Curious to know how often your horse is fed at your barn? Twice, three times? Is hay (and/or grass) always available or no and how often? Thank you.
The barn feeds hay 3x day, and he is out 9-3:30 with some grass in his turnout. I give him a small amount of grain in the morning.
Most of my gang gets grain at night and free choice hay/grass depending on season
a couple get grain am and pm
a couple get limited hay year round
We feed grain meals 2x a day. If we are trying put weight on horse, we may feed a third grain meal at lunch. Most of the horses get free choice hay. Except for the air ferns.
I rent out a property so I’m able to be in charge of feed and all that. Horses have nearly 24/7. We feed twice a day but put large amounts out there so they really never run out. There’s always scraps on the ground to be eaten come next meal time. I grain my two I’m getting ready for events 1-2 times a day depending on if they were worked or not. They have fast metabolisms and need the extra boost to keep gaining muscle and weight.
Coastal hay (round bale) 24/7. Concentrates twice a day (frankly, I need to check in with the barn manager how much and exactly what at this moment in time, but she’s had a lot of experience managing youngsters and trust her judgment).
Grain 3 times/day. Hay in non-grass season is morning and lunch in paddock, then in their stall when they come in and at night check. So that is 4 hay feedings in non-grass season. When there is grass it would be two hay feedings.
Where I board in the summer, hay is fed 3 times per day (twice a day is standard, but a third hay feed is optional for an extra charge). The horses are turned out every day (at least in the summer…a bit more variable in the winter) from 9-3 and have some grass in the fields depending on the weather and season. Grain is fed twice a day.
My winter boarding barn feeds hay 3 times per day standard, grain 2-3 times per day (depending on the horses’ needs), and the horses have a stall with a run but no turnout.
My summer boarding barn feeds less hay than my winter boarding barn. In the summer barn, the horses definitely run out of hay overnight most days (except in the spring/early summer when there is more grass in the fields so they tend to eat slower/less when then come in) and between each feed if they aren’t turned out. In the winter barn, the horses maybe run out of hay for an hour or so between feeds depending on how fast they eat.
We feed twice a day but when I have a barn full of easy keepers I just feed concentrate once. my personal horses – no one gets more than 2 lbs per day total, so there’s really not a need to split that up. Now I have a harder keeper boarder so the twice a day schedule is fine.
Mine have hay 24/7 but I only feed that once a day (or every other day – I use whole bale nets and it takes 2-3 days to get through them). They are also out 24/7, so from around the first of May to December I don’t feed the big field hay at all. They have more than enough grass and are too fat already. The hay wouldn’t get eaten. My horse in a smaller field has hay in his shed but goes through maybe a bale a week.
Frequency of placing the food in front of the horse is much less important than having access to something to graze on a fair amount of the time. Horses in a field of grass spend a fair amount of time standing around not eating. I would avoid the “throw two small flakes that are gone in an hour, twice a day” barns but there are many variations of decent enough I’d consider acceptable as a boarder. I like the way I do it, but it isn’t totally necessary and definitely isn’t standard for boarding barns to run that way, and I wouldn’t expect it if I boarded out.
Interesting. Thank you for the responses. My horse it in turn out (no grass - just dirt - no hay) between breakfast and dinner, which is about 10 hours or so. Makes me wonder if evening lessons (before dinner) would go better if she had had some lunch. Even just some hay or grass, which is not an option. Hay fed for breakfast and dinner in stall is also limited and always completely gone.
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Same. It is horse dependent. Mine always have a round bale.
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LOL. I had one gelding that I found out if I threw him a handful of grain in his bucket prior to a ride, he “thought” he ate and was a doll. If I didn’t he was a beast. Horses are funny.
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Maybe. I also think my horse may genuinely be hungry after having only two feedings per day with absolutely no hay or grass in between. Horses were meant to eat and have their bellies full more than twice in 24 hours, no?
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Is there a particular reason for the dirt paddock and no hay during the day? It’s quite possible your horse would be a bit happier with more regular forage throughout the day versus only morning and evening.
Mine gets fed grain morning and afternoon and hay three times a day. I supplement his forage with alfalfa cubes in the afternoon/evening (never really an exact time of day, usually 30-45 mins after I ride). Some of the horses in the barn get an even grain snack, but mine currently doesn’t.
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Mine gets ration balancer 2x a day and has free choice hay, as well at 8 hours of turnout a day.
I agree with this - that more forage throughout the day when expected to work in the evenings would be helpful and make a happier and more willing to work horse. Dirt paddocks because that’s all that is available. And no hay during the day because the barn owner must not believe it is necessary, and money. I always here about money. Even though I pay high board.
Gotcha. I wasn’t sure if there was a medical reason for the dirt paddock and no hay. Quite frankly, if you can’t get the BO to feed hay during the day I’d move barns.
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All day every day hay/forage. Small amount of senior feed/RB for minerals etc twice a day.
I also think that work on an empty stomach is a set up for ulcers. 10 hours with nothing to munch on is pretty rough. I also would think this cause to do a serious alternative barn search.
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I’d be outta there. Horses left with empty stomachs for that length of time are prone to ulcers.
It unacceptable horse arrangement.
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