should I put up hay?

[H & Bailey]

May sound silly.
I am now starting to use my summer grazing but am turning them (Bailey and rose)out at 9 am till around 4pm. After 4 they are put into the 'winter field till morning.This field is the one with the shelter/stable and is just mud.
before using the summer field they were fed a bale and a half of hay a day and a breakfast of hi fi and pony mix.
Should i still be putting hay out for night time and feeding them?In my opinion maybe a net but not really.
But i am a bit worried as my 'friend ' who has horses near to me has been told by animal welfare that she has to have grazing and food out all the time or they are removing her horses.They didnt say anything about mine and were pleased about their condition.My 'friend' is now trying to rehome her horses as she does not have grazing for the summer but used to just have them in a mud field with hay or haylage out.I do have grazing but unless managed carefully is soon churned up which is another reason why they only go out for a limited time plus they both get really fat!But am unsure on how much hay to put out on a night if any? And can animal welfare remove horses her horses as she is really upset?

[eventerbabe]

its a pain having to preserve grazing, isn't it? i'm in a similar situation. half my field is beautiful grass which i put my horse in only at weekends at the mo, the other half is mud, with some new grass coming through. mine get a small net of hay each when in the muddy part, but no more. we haven't had anyone telling us to put hay in, but mine are in at nights. my friend is in the same situation and hers are quite happy foraging about. i would say these "welfare" officers have no right to remove her horses, if she was starving them, maybe, but as theres hay out i don't see what their problem is.

[H & Bailey]

Thanks for the prompt reply.I will put up a couple of nets for the time being just for picking at and see how fat they get :D
Its just worrying that these people can come and say they are taking the horses when they arent especailly thin-I have seen worse
I only spoke to my friend briefly as she was flustered so only got a bit of what theyve said.i can only guess they have found something else that she hasnt said to me?Her horses were in a small field which is mud but they have a big double stable which is open and she has haylage bales which are on hard standing and they have free access to it. The horses are muddy but whos arent?They told her to move them immediately so she had to put them in her other field (which has dodgy fencing)she thought theyd be ok for a day but they got out and nearly got ran over!
sorry for going a bit off topic :o

[eventerbabe]

good grief, if they count what she was doing as cruelty then a lot of people round my way had better watch out :eek: as you say, they must have found something else, or are just on a power trip :(

my horse in particular is ballooning on only 2 medium nets of hay a day, hence why he's in the dirt patch with our lamanitic, but i'm waiting for the day we get reoprted (again) for muzzling her :mad:

[Kj & Jemima]

Sorry if this is off thread to the original topic but .................

Some "well meaning" soul reported my horses to the RSPCA claiming that they were in a field with no shelter and they had no food and were so hungry that they had had to feed them bags and bags of carrots and apples.

Angry did not even begin to express my feelings - they had thick rugs on, there was a massive hedge all round the field so there was plenty of shelter, I fed them hard feeds twice a day and always put hay out.

Guess what - they got colic caused, my vet told me in her opinion, by someone feeding them vegetable peelings or vegetables or fruit in a large quantity. So thank you very much "well meaning" person, 2 horses with colic £150 vets bill (this was on New Years Day) and in my vets opinion horses thriving on their lifestyle and in excellent condition. What made me so mad was the RSPCA commented on how healthy the horses were when they came out but would they tell me who reported them, oh no! I would have enjoyed delivering the vets bill to them!

Do Gooders !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry rant over!!

PS I am still putting hay out at the moment, gradually going to wean them off it, but they love hay!

[Purdey33]

I can't believe the animal welfare want to remove your friends horses :eek: They'd be wanting to remove lots of horses all over the country in that case (mine included!) as there are so many muddy fields about - I don't know anybody who hasn't complained about the state of their fields near me, even the local horse sanctuary has problems!

My 2 year old and sis's yearling were on a feed and couple of nets a day 'til Jack arrived (he is big but underweight) so now its 2 feeds plus a bale a day... and I have problems with passers by :mad:

Also, like Kj the 'do gooders' throw potato peelings and carrots and cabbage into them.

I was going to stick a sign up for passers by but am moving them out at the weekend (thankfully). Rough grazing again, but out of the way of prying eyes!

[Bay Mare]

Some "well meaning" soul reported my horses to the RSPCA claiming that they were in a field with no shelter and they had no food and were so hungry that they had had to feed them bags and bags of carrots and apples.

Urgh, this is the double edged sword of wanting people to be interested in welfare and overstepping the mark :(

Have you informed the RSPCA of their actions and the consequences for your horses? Even if they don't do anything they should at least report back to the people that your horses were fine AND that what they did was injurious to your horse's health.

Re Animal Welfare removing the horses. My old YO is a welfare inspector (not for the RSPCA, she works specifically for equine welfare) and CANNOT just remove horses like that. She gets frustrated at how bad a condition the horses need to be in before she can get authorisation to remove them. Her first route anyway is to try and educate the owners (she had a girl working at her yard who had her horse taken from her for welfare reasons, the girl has her horse back now and has been educated in the meantime, in fact she is now doing the Equine Studies NVQ at college!).

[shandy84]

The publication all the welfare charities compiled called "Equine Industry Welfare Guidelines Compendium for Horses, Ponies and Donkeys"

I have this for a simialr reason I was reported for causing unecessary suffering through not rugging a wild new forest pony in october!!!! :mad: Needelss to say they realised once talking to her breeder and the society and meeting her that bugger all could be done.

But back to point and I quote

"Horses are trickle feeders and shuld have access to forage feed during most of their non-active hours. This may be fresh grass, hay, hayalage or straw as appropriate or preferred"

hope that is of some help

[tasha]

Knowing a bit about the situation with H+Bailey's friend, I think this is not the first time the authorities have been out to have a look at her horses. My guess would be that they have mud fever or something which is why they want them out of the mud field.

Heather - why not try small holed haynets, so that they get something to munch on but trickle feed them a bit.

[H & Bailey]

Thanks for replys again.I have swapped to haylage type nets with small holes as suggested by tasha,but am just putting 2 up while they are on grass as bailey looks as if he is gonna pop.
Im hoping they cant move ponies that are on mud as mine will need some restricting as rosey has a gut imbalance due to previous worm damage and she gets a really runny tum if on grass all the time.Im gonna try and have a word with them next time the welfare come up.
As ref. to my friend,I still think there is something else underlying with her ponies as my 2 are in a muddy field but nothing was said about them.Her bigger one is a bit on the lean side and the little one looks lousy to me,but they didnt tell her to worm or de louse?On a good note they have given her a shove in the right direction ,as when the ponies escaped they ended up at a farm and the owners want to have the big horse on loan!fingers crossed he will get a bit of tlc. :D