Would you be unhappy with this sudden changing of feeding routine of hay at your boarding barn? Unbeknownst to me BO has decided to start feeding round bales in the field. This was never discussed as a possibility before moving there months ago and as they had never fed round bales before I didn’t ask or make it known I have an issue with it. They do not even have the equipment to move round bales so they are being rolled off into the middle of fields with no cover and nothing underneath. I am livid. My horses are easy keepers and have ballooned suddenly. I chalked it up to spring grass already as I hadn’t seen their pasture since fall until daylight savings changed the light situation during visit timing. Now I see it is from unlimited hay not the bits of green popping up. I work so hard to keep them trim as I can and would have muzzled them if I had known so much hay would be constantly available suddenly during turnout. AITA for being upset?
I don’t think YTA, but as an owner of an easy keeper, I have always visually paid very close attention to what is going on in his turnout year round because he is such an easy keeper. The BO and staff are also very aware of his needs and know he has to be managed differently.
In a non-easy keeper scenario, I’d be thrilled to have rounds provided they are stored properly before hitting the pasture and aren’t not full of mold.
Depending on how agreeable the BO is, you could see if nets could be put on the round bales if the horses are barefoot. If not, grazing muzzles will slow things down too. I have used them successfully with hay in turnout and have seen others fare well.
Livid? Over your horse’s having access to hay outside? Ok.
Pay better attention, muzzle if they can’t keep weight down.
And for Pete’s sake, feeding on the ground with no cover is absolutely 100% the safest way to feed round bales. It may be the most wasteful, not the best for IAD horses, and may be the least attractive, but it’s as safe as it gets.
What did your contract say about what they would be feeding them in turnout during the seasons where grass is not plentiful?
I do not really find adding round bales during the non-grazing season to be a sudden change of feeding routine.
I consider it more of a seasonally appropriate change in feeding routine.
I would talk to your barn owner about how you, moving forward, need to know when the free choice hay goes out so you can add grazing muzzles to your easy keepers.
Do not go at them with the anger you are expressing your post.
This post is kind of funny since we have so many people in the world who are all up in arms that their boarding barn does not provide 24/7 hay and here we have a boarding barn doing that, with much effort on their part to make it happen, and one of the boarders is upset about it.
I am curious, have you really not been at the barn at all during day light hours all winter? No weekend day visits? No day time farrier visits?
For the record, I get the whole easy keeper thing.
Right???
The one barn we were at had rounds which ended up working out ok for us since they apparently had little nutritive value but I kept a VERY close watch in the beginning.
Ill say this too because I ran into the problem; make sure they are taking off all the twine/wrapping around the rounds. The barn I was at that had rounds did NOT do that so me and a couple other boarders did it ourselves. Apparently no one else did after we left and they recently had a horse there get caught up in it and ended up with an infection so bad it had to be put down. Always keep your eyes open. Even the better run places can still have misses from time to time.
Turnout for my crew isn’t visible from the barn so in the dark it is especially impossible to see their field. Barn owner is very aware of my horses needs and my desire to keep them lean as possible. The turnout is large enough that there really is no need for a round bale. Half a square bale out there in the morning and they have plenty to pick at the rest of the time.
Yes livid. I have metabolically sensitive animals that can be turned out and live normally within reason. Parking in front of a round bale is not within reason. If horse 1 gets too fat their feet hurt and I get to add supplements to try and get extra weight off them again. No cover for a round bale that is going to be sitting out there for a couple weeks is not ok to me. If the field was packed with horses that a round bale disappears quickly that is one thing but with the amount of rain we have been receiving I don’t believe it is best practices to feed an uncovered round in this situation. Field is large and the grass is already coming up so there is no lack of small forage for them to pick at all day so they wouldn’t suffer from continuing what has been done all winter.
Then take a walk out there; with a flashlight if it’s dark. The first pasture my horse was in was a big 20 acre one that you couldn’t see the back half at all. I walked back there a couple days each week just to check fencing and look for groundhog holes because I knew the barn staff wasn’t going to have the same time I do to dawdle around looking at that stuff as I did.
