Winter hay

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lisa-aslan16

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I recently purchased a 9 year old14hh New Forest pony who by all accounts from previous owner will live of fresh air. I intend to winter her out and wondered what people's opinions are as to how much hayledge she will need. Things to consider.are she will have a low trace clip and will be ridden at least 4 times a week. She will be rugged and have a small hard feed as this is what she is used to. At the moment she is a good size for heading into winter although her work will be increasing. She will be sharing her grazing with two larger horses of which she is definitely the bottom of the ladder. At the moment I have at least.3/4 acres of well rested grazing to turn them.onto at some stage soon. Any recommendations will be gratefully received
 
haylage?none.
last year's hay? perhaps a small amount.
I would start with none and just keep an eye on her weight. It depends on how heavy you work her, how cold it gets, whether or not she is rugged...

My welshy is muzzled 24/7 all year round, including through winter. No supplementary feeding either and he comes out of winter the sort of weight that I'd like to keep him all year round! Honestly, he just has to look at a bit of green to put on several kgs!
 
While there is grass on the field - none, and TBH - just because someone else used to feed her hard feed I wouldn't just copy

Ridden 4 times a week - even for an hour would only be defined as light work - hardcore competition horses/ race horses are in hard work

Weight tape her every couple of weeks and write down what she is each time so you can keep an eye.

When the grass runs out (they start hanging around the gate and picking on each other and generally being idiots because there isn;t anything else to do) for good doers maybe some straw in the field to pick at - move up to hay if they start to drop weight
 
Is not feed haylage at all to a native, hay only.

I also wouldn't feed while there is sufficient grass. As soon as there is little grass then a couple if slices morning & evening. Especially if there is a heavy frost or snow.
 
I have a new forest good doer 14h pony, he lives out and is muzzled unless he is on a bare paddock.

I would not feed hayledge unless it was the high fibre sort suitable for laminitics.

In the spring and summer he is muzzled and either ridden and lunged every day and has blue chip lami lite and he maintains his weight really well.

In the autumn and winter when it is harder to ride after work due to it being dark depending on how much grass we have he is still muzzled until there is not much grass. He is also clipped and rugged accordingly and fed his balancer. He only has hay in the field if it snows and then he gets two slices and he maintains his weight very well.

Last year when it was very mild and we had loads of grass he was muzzled till the end of December!

This year he is in the diet paddock with some of the other good doers so has not needed to be muzzled so much but they will be moving fields to better grazing soon so will have his muzzle back on again.

I would also be careful when you put her on the rested paddock as she could easily get overweight very quickly and could be at risk of getting laminitis.
 
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Echo the other posters replies...and if you feel you need to give any extra fibre through the winter, try to source some of last year's hay if you can.

My boy has to come in at night of an evening (yard rules)...and he'll be coming in to 24 hour soaked hay (last year's crop) and a very small feed that contains his supplements/vits & mins needed as he's an EMS and barefoot horse.
 
I would drop all hard feed unless she desperately needs a supplement. If she does, it would be fed with a small amount of unmolassed chaff. Very few ponies need hard feed. I would also advise against haylage - far too rich for a native. We have three natives here and we actually don't start feeding any hay until end of November/beginning of December and later if we can get away with it. We also feed in plastic feeders with grills that slow them down for when we do feed them. It cuts down on wastage and stops them stuffing their faces. Also don't be tempted to overrug, even when clipped. Unless it gets very, very cold, I wouldn't imagine she would need more than a lightweight/mediumweight combo.
 
not all haylage is far too rich for a native...... I get second or third cut and always have it analysed as I have had a cushings pony prone to lammi to take into account. The analysis has always shown it to be absolutely fine for him & in fact haylage can be lower in sugar than hay.
 
I use second cut high fibre haylage - he gets two slices during the day when he is out when he has finished off the grass and a slice overnight when he comes in. He is 22 and retired so in no work and our fields are on a slope with very strong cold winds and nasty rain over winter.
 
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