Your Feeding Routine

[moonlitoaksranch]

What is your feeding routine? Or, if you board, what is your barn routine when you greet your horse?

AM: I have a whistle that I do when I go outside on the way to the barn. The big, goofy, TB cross has the loudest whinny, while the mini donkey is warming up his bray. The pony mare nickers and my mare gives a hearty, medium loud, whinny. The sheep begin hollering as well. I have to be careful not to trip over Ralph, the barn cat. If he’s caught a rat, he’ll want me to see it and acknowledge him with a pet before attending to the horses. Occasionally, I get an impatient nicker from my mare if I’m waylaid by the cat. I have big rubber tubs that I feed them in, so I have to go into all three stall/paddock combos to dump dirt/shavings out and move them back against the stall wall where I can drop in the feed.

The first stall is where the Shetland pony mare, Maggie, and the mini donkey, Tony, live together (Tony is gelded so it’s a platonic relationship). I hug and scratch the wee ones before moving on.

The TB cross in the second stall always reaches his head over to get head rub before I go into his stall. He loves to step into his tub and flip it around while waiting for his food. If he flips it on its side, I grump at him and he’ll knock flat again, lol.

The Mustang is a perfect lady when I go in. She gets her back scratched, wiggles her lips, and stays politely out of the way while I set up her tub. I fill their tubs with hay, drop their buckets with feed and extras in, then move on.

The sheep are fed and then I feed the barn cats (Ralph and Delilah) before starting on the daily cleaning. By the time I’m done cleaning, the cats have full tummies and want to be petted, or play with baling twine a little. I usually let the horses eat before exercising them. When I leave the horse barn, I have a way I tell the horses goodbye, so the feral barn kitty knows its safe to get her food.

I feed the chickens, and finish with the cow and goats. The cow needs her daily hug and chest scratches and the goats need to have their backs rubbed. Then, and only then, am I ready to groom and saddle, if I’m riding that day.

PM: Bring everyone in from pasture, if they were out, and go through the feeding routine again, except for the cleaning.

[candyappy]

I have my daughter doing chores with me but it would be the same if I am doing it solo.

Morning routine 365 day a year- no exceptions.

1. We get the left over hay out of the goat feeders and make our way to the horses dry lot ( all 3 are together) The horses get their RB and the dry lot gate is opened letting them into the pasture. We clean the dry lot/ attached run in shed. Water trough is filled.

2. I clean the cow/ Boer bucks stall/ lot area and give them their hay/ grain while my daughter feeds/ waters the chickens. Daughter waters the cow.

3. We end up together at the goats dry lot/ barn area and we clean and feed them hay and grain. Fill water. Salt & mineral feeders filled if needed. Open their gate to their pasture. Look everyone over real close.

PM

1.We bring the horses in to the dry lot area for the night ( i just have to call) . They get fly sprayed and RB.

2. Replenish hay, water and give everyone ( cow, goats) a once over and lock the gate into the pasture for the does. Cow & buck have 24/7 access to their pasture.

3. Feed and lock up the chickens for the night.

Winter is a bit different as horses are out all the time and I feed hay twice a day and a lot more of it.

[moonlitoaksranch]

That’s neat that you feed with your daughter. Our son helps with evening chores, unless he has too much homework. He also helps on weekend mornings.

[candyappy]

If I lose her I will miss it for sure! I did it solo for a long, long time. It just takes a lot longer…

[quietann]

I board. If I am not there (or there and just haven’t gotten to it yet), at 6:30 a.m. every horse gets a small or half-flake of hay ASAP (sometimes pre-feeding meds are done first so all horses have to wait, which I don’t like as they mostly are out of hay by 6:30 a.m.). Then breakfast once all have hay and meds. (Breakfast is made the day before, and soaked upon arrival in the morning if it needs to be soaked.)

If I get there first, well, the first thing I hear when I go into the barn is my mare making some noise. She has a very distinctive, loud low-pitched nicker than means “feed me NOW!” The others will start up too, but she is always first. So I’ll give her hay, go off to use the bathroom or something, and about 5-10 minutes after she gets her hay, I give her breakfast. And apologize to the others for making them wait.

I am rarely there for dinner, but the process is similar (and she is equally noisy. Thank g-d she doesn’t paw or bang on the stall door!)

