Who doesn't feed adlib hay?

LaurenBay

LaurenBay

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This is not a dig at any of you, who do feed adlib. I am finding that more and more posters are suggesting to others to feed adlib hay. But I was just wondering if there are still people on here who will not feed adlib and why?

I don't feed adlib. My reason being, that she is a good doer and also greedy. If I gave her as much hay as she could possibly eat, she would soon pile on the weight and Lami may become a problem. I feed her hay in a small holed haynet to make the hay last. Although she hardly ever has any hay left over in the mornings.

During the day, the Horses are turned out with 2 sections of hay each. They get this twice a day. We do have grass, but not much of it.

I have never had any problem with ulcers and she has maintained a good weight through the winter.
 
I don't feed adlib hay either - my boys are all good doers and would be just too fat!

They are out during the day and still have a little bit of grass in their field - I throw out a few sections of hay but the biggest horse just eats the grass and doesn't touch the hay anyway.

They come in at 10pm and go out again at 6am so they get a couple of sections each for overnight.

None are currently in work but I will be starting to ride my 10 year old this week after a winter off so he might get a bit more if he needs it
 
I can't due to one having had lami and the other is a good doer plus the one that had lami only eats a certain amount and leaves the rest so it's not worth giving her adlib
 
I don't feed adlib. I used to at someones elses 'advice' when i 1st got my boy. He is a greedy good doer. That winter cost me a fortune in hay as he was getting through three quartes of a bale a night and still only the scraps left in the morning. He came out of winter fatter than he went in :eek: Never again.

he now gets fed 2-3 sections depending on how the grazing is doing and how long he is in for. In a small holed haynet that is then in another small holed haynet... makes it tricky for him, slows him down and keeps him busy :)
 
Me! Because I feed small amounts 3 or 4 x a day and my horses haven't died of ulcers yet!
It's usually pretty wasteful to feed ad lib anything, I find that if I do put a bale of haylage in the field my fat cob will stand and fill her face all day, whereas the boney TB will have a nibble first thing and then stand on top of the hill gazing into the distance for the rest of the day.
 
I don't either, my previuosly starved haflinger would just eat constantly and fast all day, she is fat on almost nothing.
 
I don't feed adlib, pony is very greedy and would be the size of a house. He is out 24/7, field is rather bare now, and gets a section in the morn and another one in the evening with small chaff feed containing his cortaflex.
 
Not adlib for me either..and one of the greedy lot has straw pushed round the outside of the net around the hay to make him really work for it. Lives on fresh air that one!
 
I feed my Shetland ad lib when I bring him in got a rest which is 2-3 nights per week his field is on a really windy hill with no shelter and barely any grass. He he's a small amount of hay everyday whilst out but when I bring him in I soak it and let him feed from a huge trugtub. So far his weight is fantastic, long may it last!

Big pony is in for 3 hours a day having tiny haylage net and being ridden but he's out 24/7 with only grass in his field (no hay out there at all) and is looking porky!
 
I don't, mine ended up overweight after being allowed ad lib, even when soaked, and never seemed to regulate intake as many say theirs do after a while.

I now feed the recommended amount and use small holed laylage nets to slow her down.
 
If I was to feed ad lib my two cobs would be dead within a year.
I see it suggested all the time and often with no "but" if your horse is a good doer ad lib may be detrimental to their health!
I'd love to let mine munch what they want but it would be highly irresponsible :)
 
I would love to but can't, mine are natives and munch non-stop! They would be enormous if I fed ad lib. They get 2 to 3 soaked sections of hay over night depending on grass, then out all day on average grass. Someone once told me that if I had fed ad lib they would regulate themselves and wouldn't over eat.........ummmm no, didn't quite work out like that :D I won't ever be doing that again!
 
I don't either! They have abut in paddock to scoff, then one haynet at night. Pony usually finished hers when I do last checks at 6.30Pm, so that's it until the next day. She is ems/ laminitic though so have to be strict!
 
I don't for the same reasons outlined above - Connemara who was a Hoover in a former life with no sense of self-limitation and almost too good a doer...
 
