what % of bodyweight for hay?

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jennywren07

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Can someone tell me what % of body weight hay/ heyledge should make up a horses daily diet?

and what % youd feed a fatty who need to loose weight? am going to have to bring mine in to try and get weight off one of them so shall be weighing my hay
 
I do believe the % is 2.5
What I would do is work out how much your horse or pony needs an soak in water to reduce sugars
This way horse with be having enough but won't be gaining weight
 
I was advised that horses/ponies need to eat 2.5 % of their bodyweight for normal maintenance.

However, if you are trying to loose weight then this should be reduced to 1.5% of their bodyweight. Equally their diet should be based on a hi-fibre diet with as lowest starch/sugar as possible plus soaked hay.

Hope this helps.

I have a pony who is 350 kg and has to watch her weight and she is fed at 1.5% of her bodyweight which is 5.25kg.

So if she was on no grazing at all she could have this fed to her in fibre feed and soaked hay. So I feed roughly 4.5kg hay and the rest is lo-calorie feed and chaff.

If she is out grazing during the day then I reduce the amount of hay fed.
 
fab thank you, already plan to soak hay for 12hours and farmer is going to sort me some of last years leftover hay so not such good quality.

Oh what wouldnt i give for poor doers rather than those who can put on weight on a bare patch :(
 
jennywren07 said:
Oh what wouldnt i give for poor doers rather than those who can put on weight on a bare patch :(
Click to expand...

You are joking? :eek: ;)

I have one mare that I pump food into, stable and rug up and she is a nightmare to keep weight on, ditto a couple of tbs...give me a paddock full of good doers who will keep flesh on anytime - please.
 
Additional question rather than a new thread... As we are now pretty much in winter and the 'autumn flush' in the grass is over, do you still deduct and average "kg of grass consumed whilst in the field" from the ponies daily ration or assume that there is no goodness in the grass and feed the full 1.5-2%?
 
broke but happy - I stop counting in grass from Nov - Feb as although they are on ok grazing, it does not have much nutrition left and they are only out for 6 hrs approx per day.

Both of mine are in full work and hunt weekly so allow 2.5%, which i calculate between their haylage and hard feed.
 
Don't forget to include any hard feed, supplements etc. when calculating weight and if he does get turnout you will have to reduce the amouunt of hay to compensate.

Good luck!
 
Mystified said:
However, if you are trying to loose weight then this should be reduced to 1.5% of their bodyweight. Equally their diet should be based on a hi-fibre diet with as lowest starch/sugar as possible plus soaked hay.
If she is out grazing during the day then I reduce the amount of hay fed.
Click to expand...

I agree ^^^^i have a good doer which is 14.1 about 400kg and i give 600kg hay (1.5% bodyweight) I will increase it to 2% max when the weather gets really cold (below 0 degrees)
 
I feed my good doer about 2% body weight. 8kg of hay over night and a token gesture net before he goes out in the morning. His weight is ok at the moment, but I would like little more off but Im not panicing too much as winter is here now and grazing is poor, he is ridden 6 days a week weather permitting. He has his night net soaked for about 8-9 hours, baileys low cal and a handfull of alfa alfa and linseed oil, sometimes some oates if we are doing a lot of work.

If the weather gets really bad and I cant soak his hay or ride, he will get half the amount of low cal and bit of chaff. He got very fat last winter when we couldnt ride for about a month with snow and ice etc
 
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