What, and how much, do you feed your horse if he is coming in during the day?

billylula

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I know this is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question but I have two good doers - one native VERY good doer, and one ISH who is currently not in full work. I have started to bring them in during the day at about 8am, then can't get back to them before 2pm. I give them both a hay net of high fibre haylage, not a huge amount, probably a flake each (shaken out so it just fills a hay net) and a bucket of damp chaff.

They have a high fibre diet with no actual mixes or nuts, just a handful of Fast Fibre mixed with a good chaff then soaked.

When I get back at 2 theyve licked the plates clean and there is a bit of haylage chucked around the stable (ISH) or not a stalk left (native).

Both could do with losing a bit of weight and I've done really well with the native this year who is looking much trimmer than he was this time last year.

But I worry they get hungry!

They then get ridden or exercised and a bit more haylage then both out again at about 7pm
 

bubsqueaks

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We have been soaking our 2% hay ration for 8 hours then steaming for months, leaving bowl of oat straw chaff.
Ours were on haylage & although supposedly lower in sugar we found it just made our 2 good doers too rotound!!
 

Hallo2012

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same dilemma with kids pony and am trying to source oat straw to mix with his hay and failing that am getting a plain straw chaff and will leave a trug in stable as he will pick at that slowly as its boring!
 
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KittenInTheTree

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I like to allow half a kilogram of haylage for every hour stood in for my roan. The small companions get roughly half this amount - ideally, they'd have oat straw instead, but there's been a shortage following the awful weather of 2017/2018, so needs must.
 
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Nudibranch

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My IR Fell comes off the grass for 2-3 days at a time if she goes vaguely footy on her track. She's given a couple of slices of last year's hay twice a day, and the rest is picking at the bedded section of the barn, which is barley straw, or a trug of TopChop Zero.
 
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DabDab

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The two horses get a big haynet each. Fussy mare generally leaves about 1/3 of her ration and that gets soaked briefly and given to the native the following day. Soaked hand-me-down hay means native pony doesn't stuff her face, and there is generally always a little bit left.

They are in (though pony has a dry lot out the back of her stable) for between 6 and 10 hours a day.
 

catkin

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Split the hay ration into 2 piles or nets and put in opposite corners - it slows them down a bit as they keep going from one pile to the other.

Also, I always have the stables properly bedded down across the floor - if they've got an inviting bed they most certainly use it! Even my multi-tasking native boys haven't yet found a way to be flat out asleep and eating at the same time ;)
 

ycbm

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My IR Fell comes off the grass for 2-3 days at a time if she goes vaguely footy on her track. She's given a couple of slices of last year's hay twice a day, and the rest is picking at the bedded section of the barn, which is barley straw, or a trug of TopChop Zero.


You may know this but in case others don't, carbohydrates don't reduce in older hay and it won't be less fattening just because it's older, as is commonly believed.

I feed fatties plain oat chop, as much as they bother to eat.
 
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Pearlsasinger

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I can't bear to see horses standing in with nothing to eat. I would leave a trug of plain oat straw chaff (not TopChop Zero, it's too tasty), so that if they are hungry they can nibble at something which will not add to their weight. I used the chaff to drastically reduce the Draft mare's weight, as she was obese when I bought her. She didn't particularly like it but she was never hungry, which was important because she was also showing ulcer-y symptoms, having been fed on a seriously bad diet for about 9 months in her previous home.
 

ihatework

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Current horse gets ad-lib haylage all year round, he self moderates well.

Most of my other horses have been fat pigs, and the 3yo will fall into that category too! - they would have hay (often soaked) and rationed. But I generally bed on straw so they would have clean straw bedding to pick on.
 
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windand rain

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A corner manger of plain oat straw chaff so they cannot spill it is all my fat pony got when on boxrest (after leg surgery) she was on strictly controlled weighed hay rations so to be sure she had constant food available I did keep the corner manger full of plain oat chaff not Zero as it has appetite enhancer in it
 
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AdorableAlice

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For those using plain oat chop, are you chaffing your own bales or buying in, and if bought in, what brand/supplier are you using please.
 
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milliepops

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Welsh in full work, currently looking pretty good but can drop off quickly so I prefer to keep her on the "well" side when I know we have stressy outings planned - gets a reasonable sized net that would last her all day but she doesn't eat it all, usually leaves about half.

Fatty WB in no work gets her leftovers the following day plus a little top up to occupy her when I am riding the other. She would eat anything and everything I put in front of her but she generally has odd bits floating round in her bed that she can sift through if desperate (plus a sopping mess of self-dunked stuff in her water bucket :mad:).
 

