What should do with my horse in this weather? re rug and feeding

lialls

lialls

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I have a 17 month old filly, shes WB X Cob, called Boots. Last year she wintered out, she was rugged for most of it but didnt recieve any hard feed. She is a good weight atm and she seems to feel warm (feeling at the base of her ears). She isn't rugged but has grown a good winter coat and she isn't getting any hard feed yet. She is living out.

We have had hard frost everyday for the last week and had snow last night which is still falling now. The place where i keep her dectates that they are only aloud 2 hay nets a day, one morning and one evening consisting of 1 section of hay in each hay net. I dont agree with this which is why im in the process of trying to find another yard but for the moment i just have to deal.

So should i be feeding hard feed and does she need a rug? Im rather worried as i dont want her dropping weight but equally i dont want to do anything unnecessary.

Anyone advise me on the frozen grass aswell please? Its such a grey area that im not sure if i should worry about her eating it or not? I worry that i dont know enough about it!
 
I wouldn't worry about the rug, I left my cobby boys out unrugged when they were youngsters and we had much worse winter than this! They were absolutely fine infact they loved it!!

I would though be giving her a couple of small feeds a day if that hay allowance is all she is having!!!! Nothing much but something to warm her up a bit. Can you not supplement her hay with haylage? If you buy the small bales you could add some to her feed and that would help keep her going. 2 slices a day when she cannot access the grass properly really, in my view, isn't enough for a growing girl. Eating the frozen grass isn't a problem but I do think she should be getting more hay.
 
What feed do you sugest?

I am so annoyed about the hay thing and for a number of other reasons i am going to move her but i am waiting for a space at the only other yard near me at the mo. I currently field share with 2 other people. One of their horses is really dominant over food and is overly fat so me and the other girl arnt aloud to feed our horses anything more than wat they are getting in the field, they all live out so this makes it difficult.

I cant wait to get from there.

Thank you for the advice, i will sort out feeding her something.
 
I would be tempted to give a few big buckets of high quality chaff (e.g. Hi Fi Molasses Free) and/or Redigrass to act as hay replacer as in this cold they really need their central heating running and that means as much high quality forage as you can stuff in!
 
If shes warm enough then theres no point in rugging,but if shes cold then either bring her in at night or rug. I feed my youngstock stud mix if they are loosing condition and youngstock balancer,or just the balancer if they are holding condition, all mixed with a little chaff and sugarbeet. I use Spillers, their nutritionalist is very helpful. They have ad-lib meadow hay and are in at night and out during the day.
 
I'd go and get my own hay in and sectioning the field so that I could feed it ad lib. That is what will keep her warm. If she's living out then two haynets, if you've got snow everywhere, simply won't be enough. A couple of bucket feeds will only help a little, what about the long cold hours of the night? Problem is, you can't leave heaps of feed out for her with two others in the field.
Nightmare, you need her out of there asap.
 
The policy re hay is disgraceful. I run a small diy yard and when we order/hay and haylage we always allow for extra to be fed at times like this.

Is there anywhere you can take her away from her field mates to give bucket feed ie tie up in yard or similiar? We are feeding a mix of fast fibre and speedibeet, made with warm water, to provide some more fibre and moisture.

Re rugging, if she has a good coat, and appears warm, don't worry about that. However if the hay policy remains the same, just monitor her wieght as she may start to use stored fat to keep warm, and therefore might start to drop weight.

Re frozen grass, as long as she has additional hay to line her gut, no worries there either.

Hope you get to move soon!
 
Seeing as i pay extra for hay i shoud be aloud to feed what i want, when i want. Thinking about it there is a small paddock which we moved the horses off to rest it but now that its snowed over i shoud be aloud to use it and then i dont have to issue of the other horses being agressive over food. I think i will speak to the field owner tomorrow and ask if i can move her out of that field. I will also feed her some hard feed.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Cant wait til i'v saved enough money to buy my own field - yeh right
 
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