugs and dot them around the field..It would give your horse something to do/eat and it wont leave a mess in the field..
 
Teasle. We managed the groups. Had some fields hay only, some haylage, some a mix and some only enough to keep something through them.

None ever fought... We had almost double the piles than horses and split them over a vast distance, not all in the same few metres.
 
Doesn't it depend on the horse? Well covered natives with good woolly coats who are good doers will do fine in this weather and will manage on what they can forage . . . my wussy, clipped, sporthorse boy not so much. If he has to work too hard to find grass, he gets bored, runs around and then I'd be worrying about tendons, etc. in the slippery conditions. Not to mention snow and ice balling up in his feet.

IMHO, it's too hard to generalize . . .

P
 
Luckily I've never been at a yard that didn't allow hay to be put in the fields. At my old yard, the hay man used to load about 10 huge bales onto a trailer and park the trailer in the field. Lasted nearly a week for 20 horses all out together.

Current yard, people put out what they want. ATM most people have their own paddock so my 2 are sharing 6 acres and the livery I share with the rest of the year has his 4 in a separate patch. I gave my 2 a bigger breakfast than usual and kicked their naked bums out the stables into the field only giving them 4 slices to share. It kept them ticking over till the rain washed the snow away and knew they got something as there isn't a huge amount of longer grass left. Mine stay out for at least 9 hours and are only in at night due to deep mud and battling mud fever.

Surely YOs can come up with ideas to prevent 'mess'. Put it out in buckets, tyres, dustbins, haynets on the fence? As soon as it warms up, dries up, the ground can recover provided its given a rest.
 
Last time we had reasonably heavy snow I worried that my WB wouldn't have enough to eat but it took him seconds to remove snow with his nose and start scoffing it was as if he had done it many times before. I put a little hay out and he hardly touched it.

I haven't hayed at all this winter as he is a bit of a chubber and I want him to work for his food as much as possible. Most horses will be OK for at least a day or two and wont starve. Poor doers and those that get themselves into trouble I would be more concerned about and either hay or restrict t/o depending on the options.
 
If there is a decent length of grass under the snow then the horses will scrat around and get the grass. The more snow there is the more intact the grass will be as snow insulates whatever is under it and makes it easier for the horse to munch on. If you don't have much snow and it turns to ice then the grass is not so accessible for the horse. Where I live we have 2 months a year where we are covered in feet of snow and although I adlib hay (round bales in feeders) in every field I often see the horses rummaging around to get the grass that's underfoot. I totally get why livery yards with lots of horses on them do not allow hay in the fields because the hay will get trashed and it makes a terrible mess. Because everything freezes where I am we cannot move the mess during winter so each spring we have to mechanically scrape all the poop and messed up hay and we make huge piles of manure in each field, which eventually is spread on the crop fields. There's a big difference between housing 7 or 8 horses and housing 30, 40, 80 horses and especially when running herds, the mess can be gargantuan.
 
Im on a yard where everyone buys there own hay/haylage. We cant put hay in the fields, mainly as some are on hay, some haylage, some would put hay out/ some tbh probably wouldnt and to stop any squabbling between horses possibly caused over the hay (lage).
Our fields are wet and trashed this year, so today no one had turned out as theres just nothing out there. I put 4 out at dinner, did my jobs and brought all 4 back in. It isnt ideal I know but at least they got out for a bit. They had a roll and a play and seemed happy to come back in.
In an ideal world I would put out first thing with hay and bring in lunchtime. I wouldnt leave them out all day with nothing. Im on a smallish yard, others round here are much larger and dont allow hay out in the fields either, lots dont allow winter turnout at all :(
 
I've never kept mine on a livery yard where we were allowed to put hay in the fields. This wasn't a problem on yards where grazing was well maintained, as if there was enough grass the horses were happy to look for it under the snow. But the yard I was on last winter wasn't so great, because we weren't allowed to put hay out and there was very little grass, so I used to turn out for 3-4 hours then bring in. I now rent at a private yard so have complete control over turnout, and am allowed to put hay in the fields. They actually live out normally, but will be in at night until it thaws a bit because the older mare has arthritis and really feels the cold in her joints. Today they went out at 10am after having their breakfast nets and came in at 4pm, and they weren't waiting to come in at all, which was nice to see. They did have a small amount of haylage put in the field when they first went out, but it wouldn't have lasted long and I don't think I'll bother tomorrow as there is plenty of grass in the field and they were obviously happy to look for that. So basically, for me it would depend on how much grass there is in the field. Probably wouldn't leave them as long as 10 hours though.
 
Goldenstar said:
I simply don't understand why a good doer must have hay in the field as long as the field is not an sea of disgusting mud .
Yes horses are trickle feeders so all my fit clipped competition type horses are out digging in the snow ferreting around today why do they need hay ? They are 'working ' their minds and their body's digging through the snow for grass if they had hay they might well standing in one place eating it not exercising them selves combing through the snow for the grass.
Horses in their natural enviroment don't stuff them selves 24/7 they have to work for their food and move long distances to find it.
Locking a horses in the stable for nine hours with no food is very different to a good doer turned out for nine hours ferreting about under the snow.
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Agree with this.
 
On speaking to YO tonight, the reply was "if they can't find the grass, they shouldn't be out".

Fingers crossed the weather doesn't get too bad then, I guess.
 
I'm with Goldenstar. My competition horses were out today from 7.30 to 4.30. I could see them from my windows digging through the snow to get to the grass. Admittedly there is plenty of grass under the snow. I have winter turnout fields that I only top once in the summer to keep the grass ad long as possible going into winter.
 
I'd arrange to have my horse brought in early if possible. I've had to do it previous years but most of the time we just ask favours from each other to get around paying.

I'm a livery and agree no hay in field unless its in a managed situation e.g previous yard in the field where horses lived out 24/7 they put approx 20 piles of hay for 10 horses daily. and another yard, 1 big round bale in fields of 4 both had hay included in livery. Where I am now there are 9 horses ranging from a 11.2 sec A to a 17.1 Clydesdale x, hay isn't included. There are a couple of liveries who will bring their horses in, 1 at least who wouldn't want hers having hay, and mine who cant have dry hay. It just wouldn't work.

Mine were out for 8 hours today and I drove up at lunch in the worst of the weather as figured they'd be by the gate but they were in the middle of the field digging and eating so I left them for a few more hours.
 
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