out at grass....how often to feed?

[Lucy J]

hello,

my mare will be going on grass livery soon, however the demands of my work may mean i can only feed her once a day. in the winter the field owner will put hay out so she will have hay. she is on a high oil diet with a feed balancer, supplements, chaff and probably some sugar beet when weather bad. as she is on a high oil diet and is not eating scoops of nuts or mix, although not ideal, do you think she could cope with one feed a day as its not too bulky? she is in light / moderate work - does a few lessons / a few hacks a week and is relatively fit at the moment. most days i will be able to feed twice, but just worried about the odd day where I can't. does anyone else have this issue?

(she has been on part livery up until now so this hasnt been a problem.)

its been so long since i kept a horse at grass!

[Guest]

I am no expert but I can't see it will do any harm to miss the odd feed with your horse. If you're genuinly worried about her missing a feed isn't there someone you can ask at short notice to feed her. I have a friend who feeds her horse twice a day now and occasionally she can't get down so I feed him.
Are you in a yard or do you just have a field??

[dcp]

Hi again no expert but so long as she has grazing and hay this should be ok until you can get to her. In the winter if I could I would be feeding small feeds 3 times daily but due to work I can only do it twice but this works well.

[atillathefun]

My horses only get 1 feed a day and the 2 stables I worked at also only fed once a day so I think it will be ok. I am sure your horse will be grazing on and off all day anyway.

[Lucy J]

thanks eveyone! i figured it would probably be ok. there are other horses at the field, but until i move in i won't know if it will be ok to ask someone to feed or not!

[Moomin]

I would make her routine whatever you can guarantee you can do - eg if you can definitely do one feed but only probably do two, stick to one. Then you won't disappoint your horse when they only get one feed. :D

[Chip]

Ditto Moomin.

[mogadoga]

As my horse is at grass i feed one tiny feed a day. He only gets the feed due to work. Although when stabled he gets one larger feed per day. By this i mean not a handfull of stuff, an actually scoop.. So not exactly huge, although sugarbeet is added.

Im sure your horse will be fine, not feeding everyday wont harm her. And when you do it will be a nice treat for her, which she will associate with you and love you more! Hehe.

[Cheko]

Falcon gets 1 small feed a day at the moment and he's out 24/7. In Winter he gets hay as well as one hard feed. He lives out all year round.