How much hay?

[shandy84]

How many flakes would you feed a fat NF on average quality grazing in medium work and an arab up to weight and on average grazing? Both would eat 10 bales if I let them ;) so ad lib is not necessarly best for them??

[gordysgirl]

Do you mean when they come in overnight?? If so I would prob give 1 slice to Nf & arab. Nf's would be as old as possible & soaked!!!

[shandy84]

Yep in from around 6 out at 6

[gordysgirl]

Yep, then I would give a slice each in a double net to keep them entertained as long as possible. Maybe the arab another half slice. My Tb is in from around 8pm to 6.30pm at the mo & rarely finishes 2 slices. And I'm pretty sure his mate the nf next door hasn't touched any of his in days - too much yummy grass! All he wants to do when he gets in is sleep!
If that doesn't last long enough, maybe some kind of toy to keep them entertained, like a ball or likit.

[laceyfreckle]

hiya shandy....if you pm me i can work it out for you roughly. would need to know approx bodyweight (kg) and what your feeding currently.:)

[Portia]

I've a fat-prone 14.2 8yo mare, similar timetable to yourself. She's in on 3k kilos of soaked hay at night, and she doesn't always finish that :)

[Sexy Sietske]

Well my 14.1 welsh cob will eat 3 large slices of hay when she is in at night, my bigger horses have about 5 :o

The grazing for mine isn't the best though.

[shandy84]

I had my hay delivered last night and they were both very desperate to get a munch, expecting some grumping this morning as only gave them 3 sections each and their meal.

[carthorse]

Total intake should be approx 2.5% of bodyweight & my vet reckoned most hay is about 75% dry fibre (I'd have thought it was drier than that?). So have a guess at how much dry fibre they get from the grass & then use hay to make up the rest. Or failing that I'd guess a couple of slices each but make sure it's soaked for 12 hours to take out most of the feed value - that's what I'm doing with mine at the moment. If they aren't eating it all then you can always cut down until you get it about right but it sounds like that won't be your problem :)

You say they get it after their meal so what else are you feeding them?

[shandy84]

tiny bit of beet pulp with equivate and garlic in nothing special also use the low sugar beet.

[carthorse]

Sorry, just had visions of someone worrying about hay but giving a "proper" feed - I have a friend who used to do that!

I was told I could feed loads of 12 hour soaked hay as it's a bit like us eating celery. In reality my ID will eat 2-3 slices & my Sec D will eat 2 (or whatever he can get, he's a pig!). Given dry hay they'll eat more but the wet seems to take longer as it needs more chewing.

[shandy84]

That's interesting never realised wet stuff would take longer to eat :)

[puzzles]

You can feed ad-lib hay safely with a few changes:

- soaked
- old hay
- feed via 2 haynets, one over another, to make them harder to eat which means your horses will eat eat less as it will take longer to eat!

Don't let either of your horses go without hay for very long - it's so important not to starve your native. Also, as already mentioned, be careful not to overfeed on concentrates (preferably go without entirely) whilst worrying about giving too much forage!
You can try to keep your native moving and motivated in the stable to help prevent boredeom and promote weight loss/maintenance, you could feed the haynet on the opposite side of the stable to his water bucket so he has to move from one to the other. Small, but it may help!

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