What is the correct amount of hay to feed your horse?

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enchantedunicorn

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I have a 15hh Connemara he is a very good doer .When I first had him he was very fat but, has lost alot since then - although I would still like a little more weight off him. The vet told me to feed him 7.5 kg of hay a day - I'm really struggling to keep him fed constantly , as I don't want him to get ulcers or to feel really hungry and unhappy for that matter! He is turned out 10 - 3 with a muzzle. I was just wondering if this is the correct amount to feed him and if there is anything that will help him slow down and trickle feed more?
 
Hi appreciate the idea but, he won't touch soaked hay - I tried it for a few days and it was like he was on hunger strike, I stopped because I was worried about build up of acid and gas in stomach :(
 
I use a hay net with very small holes, which keeps my mare occupied for a lot longer. If you can't get one, then you can double net.
 
enchantedunicorn said:
Hi appreciate the idea but, he won't touch soaked hay - I tried it for a few days and it was like he was on hunger strike, I stopped because I was worried about build up of acid and gas in stomach :(
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Animals should not be subjected to violent changes in their feeding. How about mixing a small quantity of soaked hay in with "normal" hay and gradually increasing the %age over a couple of weeks?
 
I've had a few horses that refuse to eat soaked hay. Adding oat straw to his hay net will bulk it out. A small holed hay net is good but I had trouble with my mare she sulked with the small holed net and refused to eat it.
 
No horse should ever have less than 1% of their bodyweight in forage but to ensure good digestive health aim for 1.5% for good-doers or more for horses that don't have a problem with their weight.

So if your horse weighs around 500kg that would be 7.5kg of forage per day and as he is muzzled when out most of this will come from his hay.
 
Tnavas said:
I've had a few horses that refuse to eat soaked hay. Adding oat straw to his hay net will bulk it out. A small holed hay net is good but I had trouble with my mare she sulked with the small holed net and refused to eat it.
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LOL - Tnavas my mare gets very grumpy with hers and must chuck it around a lot. It's tied to a solid, steel mesh fence and I have found it flipped over the other side, where she can't reach it, a couple of times. She had to learn the hard way!
 
I am no expert, but I do believe that any horse should have ad lib forage. Tis just a case of finding less good hay IMO. Horses do need constant fibre to keep their gut going and I believe there is some evidence to prove that horses who are restricted forage wise do either get ulcers, or stressed.

We have one such horse at our yard. The vet told the owner that the horse was too fat. Owner restricted horse a lot, has a very small hay net when in during the day and last night, very placid horse attempted to bite her owner a LOT.

Am not suggesting that obese horses should be ad lib fed, but there is evidence to show that restricted horses eat more when allowed to than normal horses would do which is counter productive both for weight and mental well being.

This is almost always a problem in livery yards. Incorrect and over grazed grazing causing higher sugar levels in stressed grass.

I am on a livery yard myself and so see it first hand. Not sufficient fibre, but too much sugar.
 
I hate haynets and refuse to use them. I got my mare's weight down by giving her huge trugs of chopped oat straw so that she always had something to eat, when she was in the stable overnight.
 
Depends upon whether they are overweight! When not on any grass at all mine has 25kg of haylage plus hard feed! Eek! But she always needs more condition, is stressy and a poor doer. For a more normal horse 2.5% of body weight is a guideline. That would be 13kg for mine. In my opinion 7.5kg sounds low, I would always try to keep the horse trickle feeding on relatively unlimited forage by whatever means whether that means feeding straw or using a gazing muzzle or upping the exercise.
 
sjp1 said:
I am no expert, but I do believe that any horse should have ad lib forage. Tis just a case of finding less good hay IMO. .
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not always that easy and then you have to test. What looks like not so good hay can still be high in WSC. My hay looks like good stalky stuff-which it is,but its still 13% WSC so I soak it for the natives. My friends hay was 23% WSC and really didnt look overly green and leafy.

I cannot give my ponies ad lib forage, even straw-they are just too good at converting but I won't drastically restrict them either. I seemed to have found a system that works for them but that meant moving to live on a moor :)
 
Pearlsasinger said:
I hate haynets and refuse to use them. I got my mare's weight down by giving her huge trugs of chopped oat straw so that she always had something to eat, when she was in the stable overnight.
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I have also been using this method for my fat pony. I rang Saracen Horse Feeds and they recommend that i try him with a big bucket of chopped oat straw - i use their slim chaff, alongside some soaked hay and i believe that it has really worked. he always has something to eat but is loosing weight too. I don't feel bad about starving because I'm not but i am also not over feeding him.
 
I have a 15hh Connemara who is an extremely good doer.

I don't know what weight I feed him but during the day he gets 2 doubled haynets with 3 sections of hay in each. (we have no grass in our fields)
I soak the above during the summer until he starts doing a lot of work, then when we start full hunting he gets 2 haylege nets doubled up as I feel he needs the calories as he is doing so much work.

He then gets a small holed small haylege net when he comes in at about 6pm and then another doubled small haylege net at 9pm.

Always has a haynet with 3 sections of Oat Straw in his stable he can eat if hes hungry.

At about 6am he gets a bucket of 'bits' (leftover hay and haylege) which he munches until I get up the yard at 7.30
 
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