how much hay are you feeding?

[nat17]

Can you all tell me how big your horse is and how much hay they get if they are out in the day and in at night.?
Thanks

[Esther.D]

Ours are out all the time so this is probably not much use - the ponies (4 Shetlands and a N Forest) share a bale a day but have access to grass as well. They get more if there is snow on the ground and they can't graze.

[Bebe]

Bebe is 15.3hh, weighs about 580kgs (just under 1200lbs I think) and I give her 8kgs of hay per night, she usually leaves a kg or so but I like to make sure she has enough to keep her going all night. I'm in the last stages of switching her to haylage which has a bit more water content than hay so by the end of the week she'll probably get 10kgs of haylage per night. She's turned out on grass for 11-12 hours a day too.

[nat17]

BeBe- do you use baled hay , like in slices, just that i cant work the weight out. How many slices does she have?

[happyhorse]

hi i have a 16.2hh dutch warmblood, and he has 10lb of hay a night, he weighs about 500kgs and goes out during the day to graze. 10lbs is about 6 - 7 sections of hay depending on each bale so roughly half a bale a night. but it will depend on whether your horse is a good doer or not, mines not and loses condition very easily if i am not careful.

[nat17]

well minnie is 14.2 a good doer. She is out from 8-6 . I feed her a hand full of good doer and 3-4 carrotts in the morning, and a double hand full of good doer and 3-4 carrotts at night and about 3-4 slices of hay at night. She only gets ridden at weekends.

Even when i put more hay in she does not eat it she'll only have about 3 slices. Some one questioned it thats all and I thought i would see what you all thought.

[Bebe]

I have big round bales of hay & haylage so don't know what it is in slices exactly but she was getting three quarters of a bale of hay each night last year (small bales) but there was less grass. If it helps it fills up 2 very big haynets.

I also don't feed much in the way of mix as I prefer to have a fibre diet for Bebe. She gets a handful of mix just for flavour (she's fussy) but otherwise she just gets a scoop of Hi-Fi and a scoop of sugar beet (soaked) twice daily.

She is a very big horse too, she's not tall but she's very broad and muscled. I've had comments about her looking like a police horse or one of the drum horses in the household cavalry!

[nat17]

thanks all,

I think minnies diet is okay after all that, i too, bebe, dont feed mix at all at the moment now and have not done so for a month or so/ i prefer feeding just good doer and carrotts.
Even if i put more hay in she leaves it so she is telling me that is all she requires.
Why is it when people question something we are doing , does it make you have doubts about it and yourself when you are the person that knows your horse best .?

I must learn to have confidence in my own desisions and knowledge of my horse. My new years resolution (i know its late to make one!!)

[Tootsie4U]

Someone just told me that the amount of hay you feed should be based on the quality of the hay.

For example, right now the barn recieved a huge stock of very leafy (Still green) hay with bits of clover and other grasses in it. According to the barn owner, the horses shouldnt get too much of this hay as it is "rich" and they could possibly founder.

In comparision, the old strawy type hay, they get loads of that because its not very leafy and very coarse.

Heck if I know though... thats just what i was told.

[galadriel]

Originally posted by nat17
Even when i put more hay in she does not eat it she'll only have about 3 slices. Some one questioned it thats all and I thought i would see what you all thought.

How much does a bale of this hay weigh, and how much of a bale is 3 slices?

My horses each get 4 flakes a day; the bales weigh about 50-55 lbs, and 4 flakes is about 1/3 bale. So about 18 lbs, for a couple of pretty fit 1000-1200 lb tall TB's.

If a hay is leafier and greener, and richer, it often has more moisture, which makes it heavier. A bale of alfalfa the same size as the bales of bermuda we feed would be about 90 lbs. So to feed about 18 lbs of alfalfa, I'd want to feed only 1/5 of the bale, not 1/3. Old dry bales are usually lighter than when they were first baled, and you can feed more without feeding more weight. (Careful of dust and mold, though.)

If your horse is doing well on what you feed her, then tell everybody else to mind their own business :) It is nice when other people care, and it can be nice to get another perspective. but if you're doing what is right for your horse and people are being pushy, then don't worry about them.

[maverick927]

Maverick is a 13.3hh cob and gets 2 slices a day (sorry don't know weight). Even with that rather low amount he is still very fat (when we got him he was thin and this is all he's ever had) and if we feed him more at night, it'll still be there in the morning.

[Yann]

Rio sounds similar to Minnie, whatever I leave her with she doesn't usually eat much more than a decent haynet's worth, perhaps 7 or 8 pounds in weight. Feeding haylage rather than hay hasn't made much difference to this. She gets a tiddly bit of mix unless she's working when she might get a pound if she's lucky! Having no hay left in the morning and a hungry horse is not right, not the opposite! If Minnie is keeping condition and happy don't worry about what other people say, as you said you are the one who knows your horse better than anyone:)

[H & Bailey]

Hi bailey is about 14 -14.2hh gypsy pony (welsh x cob) and sooty is a mini shetland roughly I guess about 8hh??????maybe smaller.
They live out with access to a shelter and in bad weather sooty is rugged and bailey is rugged at the moment.They both get a brekkie of sugar beet, happy hoof and carrots.I put out between 6 - 8 slices of hay depending on the size of the slices.I use about 3/4 of a bale to a full bale if the weather is bad.There isnt any grass left in my winter fields.Both look' well' and are keeping their weight on they are not doing any work and when I start on bailey again properly he will probably get a night feed if he needs it.Ive been told im feeding too much hay but it keeps them occupied as bailey tends to fence walk if bored.
If your horse is leaving the hay they are getting too much so be guided by your horse as they are all different.I know when people start telling you otherwise it can make you a bit paranoid but dont be bullied.Or if the horse starts loosing weight you can try and up the hay or feed haylage as it has more nutrition in

[ros]

All these posts just go to prove that set quantities are only guidelines and you really have to play it by ear!

