Who weights their hay?

[JennBags]

I feed from the floor and give just enough so there's none left in the morning, my horse is a 17.2hh idxtb. I don't like him to be without food but he's not too much of a good do-er so I can feed him ad-lib.

If I fed purely haylage he would eat about 28lbs/night (and would get too fat on that), he eats less hay, it works out around 20lbs/night. I feed a mixture at the moment, about 14lbs of hay (steamed) and about 10lbs of haylage which seems to suit him.

 

[Mongoose11]

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

Erm, yes, I do realise. In the week my visit is usually at about 7/8pm and my guess is that she will generally run out close to midnight and then be fed breakfast at 5.30am. Far from ideal but she has come to little harm from this.

 

[little_critter]

Ditto, mine eats until it's all gone too so I suspect she stands for some time without hay. However being a good doer I can't feed ad lib.
Incidentally she has been scoped for ulcers and has "a disgustingly healthy stomach"

 

[Magicmadge]

I did weigh but now guess fairly accurately what my nets weigh. Two 14hh cobs get 3kg at 6pm 4kg at 10pm and 4kg each in the field out 8-6 daily . One feed a day at 6 pm sugar beet chaff nuts and carrot small scoop of each . Shetlands are out unless very wet apart from one so she's fed seperate. they get between 5 of them 4kg 3 times a day one token feed same as above. All lost a bit of weight but maintaining steady now I think. They are on late cut low energy haylage quite dry and lovely .

 

[Charlie007]

16.1 tb, 17.1 wb, both on ad lib hay in the stable and in the field.

 

[Jazzy B]

Ad lib hay to both my 15.1 and 17.1. I've never weighed a hay net.

I do wonder though. My old horse due to circumstances had to be put on full livery. Her whole life until this point she had been on DIY and fed ad lib and she would always leave some in the morning. At the livery yard she was fed rations and it was at this point after we moved that she literally would hoover up every last strand which she had never done before....

 

[D66]

I fill one normal sized, normal holed haynet and one smaller, small holed hay net with unsoaked meadow hay. In the morning there is usually a handful of hay left in th the small net. I hope this means I've got the quantity about right. The horse, a 16hh, wb/tb has had ulcers in the past, so l don't want her to be without food, but if I feed ad lib on the floor she tramples the hay into her bed.