Thoughts on ad lib hay/ feeding hay when horses stabled ?

I'm interested to know, are the people on this thread saying they can't ad lib feed their horses soaking hay/haylage and/or feeding straw before restricting volume?

I have to admit I am absolutely loving having just two sports horses who can eat whatever they want. Having a cob was hard work!

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No I don’t soak ,the research done on fast increase of bacteria when forage is soaked means that I have made the judgement I won’t do it .
I would feed straw ( although straw is problematic it often full of fungus even if it looks clean ) and do but none of these three Fatties will eat it if I give it they leave it so it’s a waste of resource.
having horses who don’t so well is a joy .
I would not have ID’s if we did not hunt the long days are perfect for weight control .
 
Ours have hay on offer all the time and never eat it all, 3sections each in big holed nets during the day turned out (no grass) and 3 sections each in stables over night in small holed nets. They often don't finish either. The only time they don't have hay is when they're being ridden or on the yard waiting to be ridden while I ride the other (maybe 2 hours in total?)
 
i suppose i am lucky my boy has totally ad-lib hay - he is never without - even when tied up outside his box. however, i know that he will only eat what he wants. he will stand for quite along time not eating. he is definitely not over weight at any time of the year. it is a totally different story with a horse which is greedy - then i would double net and put in different locations round the stable to encourage movement. a faf but does seem to help. i definitely won't leave my boy without something to munch on
 
Mine has been ad lib, but then I have managed to source some stalky hay, The farmer was amazed when I requested it, as he has some beautiful hay that I turned my nose up at.

Mine is half ID, and never stops eating as a rule, but she is not as keen on the stalky hay. It is not dusty and she has it dry. No fuss. She still eats 3/4 a bale a day, but the feed value is quite low.

I have haylage type nets, the trickle nets are a bit too small for my comfort, but the pink piggy nets are FAB. Make it tricky enough without being awful.

She does spend some time snoozing. Is happy. A bit heavier than I would wish, but because I have been busy myself, she has not been in meaningful work. I can't see individual ribs, but can see the rib cage (so not bulging with fat) with a well defined dip in front of her hips.
 
Current horse has adlib, he gets one extra large net around 6 pm, has brekkie around 8am then out until around 2pm and comes into a small feed until i get to the yard at 5, he still has around 1/3 of the net left, he is by no means overweight (keeps himself fit in the field playing!) he likes a good snooze lying down and is generally a happy fella
previous horse - triple netted - tried pure fiber mash, chaff etc he would not stop until everything he could eat had been eaten, but if you kept to the same routine he was perfectly happy and still preferred his stable to being out in the field (you had to drag him out if it was raining, windy, cold and heaven forbid if it snowed!)
I think it depends on the individual horse, the amount of work they are doing and the type of fields you have, ours is currently just mud, mainly due to the silly sods tearing it up playing
 
Our two (16.3 and 17hh chunky boys) come in at about 6.30pm to a token feed and a hay bar full of hay - about 10kg each. We used to weigh it but now just give roughly the same volume without weighing as we don't need to restrict them. They get turned out at about 6.30am and they will always have some left. They're out on grazing that's still pretty decent even at this time of year - enough to fill them up if not provide any nutrients. In summer they're out 24/7 on decent grass. Archie is ID (we think!) and Monty is TB x Shire x Sec D.

Archie's a dream weight-wise, he never changes. The most he's fluctuated in 15 years (we weigh them on a weighbridge twice a year) is 12kg (652kg at his lightest and 664kg at his heaviest). He always condition scores a 3 (out of 5). We've never restricted his forage and he's not a greedy horse. He'll even leave his bucket feed half way through and go back to it later - it's always gone by the morning but there's always a bit of haylage

Monty's a different story. He's fluctuated almost 60kg in one season in the past. His lightest was 637kg and his heaviest 708kg (but not in successive seasons). He looks right at about 670kg. He's far more responsive to grass so after a harsh winter he can get quite skinny and after a wet warm summer he can be a bit porky - his condition score can be anywhere between 2.5 and 3.5. Neither extreme lasts long though as as soon as the condition of grass changes so does he. Again we've never restricted him as we can't get enough hay / haylage into him to make up for the loss of grass in winter (he doesn't eat much haylage at all for a horse his size) and restricting his grass when he's a bit porky doesn't seem to make a difference. He just sleeps the whole time he's off the grass (won't eat hay at all in his stable in the summer) and eats while he's on it. As this winter's been pretty mild he's held onto his weight pretty well so will have to hope the spring's not too good.
 
ycbm said:
I'm interested to know, are the people on this thread saying they can't ad lib feed their horses soaking hay/haylage and/or feeding straw before restricting volume?

I have to admit I am absolutely loving having just two sports horses who can eat whatever they want. Having a cob was hard work!

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Millie won’t touch soaked hay, and I’ve tried many times. I used to end up throwing the lot away the next day and had a very angry, hungry horse. Polly will pick at it but still leaves loads. I absolutely hate the smell of it the next morning so I don’t blame them. It does seem to turn very quickly, which I don’t like.
They tip straw over and pee on it.
 
I was always under the impression it was 2 hours and not 4? All horses are different and so their feed and care are different. Why not just put the hay in when they prepare the stable to come in? Use bigger hay nets for the larger types and double bag the quicker eaters and get a ratio that works for the individual horse. I personally like to see a bit left in the morning so I know he’s had enough to last through the night and an unlimited access in to hay the field this time of year. X
 
Listen, in the pouring rain I have watched horses at grass stand for a couple of hours not eating. SO honestly, this whole constantly must be eating thing can be taken a bit wrongly.

For me I'm ok with a few hours throughout the day with nothing, but four hours on the bounce, for me is a little too long.
 
