How much hay?

[sandy]

I've got a 15hh, 3 year old Appaloosa x who I would say condition scores at 4. (Can only just feel ribs) He out during the day but obviously because of the weather is not getting anything from the already sparse winter grazing. In at night from 3pm til 8am. I try to give him 9kgs of hay but with these seriously low temperatures I've been giving him quite a bit more and every bit is gone in the morning. I know he'll put weight on but worry if hes left for such a long time with no forage. Keep telling myself I can reduce his forage intake when the weather gets milder and get rid of the extra kgs in Feb, March ready for all that spring grass. I used to have a mare that weight wise was very difficult to manage and seemed to be continually in grazing muzzles and on a diet so I'm a bit obsessed with the weight issues.

How much forage/feed do you give your horses given the temperatures and conditions?

[anastasia55555]

maybe double net the hay if you can, it is going to be difficult to soak it in this weather, with taps being frozen and also the hay freezing once you have put it in the stable.
Maybe if you can hang the hay up in different haynets in different places in the stable?
Sorry not sure about how much feed/forage by weight for different sized horses.
Toffee gets loads and loads. she hardly ever runs out of hay in the stable, but she needs to put some weight on and try and hold it over winter so the opposite of your position.

[lilaclomax]

Can you get some older/choppier hay that is not so palatable but still edible? In this weather there is little for you to do other than have the facilties to soak for over 2 hours and hope it doesn't freeze or give him a small amount every couple of hours so he never goes long without.

I am lucky in the fact that I can have both 2009 hay and 2008 hay.. the 2008 hay is still good enough for the horses to eat and is mainly used to put out in the field but for shadow he has 2 haynets with 2008 hay in and 3 biscuits of 2009 hay in the manger. Obviously the new hay goes first but then he can snack on the older hay.. over 6 weeks of this routine he no longer eats everything in sight as he has learnt that there is a ready supply of food - the only thing he rushes for now is his tea!
Once the weather becomes milder I will go back to soaking his hay too but for now I am just happy that he has settled into a good feeding routine. I know the other option is to give straw but that should be soaked and in this weather -

There was a post a while back about feeding continously - will have a search for it

[anastasia55555]

maybe if you could cut the feed right down if you do feed anything? just to try and help

[anastasia55555]

just a warning about older hay, beware that it isnt too dusty, as Saxon was fed older hay because of lami and ended up with COPD, not to say this will happen to all, but if you cant rinse and/or soak old hay, be careful. The old hay will still contain the same amount of sugars if off the same fields/areas, but the vitamins and minerals in it will prob have deteriorated.
Has been research recently into the old hay theory being better for weight loss, and it actually proved not to make a difference, and possibly lead to things like COPD

[arabheaven]

mine are out at the moment incase I can't get up to turn them out and because I think it is better for them to be moving round.

Zac has a stable rug and medium turnout with neck cover on, ori has a heavyweight with neck cover. Zac is 14.2hh PBA approx 430kg, ori is 16.2hh anglo approx 520kg and both condition score 3/5.

In this weather, they get 2 slabs hay each in the morning and I have just been up at 2pm where they have had their tea (alfa a/hi fi/fast fibre and vits) and have put a bale of hay out in lots of different piles for them to munch overnight.

[lilaclomax]

Thanks for the warning Anastasia55555 - I made sure the hay was not dusty, it is just not as tasty as the 2009 hay (well Shadow says so anyway!)

Sandy the link to the old thread is here ihdg.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=ght09&action=display&thread=100785&page=3

(sorry the link takes you to page 3 not page 1 - laptop not behaving today!)
HTH

[anastasia55555]

Jan 6, 2010 16:25:14 GMT 1 lilaclomax said:

Thanks for the warning Anastasia55555 - I made sure the hay was not dusty, it is just not as tasty as the 2009 hay (well Shadow says so anyway!)
Sandy the link to the old thread is here ihdg.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=ght09&action=display&thread=100785&page=3

HTH

Goodo :-D x

[wendyihts]

I would always feed to current condition and workload so that would mean either feeding smaller amounts more often but not going over the required amount per day, or double netting. 9kg of hay is probably already closer to 2% bodyweight; it's 1.5% bodyweight of hay for maintenance and min 1% where they need to lose weight. If you were worried about him getting the vits and mins you could put him on something like Top Spec Anti Lam or Top Spec Lite, which is lots of vits and mins etc in a very low calorie base.

In terms of laminitis, an obese horse would be even more at risk out on that frozen pasture too, so the 'danger' from the grass is present now, not just in March.

[june]

I'd double net the hay with two small holed nets, or use a small holed net if you aren't already doing so.

Old hay is not any less nutritious than fresh hay. Once hay has dried completely, which takes about a month after baling, then no further changes occur to the composition. The only time it would change is if microorganisms started growing on it and then it would be mouldy. Late cut hay tends to be less nutritious than early cut hay but even that isn't always the case.

The other thing you can do is to soak the hay. That takes a lot of the sugar out and is the only way we managed to get weight off a couple of overweight Shetlands. It isn't much fun in this weather though!

[sandy]

Thanks everyone. I put his hay in a very small holed hayledge net and then some on the floor. I didnt want to use nets at all but after seeing how he wolfs down the hay on the floor I decided I had to net some otherwise he'd eat it all so fast. I dont want to soak his hay yet as its so cold it would have ice in it but might do this as spring looms. I found my old horse lost the most weight with soaked hay. I've been giving him 9kgs which is 2% of his bodyweight as I thought 2% was the maintainence level. Its going to be -6 to -7 tonight. I actually think hes probably a condition score of 3.5. As soon as this severe weather ends I can cut down on his hay and probably put him out without a rug when appropriate.

[ella19]

Can you get hold of some straw and mix it in with his hay then he can munch on that but it's lower calorie? Or take a layer of rugs off him, being slightly on the chillier side his body will have to burn more calories to keep him warm. I'm not suggesting freezing him especially if he's fully clipped but taking perhaps a fleece or underlayer off can help with weight as well.

[KoLaTo]

12.2, 13.3 & 14.1 doing over a bale a day between them easily, more if necessary plus damp soft haylage for one of them as he is suffering from dehydration and i am struggling to get fluids into him.

I've never weighed my hay, i know roughly what they need to maintain and what they need to lose, at the moment all 3 are way too fat for my liking but i can't have them going without anything for too long, my zero grass field has been frozen for around the last mth now with a couple of de-frosted days in-between for them to lick at the mud and moss............

I have no water and have only had 2 days of a defrosted tap in 3 wks so absolutely zero chance of soaking it as i do in the summer, it's enough for me to be taking water for the buckets and trough without trying to deal with frozen haynets as well.