[Texarkana]

Walk from house to barn with barn cat between your legs. Try not to step on him, fail repeatedly.

Feed the barn cat first or else nothing will get done. Spill half the barn cat’s food as he excitedly head butts your hand with the bowl in his impatience.

Grab my water bucket and go out the back door of the barn to fill it up at the inconveniently placed hydrant. Forget to latch back door. Curse when the two donkeys seize the opportunity to dart inside the aisle, as if they don’t do it every single time.

Shoo donkeys back out to pasture. Collect feed buckets from stalls. Scoop feed, add water from the bucket I filled, place feed back in stalls. Meanwhile, the bulbous warmblood boss mare has most certainly heard me and takes the opportunity to throw her full body weight into scratching on the 100+ year old barn to make me hurry up. The boards creak and moan and I’m pretty sure it’s going to collapse on me one day while I’m in the feed room.

The stalls have Dutch doors into the field, which I love. I open the doors and let everyone in one at a time. The donkeys will finish their respective handfuls of feed in about 2 seconds, then will start squeaking for their handfuls of hay. If I am slow with their handfuls of hay, or heaven forbid I forget, they will commence full on velociraptor braying until the entire county is aware that I am starving them to death.

The two ancient TBs take forever and a day to eat their food. Abby, my darling, nutty Abby, will not eat unless the entire herd is safe in their stalls. So even though everyone but the thoroughbreds is done in less than 5 minutes, they all have to hang out ~45+ min while the toothless oldster finishes his nearly 10lbs of gruel (Abby isn’t much faster at eating hers). At least it gives me time to get other barn chores done. The amount of time it takes him to eat is inversely proportional to the amount of time you have to devote to feeding.

Repeat again for dinner.

I’m looking forward to more efficient days in the future if/when we ever finally move onto our new property.

[B_and_B]

Collect the feed buckets that have the soaked food in them from the basement (cold), walk out to the barn, start putting grain in the buckets. Listen to the dinnerplate size hooves go thump on the board rail fence that guards the water trough. Wonder if today is the day they will stand on the water trough plywood cover and break it. Collect the longe whip and buckets.
With longe whip as a pointer explain that the young boy (who is boss) gets feed first but must stand politely at his tire while I collect the feed tub and place it in the tire. He may not crowd me, nor big boy, nor may he kick, paw, or otherwise fuss. The lesson is finally getting through not only to him but also to big boy. You stand at your tire and you wait. Period. The tires are front tires off a backhoe, perfectly sized to fit the biggest tough rubber tubs. This keeps young boy from destroying them as he paws while eating. However, big boy will come by later and flip them all over the place, so I have to put them in place every day Feed him, repeat with the big boy. Collect the senile pony mare who is sure that she is going to get feed somewhere…else…and usually forgets the dish that is in front of her. Lock her up so she can eat in peace and quiet. Which takes much, much longer than the boys. Who wonder why she is getting some food they aren’t because obviously they are starving!
Contemplate the scenery and hope that the black bear doesn’t wander through the yard this morning. Not kidding.

[lenapesadie]

My am routine currently: walk out on side deck of house, get spotted by starving horses, turn on water and electricity to barn, collect breakfast buckets from fridge in garden shed, drive golf cart to barn, open gate and let one horse in a stall, the other horse stays in the larger community stall / run in area. Dump breakfast to starving horses. Top up water buckets, toss hay, pick any manure / pee in horse areas, turn on fans. Doctor on whatever bobos we have. Fly spray. Pick feet. Mix dinner and put in fridge.

Dinner is same except after they finish eating, the stalled horse gets turned out (by opening a gate) and do more thorough mucking.

[moonlitoaksranch]

Black bear? Cool! Are you near a state park?

[exvet]

Living in the desert (nothing but dry lot) my guys get fed 4 times a day. They are basically out 24/7.

AM - get up and go outside to be greeted by the 3 amigos waiting at the gait. I let two come inside into stalls and leave the third out. I feed them their ration balancer and put out their hay. When all are done eating their ration balancer the two inside get kicked back outside.

Noon - my SO if I’m working or me when I’m not, put hay in the feeders that are in the turnout. No need to call. They know the routine.

5 -6 PM - I feed alfalfa pellets and the PM portion of supplements to two of mine who stay in their turnout. The third comes in to have his flake of alfalfa and his supplements. He’s young, weedy and still growing. When he’s done he gets kicked back outside with the others.