Not all of them, but two who have no access to grass (restricted turnout) do have adlib, its certainly made the 28yo winter well this year, without stuffing veteran feeds down his neck, so we might have to reassess our hay/feeding regime for next winter so he can have more hay, and probably give thm less hard feed.

Hopefully will be cutting down on hay soon, they seem to be more enthusiastic about the grass atm :)
 
I don't feed hay at all :p

I feed straw and hayage depending on horse. In the worst of winter, the cob gets near enough ad lib hay for day / night (not both usually or he'd have to live in solitary ocnfinement!). The highlands never get ad lib anything, but straw means it can be a lot closer to ad lib than if I fed hay!
 
I don't feed ad lib in the field as they can just pick at the limited grass out there (field very bare now) - they only have hay when it snows, but I do feed ad lib in the stable.

But I soak hay in the stable for most of the year and double net so she actually has hay all the time but never more than 2% of bodyweight. So it is ad lib but controlled!

Although she is greedy I find that in winter she does self regulate, she has a few weeks when she gorges but after that once she realises she won't run out she is quite moderate and ad lib dry hay in winter is under 1/2 bale :) My experience of good doers is that some people are too afraid to let them stuff for a few weeks until they start to regulate themselves.
 
I don't. They go out on good grass from 6am ish to 6pm ish and at night Nadia gets either 2.5 thick wedges or 3.5 thin wedges.
If I put a bale in her stable a night, she's eat it all and pile on the pounds so I don't.
 
I have done with the inevitable consequences of a couple of fatties. I feed roughly by weight now they're no longer on diets, strictly when they have been plus it's soaked. The problem then arises of eeking it out so there are no regular periods without forage. :D I'm going back to soaking again soon so I can continue with some grazing as well. I no longer feed in the field but I'm limiting grazing, they have a huge varied yard the rest of the time.
 
Neither of my 2 are on adlib.
My 25 yo pony is on grass 11 hours a day through the winter, then comes in at night and has 4kg of hay and 2 double hands of happy hoof. In the summer she is out 24/7 on grass alone, then just gets some carrots. She is at a great weight all year round, aslong as I monitor the grass.

My 15.3hh, ISH, 10yo is out 11 hours a day through winter, and in at night on 8kg of hay, and 2 double hands of alfa a and 2 scoops of barley.
In the summer out 24/7 dosen't need any extra in the summer.

I always weigh my hay so that I know they get the same and if I need to alter them at all it's easy to know how much to add or take off :)
 
I don't . . . he gets a decent amount (on the floor) in the late afternoon/early evening and then nothing until breakfast. He can, however (and does) browse on his straw bed and he gets his breakfast at the ridiculously early hour of 5.00 a.m.

He doesn't get ad lib hay b/c he is currently fat.

P
 
Welshie Squisher said:
If I was to feed ad lib my two cobs would be dead within a year.
I see it suggested all the time and often with no "but" if your horse is a good doer ad lib may be detrimental to their health!
I'd love to let mine munch what they want but it would be highly irresponsible :)
Click to expand...

Exactly this. Phil's idea of ad lib (overnight) is a bale, not healthy for him (or me) :p
 
I feed as much as is needed to maintain weight, a bit less than ad lib, he also get short feed with minerals and linseed and a bit of this and that. If he only got hay his belly would be huge and he would have less energy for work. He is not standing without any feed for half his day, if he was I would give him four smaller haynets.
 
My mare would explode if she was on ad-lib - she is one of those horses who will eat absolutely everything she is given as quickly as possible! Luckily, my YO does a 10pm check of all horses and will put in an extra net if you leave one prepared, so I can spread my mare's hay out a bit. She has an armful when I leave her at 6pm, then the bulk of her night hay at 10pm. So it isn't like she's finished all her hay by 8pm then has nothing else till morning.
 
I have three good doers, they get hayed sporadically, if the temp drops or if there's bad weather - otherwise there is clearly SOMETHING sustaining them in the field...
 
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