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Expert
Posts: 1414
 
| WYOTurn-n-Burn - 2013-12-05 3:11 PM I have four horses on 40 acres of native prairie; the grass is still pokin up through the snow its so long, but I can't hardly stand watching my horses paw through it to get their food. One of my greatest pleasures in life is feeding my horses. I love to hear their nickers and watch them enjoy their eats. Even if they are out pawing around, which they do, I still feed them hay. Days like today I give them extra. Just me and how I like to do it on my ponderosa:)
Big huge DITTO!! My horses have access to hay 24/7 whether they are up in dry lots or out on beautiful green pastures. |
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 Mature beyond Years
Posts: 10780
  
Location: North of the 49th Parallel | I have 2 horses out on 20 acres and they are fat as ticks right now. We are throwing hay right now for them because it is - 18F with a windchill of -32F, but otherwise the grass out there is enough. They have access to salt and water |
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 Best of the Badlands
Location: You never know where I will show up...... | Well we put a nice green bale out for mine today and when they came home for water they walked right by the bale to go back out into the pasture. Even our cows are not eating hay yet when offered to them. So I guess they are all fine out in the pasture but at least we gave them an option.
Edited by rockinas 2013-12-05 6:52 PM
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Best of the Badlands
Location: You never know where I will show up...... | CYA Ranch - 2013-12-05 2:48 PM rodeomom3 - 2013-12-05 2:46 PM SaraJean - 2013-12-05 2:38 PM My horses always prefer grazing over hay no matter what season it is. They don't touch their hay till the grazing is gone. ....and then they keep going back to search for grass just in case some grew up here in January....ya right.
I think that horses going back out to the pasture to look for new grass in January in a cold climate, is the horse equivelant of me looking in the fridge 10X a day to see if anything new appeared without me going grocery shopping. |
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 IMA No Hair Style Gal
Posts: 2594
| My thoughts:
Ask your horses...
Throw out a few bales. If they want it, they will eat it and you can throw out more.
If they don't eat it you have your answer.
Stay warm yourself!! We are on the verge of getting some snow tonight/tomorrow and slammed again on Sunday/Monday.
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 Experienced Mouse Trapper
Posts: 3106
Location: North Dakota | My horses must be wimps, they would rather stand and stare in my windows than go out and graze, about the time I was going to say uncle and plug the skidder in, they meandered their way out to our 40 with good grass. I do bring them in every night and grain them and pitch hay, I'm like Wyoturn-n-burn I love to feed my horses, but, My hubby thinks I'm crazy for how much I want to feed. So I rolled out the rest of the bale and threw a couple second cutting alfalfa bales on top. IMO the grass had better be **** good! |
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Expert
Posts: 1414
| rockinas - 2013-12-05 8:00 PM CYA Ranch - 2013-12-05 2:48 PM rodeomom3 - 2013-12-05 2:46 PM SaraJean - 2013-12-05 2:38 PM My horses always prefer grazing over hay no matter what season it is. They don't touch their hay till the grazing is gone. ....and then they keep going back to search for grass just in case some grew up here in January....ya right.
I think that horses going back out to the pasture to look for new grass in January in a cold climate, is the horse equivelant of me looking in the fridge 10X a day to see if anything new appeared without me going grocery shopping. |
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 Toastest with the Mostest
Posts: 5712
Location: That part of Texas | I'm also one that puts hay out as an option. I have 4 horses out on a section of pasture with the cattle and we always have roundbales out when it snows. I have one mare who loves to eat hay while my other three will keep forging for grass under the snow. At least it's there if they need it. |
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Veteran
Posts: 229
Location: Montana | Horses convert feed to keep warm, the colder it is the more feed they need to stay warm. Simple! So the question you have to ask is are they getting enough feed from pasture to keep warm. I have 6 head on 400 acres, they are the only livestock on this pasture all year, so there is a ton of grass. My husband, schooled on the subject, put out hay. It is really cold here right now, with the below 0 temps and the wind chill but from what he says they needed hay. Of course they stop grazing the first time you feed so we will be feeding all winter:)
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