Best method feeding turned out horses?

[RockyMountainMare]

Hi all–

I recently bought a horse property that I’ll be bringing my horses onto, I have 2 retirees and 2 young mares that will be a herd together. They’ll be stalled at night individually, but by day I want them to be turned out. One of my mares is being treated for ulcers and I want her to have regular access to forage–I’d prefer if all of them could honestly since that’s the most natural way. However, one of my mares is only on alfalfa hay, one is on Timothy, and the 2 retires and both on an even mix of Timothy and alfalfa.

How do y’all handle having horses with different feeding needs? I know I can feed them all individually at night after I put them away, and I can possibly have them fed individually in the morning for an hour or so before being turned out. The only caveat is that the mare on Timothy can’t be on alfalfa at all.

Should I dump a few Timothy bales in the turnout and let them munch as they wish? Separate the herds by diet? What have y’all’s strategies been? I’m WFH right now so it’s currently fine for me to run out there several times a day but I know eventually I’ll have to go to work and I may not be able to come back for lunch so I’d like to find a way to give them all day access to feed and stretch their legs. Or is this not possible?

[trubandloki]

@RockyMountainMare

Hi all–

I recently bought a horse property that I’ll be bringing my horses onto, I have 2 retirees and 2 young mares that will be a herd together. They’ll be stalled at night individually, but by day I want them to be turned out. One of my mares is being treated for ulcers and I want her to have regular access to forage–I’d prefer if all of them could honestly since that’s the most natural way. However, one of my mares is only on alfalfa hay, one is on Timothy, and the 2 retires and both on an even mix of Timothy and alfalfa.

How do y’all handle having horses with different feeding needs? I know I can feed them all individually at night after I put them away, and I can possibly have them fed individually in the morning for an hour or so before being turned out. The only caveat is that the mare on Timothy can’t be on alfalfa at all.

Should I dump a few Timothy bales in the turnout and let them munch as they wish? Separate the herds by diet? What have y’all’s strategies been? I’m WFH right now so it’s currently fine for me to run out there several times a day but I know eventually I’ll have to go to work and I may not be able to come back for lunch so I’d like to find a way to give them all day access to feed and stretch their legs. Or is this not possible?

Anything is possible, it just depends on how much work you want to do to accomplish it. Having to have different hay is definitely an interesting road bump to figure out. Different grain and eating times can easily be handled with feed bags, but hay not so much.

Does your set up allow them to be separated by diet? That would clearly be the easiest solution.
Can the mare that is only on alfalfa have other hay at all? If she can’t have the timothy it seems like your only option is to turn her out separate from the rest.

[Snowdenfarm]

Can you feed them all Timothy hay and just add alfalfa pellets to the feed of the ones that need it?

[JB]

What’s the total diet of the horses on alfalfa? Do they HAVE to get alf? Are those hay options the only ones available to you?

Convenience would be Timothy in turnout, and give alf to those who are getting it now, in their stalls at night.

If the one on all alf is getting that for calories, you may be able to make up the calories, which is why I’m interested in the total diet

[Bogie]

I have a mare who is turned out with a friend. My mare gets some alfalfa; the other horse doesn’t need it.

I fill two Nibble Nets. One has a flake of alfalfa mixed with timothy, the other is straight Timothy. My girl is a food guarder, so i’m pretty sure she keeps her Nibble Net at least mostly to herself and gets the bulk of the alfalfa.

When feeding more than just two, I used to add soaked alfafa cubes to the feed of those who needed it. However, that only works when the horse getting the good stuff is at the top of the pecking order when it comes to feed!

[Simkie]

I feed alfalfa overnight, when they’re stalled. During the day, grass hay is available free choice.

Works great. Horses that need the alfalfa get it, horses that don’t need alfalfa don’t. They have plenty of time to eat overnight.

[RockyMountainMare]

The one only on alfalfa could actually stand to lose some weight, when we were given her she was extremely obese (she was on almost pure purina senior feed) and we’ve since got her transitioned to full alfalfa. I was told by her last owner that she doesn’t like Timothy. So I suppose it’s possible if I have a bale out in turnout she may avoid it all together?
My biggest concern is keeping her alfalfa away from my other mare, but I could possibly give her a small amount in the morning and turn her out after she finishes and give her the rest at night to tide her over.

[RockyMountainMare]

It seems like the consensus is to drop a bale of Timothy in the turnout and give the alfalfa to those at night who need it. Thanks y’all!

[dulawan13]

Feeding a few lbs of straight alfalfa in the morning before turnout can be quickly consumed… then turnout to whatever the rest is getting. That’s what I do with mine. At night when they come in I give straight alfalfa 1st on the floor. and the rest of diff hay in nets. I find it settles their stomachs, kinda like tums, and is best fed 1st and straight! lol

[candyappy]

I would feed timothy in turnout and then feed individually at night to those who get additional types of hay. The simple solution is always the best if you can manage it.