8-9 PM - I go out and put out the last of their hay for the day in their feeders. The minute they see me head to the barn they come up to eat.

This regimen keeps forage in front of them most of the day while I can still control how much they’re getting and minimize the waste. If I’m late by more than 5 minutes they start banging on the gates…creatures of habit.

[Spudsmyguy]

AM- my TB is looking toward the house with an expectant look on his face. Stumble out to barn in my pjs and TB gives a big stretch, like a cat and nickers at me. Scoop out his Haystack and deliver to his feeder. Give the appy a pat on the way to the hay storage. Provide both with hay and they happily chow down. I check water and refill as needed. At around 10:00 I turn them both out to pasture for the day.

PM - Clean stalls and paddocks. Set up evening feed - soaked Haystack with a vit/min supplement and loose salt. Bring in around 6:30 to 7:00 pm. Fly spray if needed and give scritches to my TB and a kiss on the snoot and wish them both a good night. I do check on them around 11:00 but that’s a quick in and out.

Boarded horse is fed by barn person and so far, he’s doing well there and not losing weight.

[B_and_B]

Nope! Northwest Ct, where black bears are as common as anything. We are on a regular routine circuit for several bears, they come through to check the neighboring vineyard, to check our fruit trees, and then to check our neighbors fruit trees, and then to get everybody’s trash cans or bird feeders. The young horse is from Iowa, he doesn’t think bears should be part of the scenery. The big guy was born and raised in Massachusetts, he thinks black bears are boring and shouldn’t be a cause for leaving the food dish.
I worked at a retail store in a strip mall just outside Hartford for a bit, urban environment. Their resident bear had learned how to open the ‘bear proof’ dumpsters. Fun times.

[Alterration]

Am:
I have slow feeders in the stalls so generally everyone still has hay in the morning. Feed 38 year old blind horse first because he takes forever to eat.
Put feed into buckets on feed cart, walk down aisle distributing feed. Put a bale of hay onto the dump cart, take to pasture, distribute piles. Take out horses, check and fill tanks. Clean stalls and refill slow feeders. Sweep aisle.

Noon:
Bale of hay onto the dump cart, distribute hay to horses who enjoy following the dump cart and eating out of it.

Afternoon:
Horses queue up rather politely at the gate. Let in in the order they have decided is appropo. Once all are in, prep grain on grain cart and distribute as hay is already in slow feeders in stalls. Refill water buckets. Sweep aisle.

Late night:
Throw an extra few flakes per stall. Water. Prep tomorrow’s hay & straw. Sweep aisle.

[TheJenners]

Mornings:

Go out, halter the big idiot and let him “graze” in the barn aisle (loose hay from hay nets the night before), otherwise he will anger piss in his runout - yes anger piss. He will hold it for 12, 14, 16 hours until you come out, but if he isn’t immediately acknowledged he will pee. He will happily continue to hold it for another 5-10 min if he is acknowledged.

Feed the senior his scoop of senior food. Grind the pony’s pills and feed her. Wake up the yearling, who is usually still sleeping. Take out the big idiot. Come back and take out the yearling and the pony together. Flay spray if required. Muck the stalls and give the donkeys their pittance of hay while the senior eats, then take him out with the hay cart and give outside hay.

Evenings:

Fill feed buckets to appropriate levels of water and start various feeds soaking. Take down, fill, and rehang hay nets. Bring in the big idiot because if anyone else comes in first, he will run until he pulls a shoe or you catch him or both. Bring in the senior, while grumbling about his old lame ass chasing them around. Bring in the pony and yearling together. Scoop meds, grind pills, mix feeds. Feed the yearling sneakily so the pony doesn’t notice, feed the senior and the big idiot. Then feed pony. Hang out until the yearling is done, while fending off the pony who wants to steal her food and the donkeys who are making the big Puss in Boots eyeballs at me, even though I know they will steal from the hay nets.

