When Full Care Board Doesn't Supply Enough Hay

[Dressage.For.Life]

What do you do when your barn doesn’t supply enough hay? Do you pay extra to get additional hay from the barn? Do you buy your own hay? And if so, where do you buy it (feed store, directly from farmer)?

I’m just struggling to wrap my mind around needing to buy additional hay for my horse after moving to a barn that promised no nickel and diming and convinced me that my hard keeper wouldn’t be a problem, stating that all the horses got whatever they needed :no:

I’m weary of blindly paying a surcharge for “extra hay” so I’m curious as to if this has worked for others. I can go out and buy my own hay but I’m afraid it will be hard to find good quality locally and I only have a car to transport it. TIA.

[Mosey_2003]

What does your contract say?

Are they providing truly too little hay, or just not enough for your hard keeper?

I would ask the BO what your options are. Either pay them for additional, find a way to buy and transport your own, or see if you can’t use pellets or cubes.

[Timex]

well, when you moved there, did you specifically ask how much hay/grain they would feed? sucks to have to ask, especially after being told that they would give them ‘whatever they need’ but yeah, sometimes you have to make sure everything is blatantly clear, ad just as the question.

[findeight]

Review contract.
Have civil conversation with BO
If you choose to pay for extra, bring your own, don’t assume they will take care
to ensure additional quantity you pay extra for is being fed. Cubes or pellets you can keep in your car work best.

Might want to look elsewhere too.

[sascha]

If you plan on staying - this is what hay cubes are for, imo. I started using them for this exact reason at a place that rationed hay unreasonably.

I use them now because my current horse simply will not eat enough hay, but she will eat enough soaked hay cubes to make up for the short fall.

[Appsolute]

Well I am out in California - and so far, out of the places I have boarded at over the last 7 years, NONE of them provide as much hay as I like to feed (the current barn is the closest, and they have actually started feeding more - great!).

Any way, I buy my own hay. Just a bale at a time from the feed store (we have a number of different places in the “city” even to buy hay around here).

Our bales are around 110 pounds each, and I store the hay in a small rubbermaid locker at the barn. In the past when I didn’t have storage, I stored it in my garage and brought a few days worth at a time up to the barn.A bale lasts about 2 weeks (at the under feeding places, 3 weeks to a month at the current place).

I COULD pay the barn to feed extra hay, but they charge about 2x as much as it costs me to buy it myself.

Good luck!

[Chief2]

Time for a civil discussion to sort it all out, then figure out where to get what you need. Figure out how the cost or convenience factors affect you, and then make your move. Keep it civil, and you might find yourself on the winning end of this. Good luck!

[betsyk]

You might also reconsider what “enough” means to you, and to the barn. They may say it’s “enough” if he doesn’t clean it all up; you may think “enough” means “enough to keep my hard keeper at a BCS of 5,” which may be a totally different conversation.

I have a senior TB who is a horrible waster of hay, if he’s fed on the floor. It only took me until he was 26 to realize that if I simply put it in a small hole net, he wasted practically nothing. I still feel a little guilty about all the hay he wasted over the years. I also realized by doing this that at his most hungry, he only eats 3-4 flakes of alfalfa overnight; anything else is left in the net til morning. By most barn’s standards, 3-4 flakes over night is perfectly reasonable. I guess my point is, there are lots of ways to consider what’s “enough” hay in any situation. Is there a way to bring your idea of “enough” in line with theirs?

To answer your original question: a 50-lb bag of alfalfa cubes/pellets or complete feed fits in the back of most small cars or in a dog food bin at home. Maybe look to a complete feed or senior feed, if you really need/want him to get the most calories and fiber you can provide economically. Buying extra hay a few bales at a time tends to be a huge pain unless you are in a really unique situation. I did it when my horses were in a friend’s back yard and she had empty stalls available for storage and I had access to a truck, trailer and local supplier.

[ElementFarm]

I was assured my horses would be sufficient hay. When I expressed concern that two of them were looking a little lean, I was told they’d be fed more. They weren’t. It became a source of tension in all subsequent conversations with the BO. When things didn’t improve within a few weeks, I left the facility. No regrets! New barn had better turnout and fed whatever/how much I asked them to. Horses all blossomed in a few weeks. Best decision, and eliminated a lot of stress.

[Tee]

Years back, the board I board at changed their fee structure. I honestly thought it was weird, and would be a pain in the butt (not for me, I self care and provide my own feed). She has basic boarding plans, and then if you want the barn to provide hay, you pay by the flake. So much per flake per month. The cost is refigured when new hay comes in, but since she buys in bulk, it’s cheaper than the feed stores most times.

