Who weights their hay?

[MissJessica]

...and how much do you feed.
Please include height, type of horse.

 

[Mongoose11]

H/w cob, very limited grass during the day, 8kg wet hay per night. This doesn't last her as long as I would like but I can't offer her enough work to keep her weight appropriate if I feed her more and she certainly hasn't come to any harm on it.

 

[Luci07]

We do at my yard to reduce wastage. We are on haylage and my 17.1 WB gets 22-25lb per 24 hours. He weighs around 624kg. Friends 16.2 ID X mare weighs around 550 (good doer) and gets 14lbs of which there is normally some left in the morning. Both on a lot of hard feed as its winter as well.

 

[Ben2684]

17.2 ISH (9/8TB so quite fine) gets 12kg of dry hay over night which i soak and feed using a haycube. Basically he gets just under a bale a day

 

[JillA]

I don't. I used to when my laminitic horse was needing to lose weight promptly, but really 20kg of good hay or haylage, high in protein or sugars is very different from 20 kg of forage which has much less feed value. And I don't like mine to not have access to it for most of the 24 hours, so I am guided by their condition and how much is left by next time.

 

[Cortez]

I weigh all hay feeds. I have 2 PRE stallions, one is 15h, the other 15.1h, both very good doers in light-to-medium work. They get 7 - 8kgs = 15.5 - 17.5lbs each timothy hay per day, and have a nibble on straw beds too. No hard feed.

 

[FfionWinnie]

Never. They all have adlib hay(lage) or grass at all times. 5 natives and 2 skinny minnies.

 

[Equi]

We have to because the yo is OCD about the amount of haylage being fed. Some bales have been awful and he's lost weight but some bales have been great and blew his mind lol he's on hard turnout.

He gets 18-20kg a day and is 17hh

My minis get basically whatever they get, usually a slice sometimes less cause the weigh scale doesn't register the amount they get 😂 So it's not a lot but they also have grazing.

 

[Lucky788]

Mine gets 12kgs dry hay per night and whatever is left goes in the field in the morning, occasionally all gets eaten but usually half a net left. I do put extra in the field if frosty. 15.2 cob in light work and very poor grazing

 

[Sparemare]

Always weigh mine. I can guess that a haynet is 10kg and can actually weigh at 20kg. I never estimate it right.

 

[Cortez]

Always weigh mine. I can guess that a haynet is 10kg and can actually weigh at 20kg. I never estimate it right.

Ummm, a 20kg haynet weighs 44lbs - are you sure?

 

[millitiger]

Never weighed.

Adlib hay in the stables overnight and adlib haylage in the fields during the days.

 

[booandellie]

Always weigh my nets- partly to monitor how much my pony gets but also we split cost of bales according to usage so it is unfair if people overfill nets. 14.3h heavyweight cob gets 24lb a day ( 8lb in field as poor grazing) and 16lb in stable overnight. She is on a diet and losing weight on this without being starved

 

[ihatework]

I've never weighed a net in my life!

 

[Slightlyconfused]

We have to weigh hay and hayledge at the yard.

My boys are 16:3 and 16:2 and get each between 8 and 9 kilos depending on how much is left in the morning.

They do get a scoop of dengie meadow grass chaff morning and night too.

Any more and it's trashed into their beds.

 

[Summer pudding]

Always weigh as its for a 14.2 Connie fatty in little work. Approx 16lb liightly soaked, small holed nets, plus 6hrs reasonable grazing during the day. Handful of HF light with vits and mins..

 

[little_critter]

Wow, I feel really mean based on the weights others feed.
I always weigh hay nets for my good doer 14.1hh lw cob. She weighs approx 450kg (has just got down to her ideal weight) and gets a 4kg net overnight and a 4kg net during the day (if she hasn't gone out)

 

[Pedantic]

No I just guess, if the large net is full it's full, if the small net is full it's full, I do tend to feel the weight of the net myself and judge accordingly, so do sometimes compact more in if I feel the need.

 

[Cortez]

Wow, I feel really mean based on the weights others feed.
I always weigh hay nets for my good doer 14.1hh lw cob. She weighs approx 450kg (has just got down to her ideal weight) and gets a 4kg net overnight and a 4kg net during the day (if she hasn't gone out)

No, not mean - responsible.......

