A trainer that I like works out of a barn that feeds grain once a day. Hay is 24/7. I’ve not heard of such a thing. In my world, horses are grained twice a day or at swanky places three times. My hard keeper currently enjoys three pounds of grain twice a day with a mid day snack of rice bran. What are your thoughts in moving from a two + regimen to all concentrates once a day? It’s apparently all the rage on the east coast. I’m obviously skeptical. Please allay my fears. Happy to trailer in, but far more convenient to keep my horse at the trainer’s preferred barn.
My horses only get their beet pulp, low NSC pellet and vitamins in the evening. My boarded mare only gets fed lunch grain (She gets beet pulp and Ultium along with supplements). It really depends on how much grain a horse is fed. Since mine are not getting more than a pound of “grain” along with their supplements/soaked beet pulp, it is just fine.
So your horse would be getting 6 pounds of grain in one feeding? That seems like…a lot…but I don’t/haven’t ever fed that much grain to a horse I’ve owned. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can weigh in. Or maybe ask your vet??
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I feed like @Calvincrowe. Yeah if your horse is getting more than 5 lbs of grain meaning something heavy on oats corn or barley then you should split it up into multiple feedings. But if it’s a more forage first feed then it doesn’t matter. What is your horse actually eating?
The horses in my barn get concentrates once a day, unless they are getting a ginormous amount of dry weight per feeding.
Currently there is only one horse in the barn who’s getting concentrates twice a day. He gets about 3 pounds dry weight beet pulp, And 2 pounds alfalfa pellets, soaked twice a day, and everybody else is just fine on one feeding. He is a 17 hand warmblood who came to the barn skinny, and he has been putting weight on steadily with this regimen, along with all the hay he can eat, and four hours of pasture
For some reason, people started calling pretty much everything that isn’t hay, grain. I don’t get it. Unless you’re feeding literally. GRAIN, It’s concentrates.
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And if it’s alfalfa cubes it’s really just hay!
Once upon a time we fed actual grain. Nowadays many horse owners don’t actually know what’s in their feed and call it grain by default. I call it “bagged feed” which may or may not also be fortified with vitamins and minerals. The more modern bagged feeds often have little or no grain,
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Mine are pasture puffs. I only feed their “meal” once a day but they get unlimited grass/ hay. One looks like a beached whale and the other two are plump. We have been in a drought so I have supplemented their ration balancer with soaked alfalfa/ timothy pellets and copper and zinc. No reason to feed that more often.
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Agreed that so much depends on the horse. I have a 28 year old TB mare at home and she gets about 8lbs of concentrate a day (senior feed), but my other two do not. They only eat twice a day because she does.
Not sure any horse needs a “mid day snack” of anything but hay. I would far rather horses had less concentrate and more hay in a boarding situation; insufficient hay is often a bigger problem.
I also question a lot of people’s definition of “hard keeper” - I’m not sure your horse would qualify to me as a “hard keeper” but it depends on how much hay he is getting, and what you’re feeding 2x a day at 3lbs/each. There may be options that will work in a 1x day regimen just as well IF he has enough hay.
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Yeah, I’m another that doesn’t feed a second bucket meal, unless there’s a good reason, like meds dosed twice daily. Three pounds of concentrate am/pm isn’t what I’d call a hard keeper.
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Mine could easily be feed 1x a day. They mainly get soaked beet pulp and v/m supplement. I only feed 2x due to allergy meds for one horse.
What I’d do is ask BM at this place what the solution is if your horse loses weight on their feeding program.
My decision to move would be based on the answer.
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I feed free choice hay/grass and everything I own (I do not have boarders) keeps weight fine with that. They get their vitamin/mineral supplement (or ration balancer for one) 1x per day.
If no one was getting any supplements or such, they would not get anything but hay.
I can see how this would not work for a truly hard keeper or a horse with dentition issues that required soaked cubes or such.
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The general rule is .5% of their ideal weight in a single meal. That’s really based on the idea that a meal has enough actual cereal grains, which REALLY means, a pretty good amount of starch. You can’t force too much starch into the hind gut or it will cause problems.
the more forage-based the meal is, like lots of feeds these days that have beet pulp and/or hay meal in the first couple/3 ingredients, AND are lower NSC in general, the more you can push .6% or so
So that’s 5-6lb per meal for a 1000lb horse, 6-7lb for a 1200lb horse, you get the idea.
What is his “grain” now? How much rice bran? 6lb of feed MIGHT be ok if he’s 1000lb, but adding in 1lb of rice bran is really pushing it.
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I’ve always fed twice a day, but my vet feeds her horses once a day.
Mine gets all his feed in the am, has been like that for a few years now and does totally fine. He gets 1 lb of Tribute Kalm n EZ, 1 1/2 lb of Tribute Essential K, two cups of Purina Outlast, and a cup of Max E Glo, plus his joint supplement (Equithrive Original Joint). I know you’re supposed to feed Outlast twice a day but he does just fine on it once a day shrugs
Because they have hay 24/7, how much hard feed are they getting?
Anything over 5lbs should be split into two feedings at least, just based on the stomach’s volume. If it’s 5lbs or under, I wouldn’t be as concerned.
I’d put money on this being a financial/time thing. It’s not killing the horses to feed once a day, so why pay someone to feed more than that when they have hay available? <–sarcasm
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I would guess that it is more that the horses do not actually need it.
In my case, all my horses get ‘grain’ (alfalfa pellets so not really grain) measured by the handful or cup (or really not measured at all) to carry their vitamin/mineral supplement.
There is no reason to feed them that twice a day. But I am out there giving more hay or changing turn out areas or cleaning or such twice a day (at least) anyway.
If this barn is forage based, it truly is likely that most of the animals there do not really need grain meals except for vitamin/mineral supplementing.
Or, not knowing this place at all, they might just suck and then I would assume that the OP does not want to board there anyway because all the horses look crappy and no one with half a brain would want to board there.
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I used to feed mine twice a day with free choice hay 24/7. Then I became ill with several auto immune issues and due to necessity began feeding once a day, at midday. Then they stay in until evening and go out.
In 20 years no one has died and not so much as a colic.
It saves a lot of wear and tear on me.
I think the issue is dumping a lot of food in an empty stomach. As long as they have forage 24/7 and there’s something in the tummy it’s not an issue.
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I have only fed “grain” once a day for the last 10-12 years (other than my older mare who needed large amounts of senior). They have 24/7 hay or pasture and at the moment “grain” is 1/4 lb of Triple Crown Senior, 1 big handful Triple Crown stress free, Vermont Pro vitamins, salt and flax. I would guess with 24/ good quality forage your horse could probably come down in the amount of grain and be just fine on once a day
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Well, on the flip side - if they don’t need it, why pay someone to do it?
But also - if they are out 24/7 and it means bringing them in for feeding - it is a lot of time, which is money. If it’s not necessary…that’s something easy to skip to keep costs down.
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Mine get a cup of ration balancer in the summer and in the winter a cup and a half. No need to split that into several meals. I am now mixing it with some soaked alf/tim pellets to make them think they get fed more and to get them to eat their copper/zinc supplement. I don’t want to mess with that more than one time a day.
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