So..how do you feed your hay?

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Megibo

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Just wondering how you do it? I.e. stuff a haynet full each night/day, grab a few sections of a bale and put them in stable or do you give ad-lib/weigh your hay.

We are moving to a livery yard Saturday and will be paying £10 a week on top of livery for use of as much hay or haylage as you want to use so want to get our moneys worth but without my good doers (who are both currently a good weight) getting fat. Was going to feed them by the 2% rule but wondered if anyone actually does that these days. (I know sometimes its 2.5% but the .5 can be made up by feed)
 
Weighing hay this year and feeding off the floor.

ETA- The 2.5% is ALL feed a horse has, including hard feed and grazing. If you're giving brekkie/dinner, weigh how much approx this is, and feed the rest, minus approx 0.5% as the grass isn't really nutritious now, in hay.
 
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Feeding off the floor. Not quite ad-lib (would cost a bluddy fortune) but I keep an eye on his weight to make sure he's getting enough feed, and he just scoffs his bed if he runs out (doesn't always happen so he's not being "underfed" - we just have greedy nights and less greedy nights).
 
Measured out each day in a large feed bag or a barrow full, wetted down and placed around the paddock lives out 24/7. She eats it all.
 
Two/three sections in a small holed haynet and one or two sections on the floor. Generally four sections a night, and most of it is gone by the morning. I like to give my horse ad-lib in the winter as he isn't an especially good doer.
 
Measured out each day from round bale, stuffed into a large feed bag or a barrow full (same approximate amount), wetted down and placed around the paddock in 3-5 small mounds to encourage movement.

Lives out 24/7.

She eats it all apart from the odd time she does a poop on it.
 
2 haybars in back of matted field shelter on hardstanding - crammed full day and night with hay - one retired 18 year old 15.2hh who is spot on weight wise all year and one 16hh who up until now has been hunting and is the right weight - no hard feed only topspec lite - will have to up the 16hh workload as last hunt meet on Saturday but wont limit hay - temperature will soon drop and they will need it anyway - they will be on adlib haylage once real cold spell hits (will not have enough hay for depths of winter) that will also be shoved in haybars
 
Mine get 2.5% of their body weight split in 24 hours in hay in nets.
So as they are out at grass all day old mare is 408klios on weight tape 2.5% of that is 10.2 so I take a certain amount off that. i convert yo lbs as its easier to work out on my weigh thingy. 22lbs of feed in 24 hours. at the mo she gets 6lbs of hay per night but when it gets colder she will go up to 10lbs. It leaves plenty of room for the small feed she has with happy hoof and pro balance in. All of this is worked out with my vet.

If I up it too soon she will walk it into her bed so costing me more money.

Tho I often get told off on here as apparently I'm damaging her by not feed adlib. But I've had her 12 years and she is fine. Just feeling her age a bit.
 
But I will add the tb has two if they are big or three if they are small sections of hay a night which he is happy with. Anymore and he leaves it and won't eat the next night :o or had fun pulling it out the net and mushing in to bed!
 
Currently Fat boy is on very limited turnout and is being fed about 1.5% (8.5kg ish) forage in addition to the hour or so turnout he is getting. 6kg is barley straw and 2kg of 10 -12 hr soaked hay and the .5kg is the small slice mixed in one of the nets of straw as tempter.

Currently all fed in nets as he is on shavings and I have a thing about all of it being put on the floor. Once he is back on straw it will be fed loose.
 
Hay fed in my elim-in-nets - getting on really well with them, as long as I tie them using the metal ring provided. Got three on the go with a very destructive haynet demolishing monster ;)
 
Mine are lib, off floor. How much they get through depends on how cold it is. But, it is really ad lib, i.e. always available.
 
2 ponies, 2 large haynet overnight, 2 smaller ones in the morning, poor acre and a bit of grazing is very bare. More hay if colder/freezing. Judge weight on feel / look, never had a weight issue even tho one is a native the other is a poor do-er and he gets veteran feed too (native has some chaff to keep him occupied).
 
I use a Haybar. I weigh out what mine gets (7kg at night). If I think she's getting through her ration too quickly over night this winter, I'll probably have to bring the trickle net out of retirement though.
 
this winter i am using 2 pallet crates ( the type you get floor tiles delivered to retail outlets in) instead of feeding hay loose in the field, at the moment they are all fat as they have just strip grazed a field which was left for hay but never got cut, they are getting a small wheelbarrow full each but that will be upped as soon as the weather cools. i've never weighed hay and i use big round bales so i can't even say how many flaps they get.
 
15.3 cob mare who is on good grazing 12 hours a day and in at night gets fed from a XL tub trug with 2 x sections of hay. She finishes it all bar a few stray bits. I have to say that I have never weighed hay. I also only ever use haynets while travelling as I hate the things!
 
Weighed to 1.5 % of bodyweight per horse (they have some grass during the day, bucket feeds and are both prone to weight gain). I weigh them all out at the weekend to make life easier during the week. Briefly soaked, drained then fed from nets tied in to tub trugs at ground level. They both have straw available as additional forage should they want it.
 
Adlib, off the floor. If he finishes it all one night, I will give more the next.

I hate to think he has finished his hay at midnight and has to wait for six hours with no fibre. My choice to keep him in at night, if he was out he would graze pretty much constantly, so I have to pay the price!

And he isn't fat, and isn't a greedy horse, just eats what he needs.
 
My mare lives out 24/7 unless it's really rainy and windy when she as a night in and a large stuffed Haynet. In her paddock she has half a slice of hay after work mid morning and a large slice at tea time. We leave this in a slab and she relishes demoliting it.
 
I just fill a haynet up full every night and empty it on to the floor, i was told that when horses feed from the floor it can help strengthen the neck muscles if you are trying to encourage working on the bit
 
Normally two large haynets - but he has been getting fed from the floor these last two weeks to encourage his sinuses to clear after a bout of sinusitis from a fractured tooth. Friend is building me a haybar in his stable this week though :D So he will get two large haynets worth in his haybar
 
My 16.2hh tb (poor doer) gets adlib off the floor, depending on what he eats each night will depend on what he gets the next night. I would rather see some left in the morning, than none at all
 
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