Goldenstar

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Five horses come in at nineish , get a small feed of bran sprinkle of oats a little linseed a few grass cubes with their not very tasty supplement in .
At around 12 they get a scoop of top chop lite .
At about three they get a small amount of very poor but not dusty hay .
They go out around seven .
Two are on a bare strip the others in one and three quarter acres .
I will have to start putting chop out for the ones in the strip soon but they have an extension I will open first.
They are hungry when they go out and the two on the strip are hungry when they come in but they need to be they are fat
 

ycbm

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For those using plain oat chop, are you chaffing your own bales or buying in, and if bought in, what brand/supplier are you using please.


E-Feeds 22kg bags of oat chop £7 each, delivery reasonable if you buy enough of them.
 
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NinjaPony

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Interesting thread. Mine will be going out overnight next summer and in during the day and both are greedy natives who need constant monitoring! I was planning on giving them both two small haynets of well soaked hay so it takes them longer to eat their portion, plus breakfast when they come in. I don’t like them to not have access to fibre but it is tough when they are so greedy! If I fed ad-lib they would eat themselves stupid.
 
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Shani

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Hi I feed Agrobs mash and chaff natural with no sugars in both, plus only soak hay for 40mins in hay soaker as more than an hour sugar get absorbed back into hay, plus I have a track system and a pen, I spread hay around pen and use Nibbleze nets, she has 8k of hay in 4 nets, she has 1hour before 12 in paddock and half an hour after 3 as sugar is higher between 12 and 3. I have a good doer who colics if given too much sugar
 

Shani

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Hi I feed Agrobs mash and chaff natural with no sugars in both, plus only soak hay for 40mins in hay soaker as more than an hour sugar get absorbed back into hay, plus I have a track system and a pen, I spread hay around pen and use Nibbleze nets, she has 8k of hay in 4 nets, she has 1hour before 12 in paddock and half an hour after 3 as sugar is higher between 12 and 3. I have a good doer who colics if given too much plus I collect cleaver cow parsley hawthorn and dandelion leaves spread around pen, plus I run up and down like a loon with handfuls of the above and she trots by the side of me😛
 

windand rain

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Mine live out 24/7 on a track so dont have to feed for being in but used Ossichaff for my old girl when she was in. I used it for the laminitic when he was in after a bout but he has been fine out 24/7 since we built the track
 

Nudibranch

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You may know this but in case others don't, carbohydrates don't reduce in older hay and it won't be less fattening just because it's older, as is commonly believed.

I feed fatties plain oat chop, as much as they bother to eat.

Indeed. In her case it's not about weight loss. It's simply a case of removing grass until I am no longer suspicious.
 

MotherOfChickens

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they each get a big net of oat straw (sourced locally), for a bucket feed they get straw chop (Honeychop) with a tiny bit of soaked agrobs cobs for their supps.
 
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autumn7

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Apologies AA, just seen your query.

EFeeds are online only. I buy four 'bales' at a time at £8.49 + £24 delivery making them £14.95 each.
Up to 100kg is delivered by Royal Mail, hence only buying four at a time. Anything more is delivered on a larger lorry than my driveway can cope with but as with most bulk items, the more you purchase, the cheaper it works out.
Heres the link. Search for 'oat chaff' in the 'find a product' slot at the top and half way down LHS there's a postcode delivery price check. https://www.efeed.co.uk/products/Horse-Feed

Seems fairly pricey but believe me, a little goes a long way. I have a couple of trugs fully accessible at all times within my slow feeders (with the slow feeder disks taken out) for stability. This way I can feed less hay to 16hh maxi cob and 13.2 welsh companion pony yet they always have access to forage. They do pickle away at it but never with gusto. A chock full 43L trug holds around 2 kg and over 24hrs there may be half left, to which I add a bit more and stir. If I'm feeling exceptionally kind I stir in a level scoop of Thunderbrooks herbal chaff just because I have it. This apparently jazzes palatability levels up to dizzying heights compared to plain old virgin straw!
 

ycbm

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They have gone up a bit since I bought last, but they are a full 22kg and most chaffs are 15kg or less.

There is an optimum number to buy for cheapest delivery. I used to sit adding one bale at a time to the checkout until I found it. Add a bale at the right point and the delivery charge shoots down!
 

Pearlsasinger

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For those using plain oat chop, are you chaffing your own bales or buying in, and if bought in, what brand/supplier are you using please.


Honeychop (plain oat straw chaff) was the one I used most, when I couldn't get it I had Halley's delivered. Nothing bigger than a Transit van can access our yard, so Royal Mail had to deliver, I think I ordered 2 bags at a time. I can't remember now how much either brand cost, or the delivery charge and tbh, I was more bothered about availability than cost.
 
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