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What Time Do you feed your horses?

8K views 33 replies 13 participants last post by  Arabian Beauty 
Free choice hay 2x/day. Sweet Feed evening only.
Sweet Cup&Cakes (1,450 lbs, maybe more this winter!)gets 3 flakes of hay/morning, 4 flakes of hay, evening and 3 lbs sweet feed.

Buster Brown (1,100 lbs) and Moon Eyes (1,150 lbs), 3 flakes of hay/2x/day and 2 lbs sweet feed.

In the winter I feed sweet feed only at night. In the winter it produces heat in the hind end gut, when radiational cooling makes it the coldest time of day.
When they have been turned out, they expect to find their stalls cleaned or stripped and rebedded, full water bucket and sweet feed in their feeder. This gets them looking for me, and I never have to retrieve a horse from the (3 acre) north pasture.

In the summer, I also feed sweet feed only at night. It's cooler at night when it's digested, and horses are quieter then, less likely to go running and playing before their grain is digested.
Also, they look for me to feed them sweet feed. Sometimes, If I'm working and busy, they get their grain in 3 rubber buckets on the other side of the fence. I sometimes move where I grain them and bang a metal coffee can to let them know where I am. Yes, there is some reshuffling and pushing around, but it's summer, there is plenty of grass and I own three easy keepers. I have owned hard keepers, and THEY will lose weight this way. Sometimes I have them line up at the gate and I tie them up to grain them, the way I used to handle my old herd 30 years ago. This is training and pays off when I want to ride.

You ALWAYS monitor your horse's intake and you get to know when the flake is light and the flake is heavy and you adjust, instead of deciding how many flakes to feed a particular horse and stick to that, like a robot.
 
I should add that I put one bale of hay out for my three when they are turned out. I only have 24/7 turnout when the weather is warm, but most dry, even cold days, like today, they are turned out for at least 12 hours and work on that bale all day, which is usually gone by night. They also stop and play and move around, burning calories and stretching, keeping them limber, which is really important. They need fresh air and exercise as often as possible daily.
 
Corporal What Is sweet Hey?

I will tray this out and free feed Hey And see how she does.

But If I put her back in her stall with hey available after she's been out. Isn't it bad for her to eat? Don't we have to wait 1 hour?
IDK, fingers slipped. =b
 
The US Cavalry walked the first mile out, and walked the last mile back, and avoiding feeding and watering for one hour before/after heavy work. I've always done this and it's worked well for me, though munching hay right before a hard workout never tied up any of my horses.
If you are getting into endurance, some of those races last a whole day, so you need to ask THEM how that handle That!
 
Sweet Feed is a grain mix with a molasses base.
Sweet Feed for Horses
It's not the very best grain supplement for your horse, but I use this as part of my horse's training. All three of my horses are apgar 5+ this winter. I have been giving them a LOT of turnout. Today, there has been a stiff wind and the wind chills makes me put on some of my warmest layers. I want my horses to have the best coat and a good layer of fat going into the coldest part of the winter. I do not increase their sweet feed intake, but I free choice as much hay as each horse wants. They are eating more calories to keep warm and keep their coats growing even more. In the way, I hardly EVER have to blanket. Still, my 4 blankets are folded up on a shelf in my grain rain, at the ready.
Hope this answers your question.
 
In January, I let mine approach 6 on the scale bc January is the coldest month of the year. We can have wind chills below the actual temperatures of sometimes -20 degrees F. They will naturally drop weight in April/May bc they won't need the fat anymore. Arabian Beauty, you don't have your location in your signature. If you live in the SW your horse probably doesn't need any more weight. There are few if any chronic health problems from keeping a horse slightly underweight, but this excludes hard keepers, which some Arabians are. Hard keepers have to have extra calories if you work them, and yours looks healthy, but out of shape. Keep that in mind if you start working your horse. =D
 
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