Who else is rationed their hay by YO?

My first YO up here did it.....I lasted one winter (mine lived out so not as bad as being stood in but still not good enough as all. I ended up buying horsehage and feeding Saffy and her fieldmate.

Last yard started as you bought your own from her (big square bales and very good quality at £25 for straw and £35 for hay) and not long before I left she changed it to an extra £7 pw and use as much as you want...you paid less if you didn't bed on straw. I only left as it is VERY restricted winter TO and I found a field to rent and with two babies I wanted 24/7 turnout. I'll be going back to her yard once their a bit older (and she has the space). I would never go back to a yard which dictated how much hay I can feed.
 
I'm a pretty easy going livery, but I dont think I could cope with that. I'd either move or get my own hay/haylage in. Our YO gets large round haylage bales in and we write down how much we use each day and it gets added up and we get charged each month for how much we use. Which yes is more faff for YO, but obviously the fatty 10.2 welsh pony eats a hell of a lot less than the 17.2 warmblood. And everybody uses more hay on icy/stormy days where we decide to keep them in/bring in earlier. My haylage bill normally works out at about £30 per month on top of livery, which I dont think is too bad. I use 28lbs on a normal day.

Hope you get something sorted out.
 
Yep at my old yard (hence the 'old' part) we were restricted to a net in the morning and a net a night, and there was restricted turnout. The YO put morning and night feeds and nets in for free. We paid £10 a week for the haylage but we didn't have the option to pay more for unlimited or get our own bales. The YO also went and took down nets and emptied them if she thought we had too much so some horses were left with none at times :mad: needless to say I moved pretty swiftly when i realized what she was doing.

At my yard now, 5 of us pay £7 each for part of a bale and get ad lib haylage. Much better :):cool:
 
bumblelion said:
Just wondering if any other yards do this? We're allowed 2 medium sized nets a day per horse, charged at £12 per week. From a large round bale. Before being on this yard I always bought my own hay/haylage in and adlibed. My tb has began to drop weight so I'm changing him onto haylage this weekend which he's normally on during winter months anyway. The hays pretty poor quality but what annoyed me was being told horses are coming in early (DIY but yo still decides) but no increase in haynets per day. So horses in for lunch time and then they don't get turned out until 9-9.30am next day with just 2 nets! When I challenged yo I got laughed at and told they won't starve will they!
Pretty annoyed to say the least! Seriously thinking about getting my own hay in for other boy (good doer but don't like starving him) despite it being tricky as not much hay in area so will have to collect few bales weekly.
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I would not comprimise the care and well being of my horses due to anothers ignorance ...... Time to move on if they wont listen
 
natalia said:
My lot are fed adlib. You actually use less the more you put in! That's why I would never go back to measuring it again. 22 horses costs about £60 a week in hay.
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Crickey, where o you get your hay? It's costing me £45 a week for nine horses.
 
at our old yard, me and my friend has 2 thoroughbreds who needed to gain weight, we used to hang 2 medium sized nets a night as they we out from about 8-5. The yard manager then said we was using too much hay and went in our stables and took the nets out and gave us a weight limit for how much hay we could have, they said they had rung a feed company and said that would be fine for all the horses on the yard. We had 2 thoroughbreds who needed weight gain and was hardly having any hay. yet another livery was feeding her 14hh cob more hay than our tbs! they dont have many liveries there now, can see why!
 
No wouldn't put up with that, my hay is included with my house rent, landlord has also started providing straw, because my 2 large good doers are on a diet, but choosing to stand inside for most of the day, I felt guilty at asking for more hay from my landlord, I bought a round bale from elsewhere and am now feeding ad lib, horses need to eat little and often.
Went to barn tonight and there's a new bale of hay and straw, quite pushed for storage now.
OH well lucky me
 
As a YM, we offer ad lib haylage for a set fee per week. If the liveries are excessive with this, they will be charged extra. To give you a reasonable idea of what I call *normal* use, most of the liveries feed 4 large haynets and a 3ft by 2ft hayrack full a day (this is when they're either out in the field from 8am - 4pm ish, or on a half day in the stable, other half in the turnout pen). My own horse also gets fed the same amounts. As long as it all gets eaten, and there's no wastage, I'm happy. So far, we haven't had to charge extra for excessive use, and as such I wouldn't dream of rationing hay. If you're going to ration hay, let liveries buy in and store their own, much less cause for arguments then.
 
Yep, I'e had this in the past but wouldn't stand for it again. Horses need to be fed as an individual so giving everybody a set amount is a ridiculous idea! I believe that ad-lib forage is the best thing and now try to make sure my horses have a constant supply of haylage.
 
At our yard if you are on full livery you get up to a certain amount (by weight) a day. DIYs either buy by weight or source their own. A couple of us pay extra for extra hay.

I wouldn't stay on a yard that dictated what I fed my horse. And if I was restricted to two nets a day for my girl the RSPCA would soon be knocking!
 
I'd be fuming!

Ours you just order bales from YO as needed. Grown onsite, £3 a bale. Not amazing quality but not bad and fine for my good doer.

I usually use 3 bales per week, I soak most of the time anyway but feed almost ad lib (I have to weigh it but with trickle nets can make it last).

I don't like any system I can't control!!
 
Ours isnt rationed, but at the moment with the shortages we are encouraged to have it in haynets to minimise loss through the horse trampling it into the bedding
 
We used to do DIY including haylage, and were quite suprised at how much people did waste though. We had 4 good doers, so the TB types that didn't keep weight on were a shock!

I think its fair enough if a set amount of hay is included with the livery cost, and this is set out before you decide to go onto the yard, but you should be allowed to buy/supply extra if you want to.
 
I wouldnt drop my standards of care to suit anyone. Bring your own small bales in and stack them at your space. Ive 2 x 16.2 horses and one 15 hands, between them theyre having just over a bale split between when they come in around 4ish and the same split between them again around 9 at night checks.
Horses need a steady stream of forage to help keep guts healthy, and a good yo knows that.
 
Is this a BHS approved livery yard? Is the YO BHS Qualified? If so, call them and make a complaint. All horses have different needs. If my mare was on that amount of hay per day, she would be a welfare case by now.

If not BHS approved, then perhaps WHW or BHS welfare line and ask for advice, stating that your horse is losing weight and you are worried for any horses on this yard due to the poor allowance of forage.

See where it gets you.

I absolutely would not stand for this.
 
My last yard limited hay the one winter because they made your own and it wasn't going to last the whole winter. We were all allowed unlimited haylage though. Everyone who could use haylage did and people who needed hay were allowed up to 4 medium nets a day
 
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