Hi all, longtime horse owner but I always had to feed with round bales out because I was never home for lunch. Now I work from home and I am ration feeding 4 times a day. Around 7AM, noon, 6PM and midnight. All three horses could loose a couple hundred pounds each. I am feeding approximately 2 flakes per horse per meal (so 8 flakes per horse per day). Now that winter is here and there is no grass, I am wondering if it’s ok that they go 3-4 hours without hay in between meals? I would love for them to drop some weight but I am also paranoid about ulcers. I would love some advice!
I wouldn’t want mine to go that long with no forage.
Try slow feed hay nets so that they’re eating little bits for longer periods.
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How many kilos/lbs is a flake? I feed mine 7 am, noon, and 7 pm (in haynets for the night) when I bring them their noon ration they still have some hay from the morning. I feed small square bales (15/18 kilos each) and I give them 4 flakes each in the morning, that should be about 4 kilos of hay per horse
I didn’t even think of my slow feed nets tucked away in storage!! Of course I should pull them out! Thanks for the reminder.
Still wondering what amount of time people think is acceptable for their horses to go without hay?
cilla1 - unfortunately I don’t have any idea about the weight of the hay. I am peeling it off a round bale so I’m eyeballing it and feeding a consistent amount (one packed wheelbarrow - very scientific!) This amount seemed good for them in the spring - and I forgot I was using nets then. So I’ll go back to the nets and that should solve it.
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My horse has timed feeders and is an air fern. She gets 5 feedings a day so goes 5 hours between feedings. It takes from a half hour to an hour to eat a feeding. No ulcers. She knows the routine.
Weight loss is important. I’ve seen obese horses founder on a 100% hay diet. It’s a trade off.
I’ve found I really have to feed by weight…easy from a hanging scale & I put the hay in a fireplace log bag (cheap & I learned from someone else on this forum)… the hay slips easily from the bag to the open hay net. Divide the daily amount needed (i.e. 22 lbs or whatever) into how many feedings you give. Doesn’t matter if they finish before next feeding… like us they can wait! lol
As far as what I think is acceptable to go without hay… it depends. And likely it will depend for a lot of people.
I have one who is a harder keeper. So unless I’m actively doing something with him, he has hay or grass in front of him at all times. Even in his stall for twenty minutes while the farrier trims my other horse.
The easy keeper…I don’t mind him being without forage for an hour or so (like when the farrier is doing my other horse).
I’ve also gone on trail rides that are a few hours long and the horses only get occasional nibbles when we stop for a break.
And, all this being said. I only feed my horses twice a day. They occasionally run out of hay before the next feeding. Maybe that bale was more loosely packed and I inadvertently fed less. Or maybe they really liked the taste. Idk. Being outside, they also have the ability to eat grass… even dead grass in the winter.
I’d imagine your slow feed hay nets will help!
That’s what I do with my horses in the winter. They get hay at 6:30 am, noon, 6:30 pm, and 11 pm. I’m home to watch them during the day and they eat for a while, leave some hay remnants on the ground, then go take a nap, then mosey back over to finish the scraps, and then it’s just about time for more hay. I haven’t scoped, but none of the four of them show any ulcer signs. I think people forget how much napping happens.
I also believe that a horse with nothing to eat is a horse looking for trouble. I can correlate the increased number of bites, nips and kick marks to low food availability. They also have a habit of investigating their surroundings more intensively at these times. My palomino learned how to open a gate chain during one of these times, (thankfully into the pasture). On low hay days (last day of a round bale), things are more disturbed, feed pans relocated, wheel barrows knocked over, paddock fork relocated to the bottom of the dry lot. The wooden stakes that twirl the gate post tension wires chewed or missing.
Try the slow feed hay bags, double them up to make it harder and more of a grazing thing. I just know that if I do not give my boys something to do, they will find something to do. We never both leave the property with out a plentiful netted hay supply.
Mine get fed ample hay morning and evening( on the ground on mats) . When it is gone , it’s gone. I have fed this way for decades.I feed them good, but never weigh it. Never had a horse with ulcers and it allows my easy keeper types to maintain a desired body weight.
Right now they get less hay but still have grass access 24/7 . Once the grass goes dormant they will get more hay and still have access to the pasture grass or no grass. I think you have a bigger risk of problems if they are stalled . I haven’t done that at all for 30 years.
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How much do your flakes weigh? You could be way over feeding or under feeding because one flake could weigh 2lbs or it could weigh 15lbs.
Can you feed them a more mature, less calorie dense, hay like a late-cut brome? That way they can still have access to hay more often but won’t eat too many calories.
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Here’s some info that I ran across and found interesting. You might too.
Thanks everyone for the advice! I dug out my slow nets so now they’re only an hour or two without hay.