Merlin is a shade under 16.2hh and a good-doer. He goes out in the morning with nothing - there's grass for him to pick at and they aren't short of space. He gets about 1.5 scoops of Alfa-A with vitamins and seaweed plus a net of 5-6 lbs of hay at tea time, and another net of 9-10 lbs at around 11 at night. He's still on the plump side although he's lost a little since the grass stopped growing.

Bales can vary so much, and I always weigh my nets. Feed merchants and fishing tackle shops sell spring balances, which are great - you can guess, sure, and if you're feeding ad lib it isn't critical, but if you don't want wastage (say if you're soaking your hay) or you need to cut your horse back a bit it's far easier if you can measure accurately and adjust accordingly.

[western]

i use large square bales. and i usually give my horse 1 slice in his pen . and then he gets acess out side of the pen then he gets as much as he wants because he is with cows in the daytime and they all have to have hay.

[Cathy Reynolds]

I checked out the weight of a net yesterday for the first time having just had a Saracen feed assessment done which recommended 11 kg per night. It doesn't seem much for my big boy (16.1 IDx) but he is getting a bit porky through too little work at the moment. This hay is lovely organic meadow hay, baled on the farm in late June so absolutely at its best. We also have some ryegrass hay (which they all DETEST) which I am throwing out for them in the turnout. They have to be really grumbly-belly hungry to eat this!

[ros]

Hells bells! 11kg is nearly 25lbs! Even big Frank (16.3hh Clydesdale X Food Processor) couldn't have eaten that much overnight! Are you sure they didn't mean 11kgs daily?

Besides which, you can't get that much hay in one net. I always use the large nets, and I reckon they're pretty much full at about 12/14lbs (depending on the kind of hay) and that's stuffing it in without shaking out the splits.

[ros]

PS Although thinking about it, Frank came in at about 5.30 and went out again at about 7.30, so if he were in earlier and out later he would have eaten more. Sorry :)

[tasha]

Originally posted by ros
(16.3hh Clydesdale X Food Processor)

Love it!!!:D

Our three (15.2 TB, 14.2 Welsh Cob and 14.3 ArabX) are out 24/7 and get breakfast hay of 1 section each, lunch at another section and 2 for dinner, so 4 a day. We dont weigh it but make sure the sections are a good size, if they are light we'll give extra sections, if they are heavier then we still give the same amount. If the weather is bad they get more at breakfast and another section or two later at night.

The Welshie and Arab get one feed a day (16+, chaff and sugar beet, plus Calm And Condition for the Arab. The Welshie gets handfuls, she's rather fat!!) and the TB gets 2-3 feeds a day-if I am riding her I'll give her a little something after to say 'thank you' (she gets chaff, Cool Mix and Calm And Condition.)

We are hopefully moving the Arab and TB to stable them at night in April, in which case they'll have 2 feeds a day of the same feeds, and 3-4 sections (one massive or 2 medium haynets ;) ) a night. We'd rather they left a little (not too much or its a waste of money!) than eat every last bit and not really be full.

[DebO]

I have 16.1 ID/TB and 12.2 PBA. The TB has 2 or 3 slices at night (3 if in early) and the PBA 1 or 2. I may even put extra down if they have been in quite early later on in the night.

I have noticed that this winter they do not seem to want as much hay when out during the day. In fact quite a lot less to the point where I am putting out thick slice each. They have often walked off and left it and I have found them munching on the grass! They do say because of the milder weather we will have to rethink our feeding.

[nix]

hi ... lol ... ros, I give Harve 2 large haynets packed tightly (like yours) ... so let's see, that'd be up to 28 lbs!!!! he usually manages to get through most of it and about once or twice a week all of it. Harve is a big 16.2 TB and I like to give him plenty to see him through the night as he stresses and weaves if he doesn't have something to munch on at all times. And no, he isn't a porker :D This year is the first year he's kept weight on (so far, touch wood).

nix and harve

[nat17]

When i posted this I was being supplied seeded hay, but our supplier buys it in so you never know what you are going to get, this time he bought meadow hay and minnie loooves this so she is actually eating more now and she eats all that i put in. Just goes to show every thing and horse is individual and depends on the hay. She now eating nearly half a bale everynight.!!

[alexa]

I have a 17.2 TB, he has that special hay packed in plastic with the air removed so that there is no no dust/mould etc as otherwise he is ill. It costs much more but comes out cheaper than him being ill all the time which he is with regular hay even if soaked. One bail lasts a couple of days, so I buy 15 for the month.

He gets fed 5 times a day, three meals of "granules" don't know what you call this in English and two meals of hay. He used to have a much richer meal than granules when I first had him as he was very underweight but now he is doing fine and so vet proposed to cut down on the calories a bit. He also gets about a kilo of carrotts a day. He now weighs about 580 kilos and shouldn't get any bigger, he is also v fit and strong so I think he's doing fine on this diet. Forget to mention he always gets a good warm mash on Sunday evenings in Winter.

[Mossy]

My two's consumption varies depending whether they are in or out and the weather, as they get forage ad lib, but they average three to four small bales a week each. Mind you they get precious little else.

[Showjumper]

Dolly's a 2 year old 13.2hh New Forest and is getting half a bale of hay a night (I'd rather she had too much than too little!)