Sometimes I even get to do it in the daylight…

[2DogsFarm]

Loving how everyone’s horses & other critters have us trained.
Their Motto:
“Good Help, so hard to retain”

Here’s my schedule:
6-6:30A - get up, make oatmeal for chickens (protein) add egg if I’m egg-rich (more protein & calcium from shell)
Clean litter box for housecats, refill their water, fill bowls with kibble, dispense a few Temptations treats in each bowl.
These cats do not care for canned food.
Put on funky barn clothes & head out to chicken coop.
Horses are generally in the small field that faces the coop.
Mini greets me with his ridiculous mini-whinny.
Big horse heads for the barn with his minion - the Hackney Pony - following.
These 2 rarely wait for me, or the mini.
Chickens get fed, watered, poop scooped & their AM treat of sunflower seeds.
I refill the small nonworking resin fountain sculpture in their fenced yard they consider Magic Water.
Mini follows me to the service door of the barn (enclosed in the sacrifice paddock) & enters with me.
He makes a beeline for the hay stacked on pallets, pillaging any unfinished bale at ground level.
Horse & pony go to their stalls through the open Dutch doors at the rear & wait for the hay they know is my first priority.
I pick stalls while they eat hay.
Mini is still exercising his Privilege of Aisle Access.
I open the aisle door to mini’s stall, start by picking that if anything is in there & lock the gate at the rear of his stall to outside (recent added duty to prevent him going in with horse & “helping” horse finish his grain).
Pick any manure from horse or pony’s stalls - generally pony’s stall has been used as The Men’s Room - pick the paddock just outside the stalls.
Mix grain, tell mini “Go to your house!”
He complies, in a leisurely “I’m going because I want to. Not because you told me to” way.
Close aisle door to mini’s stall.
Dispense grain to mini, horse & pony.
Check water buckets in stalls, top off or refill. Same for 50gal barrel trough in front of barn.
These get dumped & scrubbed maybe twice a month.
Sweep aisle if needed, or sit while horse finishes his grain.
He sometimes lifts the empty feedpan to show me.
Put muzzle on mini.
Release the Kracken (mini) to help horse eat hay.
Fill pocket with treats & go outside (weather permitting) to sit on the bench & wait for horses to come out for treats.
Neighbors have undoubtedly heard me calling “Cookies!”
If weather is not bench-friendly treats go in their feedpans.
When treats have been dispensed - 4 each - I give expected scritches to mini. Horse & pony return to their stalls to finish hay.
I head back to the house & feed the goldfish in the 160gal stock tank in my back yard.
PM feed - anywhere from 3-5ish - is pretty much WashRinseRepeat, with chickens after horses, getting their PM treat of Cheerios while I gather eggs.
Much poultry discussion if I have switched from their preferred Honey Nut brand to something like Trix.
Translates to: “WTF was she thinking!”
9P barncheck after locking chicken coop door to their fenced yard.
Muttering by disturbed roosting chickens.
Horses are either in the small field or come in from the big field when they see the barn lights go on.
Feed hay, check water, pick stalls, dispense nighttime cookies (3 each)
The End

[Obsidian_Fire]

I board, but am self care. Right now, everyone is out 24/7. So it goes about like this:

Show up around 630. Girls see my car and come running to the gate. Stop my car and feed the barn dogs a biscuit first. They are always the first to greet me, and must have their goody before I get out of my car! Yes, I have spoiled them terribly.
Lug AM breakfast mush to the girls. My girl likes hers wetted down, her companion is an oldster, 31, with no teeth. Separate them, feed them, continue on to the barn, dogs trotting along. Enter barn, greeted by cats! Who have figured out I will feed them wet food in the mornings. (Did I mention the big S on my forehead? For Sucker?)
Get into the feed room, put empty feed buckets into the sink. Give the dogs another bisquit (yes, I keep a bucket of those in the feed room). Feed the cats their wet food. Rinse my feed buckets and start making up the evening and next mornings’ feed. Once I’m done, the cats are done and I clean their dishes.
Head back up to the girls turnout pasture. Grab their now empty feed tubs and put the old gals feed in to soak (hay cubes take allllll day, I swear).
Put on fly masks, toss out hay for the day, check waters as needed. Or, if I’m riding, halters on and back down to the main barn we go. Oldie goes into a round pen corral, miss mare stays in the ties to get tacked up.
Drag muck tubs around the turnout area to clean up poo. Every couple days or so get on the quad and drive it up (has a dump wagon on it which we use to haul poo to the pile), load it up and empty it.
PM: show up around 4/430. Seems rather early for “dinner” but because the oldie gets such a huge feeding at dinner, it takes her forever to finish it. I separate them early so she has time to finish. Put out enough hay for the night. Another boarder friend who does evening feed for everyone else rejoins the 2 girls when she leaves for the evening, around 7.