Otherwise you will need to configure your set up fencing wise to keep the horses separate by feeding needs.

They may not all get along together once you move them, so just be prepared that what you plan for in the beginning may need to be changed anyways.

[Equkelly]

@RockyMountainMare

The one only on alfalfa could actually stand to lose some weight, when we were given her she was extremely obese (she was on almost pure purina senior feed) and we’ve since got her transitioned to full alfalfa.

Out of curiosity, why is she on full alfalfa? For turning out a group, I always do a cool season grass as the “base”, like Timothy, and then add alfalfa as needed for the harder keepers.

[RockyMountainMare]

Before I was given her, she was on 1 1/2 flakes of alfalfa a day and about 10lbs of purina senior feed (her old owner had financial troubles and gave her the feed that she got for free). The horse weighs around 1100lbs when she should be closer to 1000 according to my vet who knew her before her weight gain (she’s also been sitting for awhile with no exercise). She’s an easy keeper so far that I’ve learned, but I probably would be too if I was fed that much sugar. I kept her on the alfalfa to easily transition her away from the purina and her old owner told me she doesn’t like Timothy so I didn’t really think to try it. She’s currently on 3 flakes of alfalfa (roughly 17lbs according to vet) as her diet. Alfalfa is less expensive for sure, so I wasn’t against keeping her on it, though now realizing that I want most of my horses on a good grass hay I may end up seeing if she’s palette it. If it’s freely available to her she might try it out of boredom/hunger?

[Equkelly]

@RockyMountainMare

Before I was given her, she was on 1 1/2 flakes of alfalfa a day and about 10lbs of purina senior feed (her old owner had financial troubles and gave her the feed that she got for free). The horse weighs around 1100lbs when she should be closer to 1000 according to my vet who knew her before her weight gain (she’s also been sitting for awhile with no exercise). She’s an easy keeper so far that I’ve learned, but I probably would be too if I was fed that much sugar. I kept her on the alfalfa to easily transition her away from the purina and her old owner told me she doesn’t like Timothy so I didn’t really think to try it. She’s currently on 3 flakes of alfalfa (roughly 17lbs according to vet) as her diet. Alfalfa is less expensive for sure, so I wasn’t against keeping her on it, though now realizing that I want most of my horses on a good grass hay I may end up seeing if she’s palette it. If it’s freely available to her she might try it out of boredom/hunger?

No horse will “like” Timothy when the other options are alfalfa or purina senior. Some horses need alfalfa to keep weight on, or its great for ulcers, or younger growing ones, or lactating mares, but if I had one that was overweight I would not be doing 100% alfalfa. I honestly wouldn’t be doing any. MAYBE 50% alfafa if I really wanted more protein but no way would I feed 100% alfafa to an easy keeper or overweight horse. That’s just my two cents, I know it’s not what you asked!

[fordtraktor]

Give them all the Timothy. If your mare is overweight she doesn’t need alfalfa at all. She will eat it if she is hungry. I would cold turkey stop the Senior and transition her onto a ration balancer.

[Weezer]

I think you’ve got some great suggestions here. I agree it would be great if you could get them all on 5he same hay. In terms of stretching out the hay throughout the day when you go back to work, I recently bought a solar powered timed gate opener, which is awesome.

Batt-Latch Gate Kit

So I put up electric fencing to split the paddock in two. Breakfast is in the main part of the paddock and lunch is on the other side. I do the same for dinner and midnight feed. This is really helping me drop weight off my easy keepers who were on free choice hay for years and are all significantly overweight.

[trubandloki]

@Weezer How does that gate release work? Where does the gate go?

[Weezer]

You put a hook through it and it releases the hook when the timer goes. I use the spring gate that comes with it. It has quite a snap to it so I keep the opening narrow (about 6 feet) to reduce the snap. My horses spooked the first few times it went but now they know it’s the sound for more hay. You can buy a conversion kit to make it work on a metal gate. If you look up batt latch on YouTube, there are a few videos to show different set ups. I love it and I can’t believe it’s not more prominent in the horse world. It seems to be geared toward the cattle industry.

[trubandloki]

@Weezer

I can’t believe it’s not more prominent in the horse world. It seems to be geared toward the cattle industry.

I think having a metal spring gate on the ground for the horses to get tangled in is enough to make most horse people decide to not use something like this.

[Weezer]

I have it hanging high enough that it doesn’t reach the ground (about 3.5 feet high). It hangs on the fence post once it has been released. I hang it at an angle so when it springs back, it springs away from the horses. It takes some consideration to set up safely but it’s great.