With regards to your worry about standing a couple of hours in the afternoon - is there grass for them to eat before they come in? It may not be that nutritious but as long as they have fibre in them they should be ok. If they are maintaining weight they’re doing fine.
Mine are out on woodchip area with hay during the day. They have polished it all off by lunchtime so they get a bit more about 2pm or turned out if field not flooded, then come into weighed nets and token chaff feed at night. When I do late night checks they are usually dosing and just have a bit left in nets and dregs on the floor. All of them have cleared everything by morning and I used to worry that they may be left too long with nothing. BUT they are all chilled in the morning - don’t rush out to their hay, will usually have a roll and a groom before sauntering over to their piles, and are looking well in themselves - so have stopped stressing ?
 
I have two ponies and I tend to use exercise to keep them slim, and they both come in if I ride. If I am riding the younger one, i don't leave food for the older one. I think if I am out for a couple of hours the pony I am riding isn't eating AND is being exercised. I can see nothing wrong with not feeding the one left behind
 
horses spend a lot of time not eating when they are working hard .
You would think they would eat more to try to make up the energy expended but mine don’t seem to .
I think many horses now are never truly tired and that does help the whole obesity thing .
Sky is hunting now and although he still has nothing left in the morning he’s noticeable taking longer to finish when I am doing the feeding and he’s not eating his swinger every day ( they get hay three or four times between coming in from the field and me going to bed .)
Hes getting much much thinner definitely not rocking the maxi cob look now much more the hard worked hunter .
 
It seems intake is governed too by whether the horses share hay supply or are lone eaters.
Many comments have said ad-lib feeding works for their horse when alone in a stable.

If there’s no competition from other horses eating the hay then i can imagine they self regulate better.

My 2 compete for the supply so i generally separate them to feed hay so they dont have that element causing them to gobble everything quickly.
With this method it takes them 1.5hrs to eat 2kg, as they chill out and munch slowly.
When together eating the 4kg is consumed in 30 mins!
(The mare is lead mare and bolshy with the gelding regarding food)

Ad-lib attempts have always been disasterous with them stuffing themselves with no end in sight when they are housed together. (They share a barn and coral/track area in winter)
I hold on, fingers crossed theyll self-regulate as many attest, but after weeks of no alteration in intake and hauling out 3 times the amount of poop per day, i stop it. They ‘settled’ at 6% bw per day!

If i separated them to their own areas and fed ad-lib im sure they’d regulate better, but their mindset of competition for food when ad-lib together, doesnt seem to ever ‘shut-off’.
 
I don't ad lib hay my horses or liveries, but they do have a livery option, that gives generous amount of hay. The reason we say generous is we reserve the right to reduce it or say give less if the horse is leaving it, we don't like waste.

I think a lot of livery I seen on internet say diy with hay included add lib for 220 pcm, how in gods name do the yard make any money out of them.
Said yard also does 7 day part livery for £ 270 pcm with hay bedding, boots etc. You cannot run with those prices

New opened refurbished yard near me offer hay included in diy, I would never do that as it would not be cost effective.


I split my horses hay in two sessions. 5pm and 10.30pm, + they have a soaked hay brick, not the 4 hr rule but never had ulcers, and we seem to cope with that
 
Goldenstar said:
No I don’t soak ,the research done on fast increase of bacteria when forage is soaked means that I have made the judgement I won’t do it .
I would feed straw ( although straw is problematic it often full of fungus even if it looks clean ) and do but none of these three Fatties will eat it if I give it they leave it so it’s a waste of resource.
having horses who don’t so well is a joy .
I would not have ID’s if we did not hunt the long days are perfect for weight control .
Click to expand...


I think you are in an unusual position, GS of having your horses at home and being able to give them several hay top ups per day. I have done that and it works but for those who can't or whose horses can't have sufficient hay overnight, I would (and have) fed plain oat straw chaff - bought in on a commercial basis, from a feed company, so no mould involved, as there might be if bought directly from the farm.

I found that my Draft mare wasn't keen on the diea of plain oat straw chaff but soon worked out that if she wanted to eat, that was all that was available.
 
OP that sounds fairly standard for livery yards near me too.

I soak 7-8kg hay (20 mins soak time only) and put it in around 5.30/6pm. Usually there is some left in the morning when I arrive. If there isn't, I up his ration until there is some left. One of his owner's stipulations is that he shouldn't be left without forage, which I agree with. That said, he does generally self-regulate, we are lucky to have plenty of grass all year and his weight fluctuates about 40-50kg between the end of winter and high summer.
 
Hmmmm it’s a hard one. I had a poor doer who would self regulate, probably a bit too much to be honest, Then I also had a very good doer who had been deprived of food by being the bottom of the herd and she would stand at a round bale for days by herself until it was all Gone. The TBs and my poker doer would be off scrounging for grass but not her, Never made that mistake again.

My 21month old Welsh d (about 15hh at the bum) got 12kg of wrapped hay in a large haylege net today at 7am. He also had a little left in his 9/10kg over night net so he got that on the floor as well, he had a little bit left when my friend went up to skip out and pull beds down at 17.30. He was stabled today due to weather and needing to fix a few things he has broken in the hardstand, also he needs to learn to be comfortable stabled ;) before the back lash of a youngster stabled starts ;)

He tends to always have a little left each night. I would rather he was on ad-lib as there is more chance (hopefully lol) he will learn to self regulate if he thinks he won’t ever be hungry. My previous poor doer was never without and did so and I think my previous good doer was as food orientated as she was because the herd leader chased her from every bit of hay or food that was put in the field when she was younger.

Might be talking nonsense but time will tell :)
 
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