I really am looking for experience and suggestions. I have a slightly hard keeper thoroughbred. I have him on field board since he’s slightly arthritic and has ulcers. He’s just happier in the field rather than stall board. He has been bullied out of his food and I’ve struggled to put weight on him. He’s on 3 qt/ 2x a day with weight gain, ulcer, and joint supplements. I’ve thought about upping his feed but there’s no point obviously if another horse is going to eat it. The barn manager swears he gets all of his food when I’ve witnessed the opposite. I’ve worked at boarding farms and when this has happened, I was instructed to watch the field horses eat and make sure everyone got their food. Isn’t this the norm? Or do people say put him on stall board if he can’t defend his food? I just want suggestions on how to approach the barn manager and what could be a good solution to this.
What about seeing if your horse can just come in to a stall or private pen to eat for an hour or two? I don’t know how a barn can individually supplement a horse in group turn out.
Every farm I’ve worked at we absolutely supervised feeding regardless of if horses were running each other off feed. If we had a particularly slow eater we would pull that horse at feeding time and either put him in a separate paddock or stall for a bit or had an employee halter him and have him eat outside the fence.
If those aren’t options the farm is willing to do, I would look into using a feed bag.
I would be concerned that he could be being run off hay too… have you observed whether he is able to get adequate hay?
How often are you able to see your horse? While you are there, can you make sure he gets some extra food?
If not, then you may need to pay extra to have a barn employee make sure your horse gets to eat alone, whether that’s stall board or some other arrangement. That’s something you’ll have to chat with the BO about.
You can easily supplement a horse in group turnout if you have staff supervise feeding time.
Are you present when feed is dropped and stay the whole time and see them eating, and see your horse chased from his grain? I have a boarder who was on pasture board, and she arrived a couple times about 20-30 minutes after I fed and would see the horses on “incorrect” hay piles (they all provide their own hay and grain but the three horses in question all got O/A) and assume her horse had been chased off its grain also. This wasn’t the case, as I would always stay a few minutes after dropping grain to make sure everyone stayed put. Her horse simply got the least amount of grain and just ate it faster because she was at the bottom of the herd. Regardless, she switched to stall board, problem solved.
Some farms will watch until all are done eating, some have feed stalls in the field. Most, IME, don’t. Pasture board is cheaper because it is (supposed to be) less work and less time required for care. Both of these negate that at least partially. Any barn I worked at that had pasture board, all horses were on the same grain and same amount. Feed was dropped in containers numbering at least one more than the # of horses in the field in case they wanted to play musical feed. Horses requiring special diets could not be pasture boarded.
I would ask if there is a different herd he could move to that may be less pushy. If not, an individual lot, either for feedings (expect an additional fee) or 24/7. If not, stall board or a different facility are probably your best options.
The easy $17 answer is a feed bag. If the food is strapped to his face, nobody can steal it. Most horses learn to use them very quickly. My TB is also on pasture board. When he sees the food coming, he heads over the gate to pick up his feed bag. When he’s done, he comes back to the gate to have it taken off.
Around here, grain isn’t typically inclued with rough board. You would be expected to pull him out yourself to feed his grain.
I think I’d start by asking the barn mgr. if they can suggest an option for feeding him separately. Grab whatever option they suggest before coming up with your own solution, because if they suggest it, they’e more likely to do it. If there isn’t a good option, then I’d pull out the expensive stuff, have them feed just plain feed, and I’d give him a meal of supplements and whatever else when I came out at night.
When my guy shared a field with an even older, slower-eating hard keeper, the barn owner built a little 10x10 pen in the corner closest to the gate for the old man to eat in. My guy would finish, then wander over and hang out watching his buddy work his way through his soaked alfalfa cubes.
It was simply two posts with boards on one side and a pipe gate made up the other, built in the corner of the pasture. Since I was doing morning chores, I’d feed my guy first, and the old man would usually be waiting by his pen for me.
When we had some on pasture board we would tie them. We would snap on lead ropes and loosely tie them right next to their feed, we would keep the feed tubs as far apart as possible. At another barn we would pull the horse from the field and hold them while they ate out of the field. Both these options were provided in pasture board at the barns. When I was at school the barn had a “stall” board that each horse had a stall and would come in eat and go back out.
Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I have actually WITNESSED him being bullied away from his feed. I am unable to be there every single day (there about 3-6 days but feed him myself when there) and can’t be there for every feeding because of work. The first barn manager would bring him in but management has changed. There is a pen built in his field which is fairly close to the gate. They used it for awhile, swore he was fine eating with the others again but I have witnessed Otherwise. All the horses are on different feeds, supplements, and amount. I think putting him in a pen became inconvenient and they stopped. I try to be empathetic because I know it’s a hard job, I’ve done it but what’s the line of negligence/laziness? I DON’T want to be a queen. I don’t want to put him in a stall bc he gets stiff and stocks up plus pasture is best for ulcers. I will go to her again and see what she suggests. Tbh I don’t even know if I believe her anymore. Is this worth going to the owner or am I wasting my time? I’ll look into a feed bag for sure. I’ve never even seen one!
It’s for grain, not hay. Here’s a link to one. My horse is parrot mouth and used to drop a lot of his food. With this he gets everything.
These are the ones we used to use:
[URL=“https://www.tackwholesale.com/products/71-7108d?variant=38695549392&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=Google&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&_vsrefdom=adwords&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5_DQmc2a2gIVz0oNCh3iIw0aEAQYBCABEgIjTfD_BwE”]https://www.tackwholesale.com/products/71-7108d?variant=38695549392&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=Google&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&_vsrefdom=adwords&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5_DQmc2a2gIVz0oNCh3iIw0aEAQYBCABEgIjTfD_BwE
A word of caution: keep your head out of the way as you’re putting the bag on… had a gelding knock me in the side of the head and off the fence I was standing on when he flung his head once the bag was on! That was a broken nose waiting to happen.
Feed bag, not hay bag. 
Since it sounds like you had a good situation that changed for the worse with new management, I’d say your choice is likely to deal with it as is, or move on.
As others have said, field board usually means no extra care (including, IME, no grain). If you want special treatment, move to stall board and ask them to leave him out of his stall for all but a couple hours for each feeding.
Feed bag. Start by setting the bag in a little bucket and letting him eat it that way at first. He has to learn to set the thing on the ground to get to the stuff in the bottom. Then buckle it on. And, yes, be careful! keep your head out of the way. I do this very thing twice a day with one of my field boarders.
I have mesh feed bags. The only problem is that powdered supplements will fall out. They make other kinds of bags with breathing holes they may work better.
Many farms use them. You just have to remember to go take the thing OFF when they are done eating and, hopefully before they go take a drink. The residue feed will make the water icky so you have to watch that.
You may need to offer to pay extra to have them either do the feed bag or separate him if you want it to happen.
Having your horse put in the (currently unused but provided) pen for feeding would be the best option IMO – a lot less hassel than the feed bag route which requires a certain amount of training for use + the on/off safety factor etc.-- easier to just put the horse in the pen for 15 minutes. I would approach management and ask what would be required to get the ‘pen feeding’ into your boarding contract: might cost you a few extra bucks tacked onto your board or perhaps tipping the help would suffice + you could offer to keep the pen clean – whatever it takes.
Feed bags are great options, but they do require barn staff to use them.
The routine at my barn for pasture board is to use feed bags for everyone (twice a day). But this is a place that offers well-serviced pasture board (includes blanketing).
This is a situation where you are going to have to not approach the management all angry and pushy but more asking what you can do to make this happen. Pay more is the first option.
If they insist ‘he does fine in the group’ do not fight with them about it, just say that you want him separate.
Thanks! I’m really not a pushy person which is probably a problem. I don’t want to be a pain-in-the-a** boarder but I like your approach. Make it simple and to the point. Hahah sorry everyone, I corrected “hay” bag to “feed” bag right after i posted it. I have seen a hay bag lol. Unfortunately, i don’t think think the feed bag will work since he is on a powdered supplement 
. I am going to speak with her this afternoon and hope we can come to an agreements with the pen feeding again.