Because you asked, yes, you are being a bit of an ahole.
Don’t get me wrong; barn owners should be communicating with their clients. I am always miffed to be left out of the loop of my horses’ care.
But your level of anger does not seem justified for the situation. Things like lack of equipment, lack of cover, and placing round bales on the ground-- these are not automatically problems.
Given the difficulty of finding boarding barns that provide adequate amounts of hay, I would not be upset at a barn allowing my horse unlimited hay. Muzzle them now that you know and they should be back to your desired weight in no time. Be thankful you are dealing with too much hay rather than too little. And maybe ask the BO to keep you in the loop about any feeding changes next time.
So I will ask again, during the whole winter you were never at the barn during daylight hours?
Livid is not your best choice for approaching this situation. See @trubandloki’s response for a more measured way to discuss with your BO. There may be horses in your field that need that extra forage. It may be that your BO has forgotten about your horses’ special needs, especially since they are not already wearing muzzles as the grass comes up and we all know that short spring grass tends to be high in sugars.
The issue is that this was a sudden change with no communication. Hay all winter has been square bales thrown out into the fields at an appropriate rate for number of head out there. There is no need for round bales at this point. There is grass coming up add a little hay and there is plenty to pick at.
Over the winter yes I occasionally saw their field. Not in the last two weeks have I been out there.
There may be a need for round bales that was not discussed with you. Staffing, price, supply, whatever.
I think you ATA here.
We don’t have groundhogs and the barn owner is expected to look at the fences. If my horses are already inside I am not going to go out to their field unless I am looking for a lost bell boot. I don’t understand why me walking their field is an expectation unless I think there is an issue?
It is not a sudden change.
They have been feeding hay all winter.
They are still feeding hay.
Round bales in group turn out have lots of advantages. None that you are willing to see, clearly.
But let’s ignore all the advantages and simply guess that maybe your barn owners went to all the work to roll out round bales (because even you admit it was a lot of work for them) for a good reason. Not just to make you angry.
Likely their source of small squares is not as plentiful as they typically are (last year was a weird growing year in my part of the world) so they are making up for that with these horse quality round bales that they take the time and energy to roll out there, knowing all to well that there will be waste, but this gets the horses fed.
Stop wanting to be angry about a nothing thing.
Fight real battles, not this one.
Walk up to the barn owner and say - Thank you so much for all the hard work you do, I totally appreciate it. Dobbin and Tinkle Toes are liking your new round bales way too much so we are going to have to add grazing muzzles to keep them from getting too fat. The grazing muzzles would have had to come out shortly anyway because the high sugar spring grass growing, so I hope it is not an issue to add them now. Thank you again for all you do.
All but maybe two of the horses on the property are obese. Some morbidly so. Mine are mostly pastured solo and the ones that join them occasionally could use to lose 100+ lbs. And I am not exaggerating on the needed weight loss under selling the weight loss needed if anything.
I’m changing my initial response to “YTA”.
If you did walk them, you’d have known a lot sooner about the rounds. In a perfect world, every little things would be communicated to boarders but we all know that isn’t reality.
In all likelyhood, maybe they ran out of whatever cutting squares they had or were getting and rounds made more sense until 2024 hay gets cut. Not at all out of the realm of possibility.
This.
Although I respect that having a metabolic horse is serious, I’d reel it in a bit.
I’d muzzle now and/or increase their work to keep the weight off, and also not feed them anything else, unless medically required. Then I’d calmly approach the BO in a polite manner and explain my concern over my horses getting too fat and ask if half a square bale (or whatever) is still an option, then go from there.
Did they get botulism shots? I’d be more concerned about not being properly warned to get the shot series. Dying of botulism is a terrible way to go.
Nope. Mine have never had it as they have never been fed off round bales. That is another layer to my upset.
