What is the recommendation for hay?

Question

How much hay should a horse eat per day?

Answer 1

I do a big round bale in the pasture to cover them  out there in winter and sometimes summer.

than I do two flakes in the morning and two flakes at night.

seeing as they have all the grass and sometimes round bale hay.

Answer 2

i read in the farming section of a news paper that a horse should be fed 1% of his body weight in hay a day. for example if the horse is 500kilograms he should be fed 5kilograms of hay a day.

Answer 3

IT ALL DEPENDS ON HOW MUCH WORK THE HORSE IS DOING, HOW BIG THE HORSE IS, HOW OLD THE HORSE IS AND BLA BLA BLA...

BUT HERE'S WHAT I HAVE FOR SOME OF MY HORSES...

NAME: OREO AND DOTS

AGE: 6 AND 7 YEARS OLD

HEIGHT: 15.2HH EACH

COLOUR: PIEBALD

BREED: TOTAL MIXTURE

WORK: LIGHT HACK EVERYDAY

FEED: SMALL BALE OF HAY EVERYDAY EACH, HALF A BALE IN THE MORNING, SCOOP OF PONY NUTS IN THE AFTERNOON, HALF A BALE OF HAY AT NIGHT.

SHETLAND....

NAME: DOLLY MIXTURES (DOLLY)

AGE:  10 YEARS OLD

HEIGHT: 9.1HH

COLOUR: STRAWBERRY ROAN

BREED: SHETLAND

WORK: COUPLE OF PONY RIDES EVERY WEEK.

FEED: HALF A SMALL BALE PER DAY, 1/4 IN THE MORNING, SMALL SCOOP OF HORSE FEED IN THE AFTERNOON, 1/4 AT NIGHT.

CLYDESDALES...



NAME: RESCUE

AGE: 16 YEARS OLD

HEIGHT: 18.2HH

COLOUR : DARK SORREL WITH FOUR WHITE SOCKS

BREED: PUE CLYDESDALE

WORK: SOFT SURFACE DRESSAGE TRAINING 3HRS A DAY

FEED: 1 & 1/2 SMALL BALES A DAY, 1/2 BALE IN THE MORNING, 2 SCOOPS OF HORSE FEED AFTERNOON, ONE BALE AT NIGHT.

***HOPE I COULD HELP!***

PEOPLE THINK I GIVE MY HORSES TO MUCH AND SOME PEOPLE THINK I GIVE THEM TOO LITTLE BUT HEY! I GOT BHS APPROVED AND MY HORSES ARE STILL ALIVE! =]

***OH AND SORRY I TYPE IN CAPITALS I JUST CAN'T BE BOTHERED WITH FULL STOPS AND THAT STUFF!***

Answer 4

A single horse should go through 15 small square bales of hay in 1 month.

Answer 5

Minimum 1% body weight of good quality hay.  This is about 10 pounds for a 1,000 pound horse.  An average estimate would be around 2%, or 20 pounds.  However, for the optimal mental and physical well-being of the horse, they would have access to fresh grass or hay about 16 hours a day.

As always, you need to feed to the body condition score of your horse.  As a general rule for pleasure horses, if you see ribs, feed more.  If you can't feel the ribs, feed less.  Diets (including concentrates/grains, hay and any supplements)  should be balanced by a professional and each batch of hay should have a nutrient analysis done to be sure you are meeting the horse's requirements (and not exceeding them to the detriment of the horse.)

Answer 6

depends if they eat hardmix aswell

Answer 7

It really depends on many variables.

Age of horse

Breed of horse

Size of horse

Climate

The list goes on...

Answer 8

Remember, the 1% of body weight thing works perfectly, but if you have hay that is not of the best quality you should definately feed more. If we have hay that isn't very good, we feed quite a bit to them and allow them to pick and choose what we want, though we only hay our horses in winter due to our wonderful pasture.

If you are giving alfalfa, you should still give about the same amount of normal hay, because hay is really just something that goes through their stomach to keep them running - something they can much on just about all day long. Giving access to hay by putting a bale near their fence so they can reach it, or putting it in panels so they can slowly reach almost as much as they want all day is a good idea, but they may gorge if not used to free amounts of hay or they may waste a lot.

With alfalfa, make sure to start slowly - for miniatures/ponies they can only have a handful to an armful. For ful sized horses we give about a flake twice a day, and for normal hay i'd say two flakes morning and afternoon. If you get big rounds, try to compare it to small squares if possible :) it becomes a practice of identifying how much, good luck.

Answer 9

Mine get it ad lib during winter.

None in summer ( as they are on grass)

Answer 10

1 lb per 100 of body weight of roughage is a minimum.  10lbs for most horses per day.  More if they are working heavy or its cold