Does anyone have experience feeding their horse once a day ? I currently rough board and having to go to the barn twice a day to feed is becoming difficult. Horse has free choice hay, a run in shed and pasture. Also eats a ration balancer and a 1/2qt TSC Senior am and pm.I would give the hard feeds once a day.
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If the horse has enough hay in bags or round bale that he has constant access to forage, there’s no earthly reason to visit self board twice a day
I am caretaking two horses in self board with stalls and runouts. My own mare has a 4 drop automatic feeder that drops hay from her loft at 8 pm, 1 am, 8 am and 1 pm scheduled around me arriving to do chores in the afternoon. Mash just before I leave.
Other horse, her timed feeder only had 2 drops and is not currently working so she gets 10 lbs of hay in the evening and a large small hole hay net with another ten pounds for overnight, and this is working ok in that she still has wisps when I arrive.
For both their big much bucket water buckets get them through 24 hours even in summer.
If they were living outside and I had control of the space, I would likely get giant hay nets and put out a bale at a time, or if I had more than two horses I’d put out a roundbale.
The question is just whether you can arrange 24 hour access to hay without either your own horse scarfing 20 lbs in the first two hours, or other horses in a group turnout eating hay you paid for.
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My retired horse is only fed once a day— meds, beet pulp, vitamins and a dab of a complete senior feed. Free choice hay and some pasture. In fact, all the horses I’ve had at home only get “grain” (whatever that looks like for each horse) in the evening. Hay 3-4 times a day.
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I’ve never fed grain or mash etc more than once a day. Unless you are feeding an insane amount of grain that needs split into multiple feedings or you have a rehab or anorexic horse that needs multiple smaller feedings. I always thought grain at night was normal for basic recreational horses.
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I think the usual cap is 5lbs “hard feed” per meal? So not including hay cubes or pellets. If you can fit all your grain into one 5lb meal, there’s no reason to go twice a day as long as there’s hay available.
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In the past, I have fed once a day in the summer --but currently the elderly boys need twice a day to get all their supplements. If it were just the youngest horse Bob, I’d probably do once a day again.
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Mine get so little hard feed that it would be difficult to divide it into two feedings.
I personally worry more about the horse getting themselves into some type of predicament that would benefit from help sooner than later. That is why I do care 2x per day.
I only feed their hard feed 1x per day, even with the 2x per day care.
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You have a feeder that dumps hay? Can you link?
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They’ll be fine. Been doing just that for over 20 years.
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Feeding grain 2X daily is more for me than my horses.
I like to put eyes on them.
I feed whole oats in small amounts - daily total 4 cups for 16h horse, 2 cups for 13h pony & 2/3 cup for mini - & mostly to get supplements in.
“Supplements” is BOSS for all 3, Thyro-L for the mini.
Lately Zyrtec goes in the PM grain for horse & mini.
Add a 3rd round of hay at nightcheck, same reason.
But, on occasion, that 2nd grain feed has been so late it becomes part of nightcheck.
Horses have free access to pasture from stalls 24/7.
Pastures are nowhere near lush, enough grass to keep them busy.
Water is in buckets in stalls & a 50gal foodgrade barrel in front of the barn. All topped off as needed.
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When I’m camping or staying on property with my horse, I’m out there multiple times a day and do a late night check. But my regular life is self board at a club about a ten minute drive away. If I need to I can do multiple visits a day for medical reasons. But it works fine to spend a several hours chunk of time, either before or after work or whenever on non work days. OP is doing rough board which is BE for self board and likely has a longer drive and more time constraints than me.
It helps if you have barn buddies who will notice obvious problems when you aren’t there
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I’d swap the 1/2 qt of senior twice a day for a once a day ration balancer unless 1 qt of the current grain is meeting the minimum feeding recommendation. 1-2 lbs of a low nsc balancer probably gives you a lot more bang for your buck nutritionally.
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Looks like OP feeds an RB as well as the grain.
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Ah! I overlooked that. sticking to the RB with senior for extra calories or palatability seems really logical.
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My caveat is the supervision or observation by knowing and caring eyes at the rough board barn. If you are comfortable with any problems with your horse being reported to you then certainly switch to once daily visits.
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My horse gets his ration balancer just once a day. I’ll be honest it’s because he doesn’t need a lot and I’m too lazy to make up double bags for the boarding barn to feed. He does just fine.
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I fed once a day for about 6 years while renting a pasture and no longer living across the street. It was fine, with the horse having access to pasture 24/7. Since you are feeding a ration balancer, that should work out without trying to feed too much at one time.
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My retired fatso is at a barn that only includes grain once a day for the outside 24/7 horses. My vet had no concerns at all since he only gets 1 lb. of RB. He’s been there 4 years and has no issues with it.
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I’ve pretty much always fed once a day unless I have one with a unique situation that calls for more than that. Right now I’ve got a new gal that came in a little underweight and I’ll bring her in and give her an extra serving and some alfalfa for a second meal but I don’t sweat it on days I don’t have time to get that 2nd feeding in
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I have two groups of horses…fatties and harder keepers. The harder keeper field gets fed concentrate twice a day, the fatties once. With the amount OP’s horse is getting, once is fine.
The 2 fatties disagree with the justice of this, so if they are around I give them each a small horse cookie so they don’t feel totally left out.
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