If they are in stalls, this isn’t much of a change except I don’t feed dinner until around 6. I put off bringing them in, even in the rainy season, for as long as possible.

I guess this isn’t very exciting, but it works for us!

[tabula_rashah]

I do self-care with air-ferns who live outside.
They get fed AM only- mix grain/ supplements in buckets, walk out to the field, everyone lines up at their spots- then I dump their token amounts of feed. They eat, the end. In summer, everyone gets fly spray while they eat. Takes less than 10 mins
Depending on time of year, they either have grass, get 1-2 small squares or have rounds. Fill water troughs about every 3 days.

[2DogsFarm]

@Obsidian_Fire

I guess this isn’t very exciting, but it works for us!

Who needs excitement?
I find chores very Zen.
Even in lousy weather requiring me to either continously wipe sweat or pile on layers, once I hit my rhythm it’s all very Ooooommmmmm

@tabulah_rashah Despite my lengthy list, whole shmear takes me under an hour - including the sitting-doing-nothing time

[B-burg_Dressage]

Boys are out on pasture at night in the summer and in the dry lot during the day. So AM and PM chores are basically switched depending on season.

AM chores. Pups and I head outside. Lab chases a bunny into the woods. Setter stares at it instead. I yell at them, and they come running back. The black cat meows impatiently. The tabby sits demurely waiting. The boys are waiting in the run-in attached to the barn. The OTTB pees in there (every dang morning).

Grain and alf pellets for the OTTB. A handful of alf pellets for the Rocky Mountain. Dumped in their stalls. I open the barn door and the boys go to eat. Pull fly sheets and put on boots and masks. Put hay in the lot and run-in. Turn on fan in run-in.

Grab the cats’ dishes. Tabby always sneaks a bite from the cannister while black one waits on the tack trunk. Tabby convinces me to pick her up every morning. They both get a little loving.

The dogs are running wild in the lot and pasture–hunting for fresh poop to eat. I call them in and close the pasture gate. Wait for my OTTB to finish eating. Open their stall gates and let them back out to the lot. All takes about 20 minutes.

PM Chores: No bunnies to chase for the pups in the pm so they politely come to the barn with me. I’ll pull in whichever horse I’m riding (usually the OTTB as the other is semi-retired). Quick groom and tack with a lot of treats. Toss the dogs into the lot with the horse who has been left behind. The lab won’t wander, but the setter likes to hunt and will often end up in the woods covered in burrs (or she’ll go swimming in our pond and require a bath).

Hose off horse and stick him in front of the fan in the cross ties. Make grain and supplements and put in stalls. Let cross tied horse free into his stall and let the other into the barn to go to stall. Pull masks and boots and put on fly sheets. Fly spray.

Clean run-in and dry lot, decide the wheel barrow isn’t full enough to dump yet–wait another day. Until it’s very very full and heavy and regret it every time. Toss a flake of hay in the run-in just in case they hide in there from the horse flies a little bit and want to snack. Open the pasture gate. Let the boys out. The pups and I go up the driveway to check the mail. Sometimes the tabby follows.

Chores (without riding) only take me about 20 minutes each end of the day. Easy and efficient.

[Arelle]

Mine flip flops depending on winter or summer. Right now, horses are out at night and come in for the day so it looks like:

Hired hand does all the AM chores - arrive around 6, clean 9 stalls, fill hay bags with alfalfa, put out grain and supplements, dump and refill water, bring the 8 horses and mini cow inside.

Then in the PM, myself or my husband if I’m traveling for work, load a bale of alfalfa in the wheelbarrow - put out piles of hay (usually 2 flakes per horse) in the various paddocks, turn out horses.

Except for the mini horse and mini cow (who would gorge themselves on unlimited food), they have round bales of coastal in the pastures that are refilled on weekends. The pasture water troughs are refilled every day or two (the smaller one daily, the larger one less often).

I try to make everything very streamlined – my barn has fly spray systems, so individual sprays aren’t always needed. It’s rare they have anything in their hooves as my paddocks are just grass and I don’t turn them out if it’s muddy.