would you feed hay.....

[Stinkbomb]

in the field if your grass was like this??? and your horses were doing well weight wise???

Inky and Ty go out during the day and in at night. They both have two feeds a day and hay at night time. I have been putting hay out everyday but tbh i think they only eat it because its there and sometimes dont even eat it. This picture shows the worst of the field. They havent lost any weight so far over winter and could do with loosing a few pounds each so should i just cut the hay out during the day??? Do they really need it??

 

[nicholls07]

ah, they are so cute,are they babies, my friend has 6 shetlands and they thrive on no hard feed at all,

 

[*hic*]

I'd stop feeding it for a week or two and monitor the weight / grass situation.

 

[Irishcobs]

Wow isn't he hairy! Not used to seeing him like that. I would stop the hay in the field, if they start to lose weight then they can have it back again.

 

[piebaldsparkle]

Do they really need 2 x feeds per day or is it just a token feed??

 

[asbo]

hehe pulls the same faces as fizz

i would stop the hay & keep a close eye on them weight wise

 

[Judziah]

Personally, I'd stop giving the hard feed and give them some hay.

 

[Gucci_b]

Dito Judziah,
as hay holds all the fibre they need for now.

 

[MillionDollar]

Nope

 

[carthorse]

Only if there is frost or snow

 

[Patches]

My grazing is like this. You can see some of our other fields too in the picture. All the grass here is nice and green and yummy.

I would be wasting my time if I put hay or haylage out, even though I know there is not much goodness in the grass, because they won't eat it. They prefer to eat the grass.

My shetland still has his grazing muzzle on because he's not dropping ANY weight, and he's got a trace clip and only wears a rug if it's raining heavily. None of mine have hard feed per se, just half a beaker to a beaker (depending on the ned) of Bailey's Lo-cal. Patches also has a small handful of hi fi lite to mix her supplement into. They only have that once a day.

 

[Stinkbomb]

Yes i still want to give Inky his hard feed as its stud mix and i think he needs that for his growing. Ty has topspec antilam for his vitamins. I split the feeds into two as Inkys is too much volume at a time for one feed.

Thanks everyone will try stopping the hay in the field and see how we go!!

 

[Judziah]

Have you tried suregrow from D&H? Not sure if it's much different to a Stud mix though!

I didn't want to give my youngster a hard feed but knew our grazing would be enough especially in winter. I feed sure grow with a bit of speedibeet and he's done really well.

 

[Haniki]

I agree with Carthorse only if there's frost or snow.