Holiday feeding advice please

LindaAd

LindaAd

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Feb 20, 2000
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Dorset, UK
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Hi, I have two horses, one Haflinger who needs to lose weight (that's her in my avatar)
and a retired cob, who has lost all his muscle but is a reasonably good doer. The problem is that we are going away for about 10 days around Christmas and I can't decide what to do with the horses. They are out 24/7, with shelter from hedges on two sides, and the cob is rugged if the weather is very cold and wet. At the moment they're on a small paddock and they are fed old, soaked hay in the evenings - two nets on the ground.

The grass hasn't really stopped growing since the spring, although it's growing pretty slowly now, and they love their hay. When we are away, I would like to open more of the field, which has been resting since the start of winter, and stop feeding hay - this is because if the Haflinger gets bored or thinks she's underfed she will go through fences and could hurt herself and also to make life easier for the kind neighbour who is looking after them for us (she will be coming twice a day to look after the hens anyway). I'm just wondering whether the sudden change from grass + hay to 100% could be dangerous. Neither has ever had laminitis, and I don't want to start now. Maybe I should make the change before we go, and ration their time in the new paddock, and still feed hay, but less?

What do people think? We don't usually go away in the winter, and it's worrying me. Thanks for any advice
 
I would do a combo of both, still feed hay and open the new paddock but do it gradually. If you say your haffie may try and make a play to get into a better part of the field then whilst you are away it may be a better easier option for whoever is coming to tend to them - are they horsey or not? Just wondering how they'd fare putting her back into the other half if she did decide to chance her arm. Could you make the night nets a bit smaller to compensate for the extra paddock grass?
But having said that, if they like their night hay nets.....hmm.....if you could let them eat the lusher part down gradually now then it shouldn't be a problem. And neither have had lami before you say, so I wouldn't be overly concerned.
 
I would start giving grass time now and build it up gradually until you go, whilst reducing the hay slowly. Then while you're away let them have acces to a fair ammount of grass and have your neighbour put out a little hay if they want it, perhaps they could move the fence every few days too if they can.
 
Thanks for all your thoughtful replies. I'll go along with the suggestions, building up the grass and reducing the hay slowly. I started today. They were down in the new grass for a couple of hours, and when we brought the hay, Hebe the Haff saw us and came galloping up - just what I thought she'd do! But old Barney chose to stay where he was, so I left him there. My neighbour is horsey - her two are in the field next door to mine, so she could easily deal with Hebe if necessary; the fence is a permanent one, not moveable - I could put the electric one up to reduce the area, I did that in the spring, but Hebe doesn't respect it, and the area's not that big, so I think I'll just see how it goes.
 
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I would just give them a bale in the field for the time you are away and leave the grass until you are there to supervise. Moving fences etc is an ask for a neighbour doing a favour. Having a round for ten days wont do them any harm.
 
You're down South as well aren't you, Linda? We have still got grass growing in our winter field and so we are opening it up a strip at a time, about one fence post a week, so we reckon they will be getting new grass till well into January. We top up with hay once the grass strip is grazed down. We're still having to muzzle and/or stable our greediest cob but this is working for Ziggy, who is quite trim for this time of year. So if your friends are up for moving electric fences, that is what I would do!
 
Yes, I'm in Dorset, Jane. I started feeding the hay (three years old and soaked) to try and get Hebe to lose weight - she gets frustrated on restricted grazing, and she can get out of a grazing muzzle ... It was working, too - she lost 15 kilos in about 10 days. She will tolerate the electric fence for a few days if I move it about twice a horse's length (a bit further than your fence posts? ), but they knock the poles down and it's too easy for them to get tangled up.
 
I ended up plaiting my muzzle into Ben's forelock as this was the only thing that keeps it on. The plait is light enough to rip out in a real emergency but it makes it much more difficult to slip over his head.
 
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