Perhaps this needs to become more the norm?

[trubandloki]

[QUOTE=Dressage.For.Life.;7957934]
What do you do when your barn doesn’t supply enough hay? Do you pay extra to get additional hay from the barn? Do you buy your own hay? And if so, where do you buy it (feed store, directly from farmer)? [/QUOTE]
I think it depends on your barn and your set up and what your contract says (I guess I am just agreeing with everyone else).

Are you saying he is not getting enough hay because you are not happy with his weight or because of some other reason? Could it not be the lack of quantity but a different quality hay, so you have to make up for it with something else?

[bathsheba8542]

They should be feeding as much as a vet would recommend - what, like 20-25 pounds of quality hay per day? If they are not feeding what is generally accepted to be what a horse needs on a daily basis, I’d be concerned about their care.

[Mosey_2003]

[QUOTE=Tee;7958081]
Years back, the board I board at changed their fee structure. I honestly thought it was weird, and would be a pain in the butt (not for me, I self care and provide my own feed). She has basic boarding plans, and then if you want the barn to provide hay, you pay by the flake. So much per flake per month. The cost is refigured when new hay comes in, but since she buys in bulk, it’s cheaper than the feed stores most times.

Perhaps this needs to become more the norm?[/QUOTE]

I think this would be quite reasonable if it were by the pound rather than flake. Get so many units and then x amount for however many extra units per month you want.

[trubandloki]

[QUOTE=bathsheba8542;7958113]
They should be feeding as much as a vet would recommend - what, like 20-25 pounds of quality hay per day? If they are not feeding what is generally accepted to be what a horse needs on a daily basis, I’d be concerned about their care.[/QUOTE]
They should be feeding whatever the contract says they will feed.

There are parts of the country that getting large quantities of hay is very difficult so they feed cubes and other such things to make up the roughage requirements for the horses there. (Not saying that is the case with the OP, simply saying that a blanket statement about what must be done does not work.)

[Groom_amp_Taxi]

My boarding barn has a stated amount of hay included in the full care - at this moment, I can’t recall if it is 20 or 25 lbs per day. If you need more than this, your only option is really to supplement with pellets and/or additional feed. The care in most respects is very good, but there is very little flexibility around the hay, and they have their reasons. Their reasons are not necessarily good ones in mpo - mainly to do with schedules and convenience - but they are very consistent about it, and the hay that they do provide is excellent. It’s been my choice to work within the limitation rather than around it, but that is an individual choice.

Wondering if the OP’s barn often encounters horses that need more than the “usual” amount?

[dqsid]

I’ve been in a similar situation…I borrowed a truck and bought 20 bales at a time, stored it in my garage at home and took it to the barn 1 bale at a time in my car (for the record 4 bales of hay can be stuffed in the back of a Vibe =) I also made sure I went to the barn later at night, so I was there to provide extra night-check hay and put out an extra flake to be given at breakfast.

[Magics_Mom]

Most of the barns I have boarded at I have supplied additional hay. Not so much because they didn’t feed enough but the quality was poor. I have a show horse that stays in show condition year around and to do that he get straight alfalfa hay. So I store it in my garage and take it out to the barn 1 bale at a time. I can’t believe some of the crap people feed…their excuse that is what is available…however if you look you can find. I also supplement my boys in the winter because they need more hay then the place provides.

[Guilherme]

A professionally run barn sets its full care board rate for an “average” light horse in maintenance to very light work (as that’s what most horses do). “The Book” says that’s going to mean about 2% of body weight in hay per day. That’s all most horses need although most get fed more than that (remember that America’s favorite color for a horse is “fat”).

If the hay is really good then maybe they need a bit less; if it’s not then maybe they need a bit more.

If work increases, so does feed consumption.

If a horse has a peculiar requirement then the barn should meet it but it’s fair to charge for the cost of providing the service (both material and labor).

G.

[pook]

Buy and feed your own extra hay, if you can.That way you know your horse is getting it. Don’t assume that “they” will feed “their” hay as extra hay.I have had to do this for years until recently.The barn where I am now allows up to one full bale per horse per day. My horse and I are VERY happy there.

[jawa]

I agree with a previous poster who finally realized that her horse was wasting a lot of hay that was feed on the floor. When the horse was feed from a hay net, the horse ate more and if an excess of hay was provided it was left in the hay net.

I found this to be true with all of my horses. If they have stepped on the hay, it is then no longer considered “good” enough to eat. The horses would toss the flakes to find the best tasty bits and in the process step on lots of the hay, which wouldn’t get eaten. This would then get thrown out when stalls were cleaned.