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 Member
Posts: 23
| I will be moving my horse from a boarding stable to the pasture where I live. He will be able to graze 24/7. My question is how often does he need hay and grain, if any? And what brands are better? He is a 10 year old hard keeper and gets ridden about 4 days a week and do not want to over grain him. |
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 Owner of a ratting catting machine
Posts: 2258
 
| So many variables.
What part of the country are you located in? How many acres? Shelter? |
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 Firecracker Dog Lover
Posts: 3175
| lkrose44 - 2016-11-28 10:09 AM I will be moving my horse from a boarding stable to the pasture where I live. He will be able to graze 24/7. My question is how often does he need hay and grain, if any? And what brands are better? He is a 10 year old hard keeper and gets ridden about 4 days a week and do not want to over grain him.
How much pasture do you have? I have two horses that I have on my place and they graze pasture from about mid-May to mid-August - almost a 3 acre pasture. And it is dried up by mid-August so I start supplementing hay at that time and am usually feeding hay regularly by mid-September. My old horse gets Equine Senior year round (even with green grass). If you cannot rotate pastures you'll need to supplement hay. Also keep in mind that you'll need to fertilize as the grass will lose it's nutritional value after a while. |
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 Dog Resuce Agent
Posts: 3459
Location: southeast Texas | For my horses, even though their is green out there, I set a round bale out and they get fed two times a day. When good grass grows, no round bale and they still get fed two times a day.
My riding horse gets alfalfa cubes and alfalfa hay along with his regular hay. He used to be a hard keeper but is now almost on the fat side and get no grain. |
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 Shoot Yeah
Posts: 4273
Location: Where you need a paddle... Oregon! | lkrose44 - 2016-11-28 12:09 PM
I will be moving my horse from a boarding stable to the pasture where I live. He will be able to graze 24/7. My question is how often does he need hay and grain, if any? And what brands are better? He is a 10 year old hard keeper and gets ridden about 4 days a week and do not want to over grain him.
What was he being fed and how often when he was boarded? Did he get turn out? |
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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | My horses have pasture but it's not enough for them to live off of. However in the spring when the grass grows fast, they usually start wasting hay. Once they start wasting hay I just cut back.
So I would feed him twice a day and see what he does. If he ignores the hay, he might only need it once a day. If he's cleaning it up then he needs it. Our cows are the same way. They DO have enough pasture to completely sustain them for about 4-5 months out of the year. We know they're running low on grass when they start coming to the barn every morning when they hear us feeding the horses.
My horses get timothy hay and alfalfa pellets & beet pulp to mix their multivitamin with. What grain was he being fed when he was being boarded?
Edited by livexlovexrodeo 2016-11-28 12:28 PM
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Member
Posts: 23
| I am in south Texas next to san Antonio so there is not a lot of green grass. And yes there is a small barn for shelter. |
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 Straight Shooter
Posts: 5725
Location: SW North Dakota | I'd use his prior schedule at the boarding stable as a starting point, and keep him on the same grain.
There are a bunch of good articles to help you get started; you just have to pick through them and see what makes sense to you. The link is a paper written by my friends at NDSU with just some facts and science about horse nutrition. Then, you can google "small acreage horse management" or similar and probably find some university research (free) from your area.
https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ansci/horse/as953.pdf
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Member
Posts: 23
| He was being fed twice a day and he was being fed wrangler 12% twice a day with hay and was being turned out during the day. The grain he was being fed had lost of corn in it and so is a big reason why I do not wanna board him there. |
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | I personally like feeding just beet pulp and alfalfa pellets. I never fed complete feed to begin with, but I use to feed dry cob. I feel like they get more out of extra hay pellets and beet pulp than basically being fed a "treat". My one horse wasn't too thrilled about the switch, he really liked the grain haha. He got over it though. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2097
Location: Deep South | lkrose44 - 2016-11-28 12:32 PM
He was being fed twice a day and he was being fed wrangler 12% twice a day with hay and was being turned out during the day. The grain he was being fed had lost of corn in it and so is a big reason why I do not wanna board him there.
Wrangler is a terrible feed choice, glad your guy will be getting better care now that he'll be with you!
Whatever you choose to go with, just know that forage is the most important part of your horse's diet. Feed the best quality forage you can afford. Then fill in the gaps with some type of grain if needed.
I like to keep it simple.
I leave minerals and grass hay out for them 24/7.
2x a day I feed alfalfa and rice bran.
Rice bran is more expensive per bag than Wrangler, but you don't feed very much of it per day. I feed 1-2 pounds per day, depending on the horse, and I split that between the 2 feedings.
You can feed alfalfa in the form of hay, cubes or pellets. Plenty of information on this site about which is better for your program and why. I have fed anywhere from 4-10 pounds per horse per day, depending on the horse.
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| I have six horses on 100 acres, they have free choice coastal 24/7 in the winter, they also get a big flake of alfalfa once/day, renew gold mixed with soak beat pulp and vitamins 2 times/day. I am soutbTexss too, west of Houston. Good forage should be the main staple of your horses diet. I have not fed I processed grain in several years. |
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 Bulls Eye
Posts: 6443
Location: Oklahoma | My horse has a good quality bermuda round bale and she gets alfalfa pellets twice a day. Nothing special, and she looks great. |
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