 

[Sussexbythesea]

My 21yr old 16.1 WB gets at the moment about 5kg hay per day that fills a large small hole haynet which is soaked. If he's in early he might get another couple of Kilos. Our grass is still good but I've never fed more than 6kg per night in winter as he's a fatty. At his fattest he was 600kg. He has fibre nuts and unmollased chaff with his balancer and joint supplements twice a day which adds about another kilo of fibre.

 

[fattylumpkin]

Weighing hay makes sense to me, it's easier to plan buying/storage, and keep control of my super easy-doer's ability to expand at the mere sight of hay. Since she goes out unrugged it's also a method I can use to measure how well she is keeping warm when the thermometer is deep in the minus.

 

[booandellie]

for those that feed the smaller amounts of hay- do you know how long those nets last your horse and how long your horse is stood with nothing to eat? I do night time checks and often owners leave their horses with what they think is a big net but which their horse has eaten by 9pm leaving them standing 9hrs without forage. My own horse is on a diet and i'm lucky I can split rations and hang another net at 9pm (I do tell them and they have increased rations) but I do wonder whether people realise how many of their horses are standing hungry

 

[fattylumpkin]

booandellie - I can't speak for everyone, but feeding a smaller amount means that when I was diy I had to make my last visit to the yard at 10-11pm at night to give the night feed so that she would be fine until morning. It seems common here. Yes, it's inconvenient, but that's a price I was willing to pay rather than the alternatives.

 

[Tyssandi]

...and how much do you feed.
Please include height, type of horse.

We had to weigh it in my training yard as every horse was on a set amount of hay. I do periodically weigh the nets to keep myself tuned into how much it weighs

My Yard has from 1 section to 4 sections per night depending on horses

 

[Cortez]

Some horses will have to have their feed restricted in order to maintain or achieve the correct weight. This means, if they are greedy, they will have to spend some time not stuffing their faces. Hunger and greed are not necessarily the same thing.

My good doer lads get a final hay ration at 10pm, I should imagine they are finished by around midnight. They don't apear to be greatly distressed when receiving their breakfast at 7am.

 

[Ditchjumper2]

Never ever have weighed hay!

 

[Sussexbythesea]

for those that feed the smaller amounts of hay- do you know how long those nets last your horse and how long your horse is stood with nothing to eat? I do night time checks and often owners leave their horses with what they think is a big net but which their horse has eaten by 9pm leaving them standing 9hrs without forage. My own horse is on a diet and i'm lucky I can split rations and hang another net at 9pm (I do tell them and they have increased rations) but I do wonder whether people realise how many of their horses are standing hungry

No I don't exactly although as he's a pig he doesn't stop until the whole lot has gone I suspect it is around 9hours and do you know what? I've had him 12 years and he's (touch wood) very healthy. He may well go for several hours without forage but at least some of that he's lying down asleep. It's also not natural for horses to gorge on massive piles of free forage or manmade grazing either. If he were grossly overweight and got lami then that too would be wrong.

Do people really think in the wild animals never go hungry??

 

[catroo]

My native ponies have ad lib over night.

Shetlands normally eat no more than 2kgs of haylage each overnight. Larger ponies probably munch their way through about 4kgs of haylage.

 

[Dave's Mam]

I was of the belief that over 4 hours without forage is not good for the gut. So a good doer greedy monster would get lots of soaked hay.

 

[ElleSkywalker]

Ooo am a meany. All mine get 2kgs of hay every 4 hours and 4kgs at around midnight if they are in overnight so they are never stood hungry for long. I know this isn't possible for everyone but if I were on a yard I'd put the night rations in a trickle net but as they are at home they all get a fed from the floor.

All are between 14-15hh native types. All good doers who can happily drop weight in the winter. The shetland gets 6kgs of split into 3 lots bit as she isn't at all greedy she's not left without hay for long as she doesn't snarf it down.

This time of year they also get hay in the field overnight, but only about 4kgs each from 8pm to 8am rather than the 6kg they would get if they were in.

If they were in more work they would get ad lib hay.