How to Feed Square Hay Bales
Forage is the most important part of your horse's diet, and many horses can be kept on hay alone without being given any grain or commercially prepared foods. Horse-quality forage such as hay, pasture and hay alternatives, including chopped hay and beet pulp, can provide for all of your horse's nutritional needs and is the best way to keep your horse's digestive tract healthy. Horse hay is normally baled two ways: as big, round bales or as much smaller, square bales.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Estimate your horse's weight using a height-weight tape by measuring around the horse's midsection approximately where the girth is placed. These tapes are by no means accurate, but you can use this to determine if your horse is losing or gaining weight. You will use this number to determine how many pounds of feed your horse should consume in a day.
-
2
Open a bale by cutting the baling twine with scissors or a knife. (You will need wire cutters for bales tied with baling wire.) Examine the flakes for signs of mold: musty odor and white- or gray-colored areas.
-
-
3
Take a flake of hay and stand on the scale. Subtract your weight from the weight you get when you hold the hay. Repeat with several different flakes of hay to get an idea of what the standard flake in that bale weighs, as not all flakes are the same size.
-
4
Weigh your horse's grain ration using the method above. If he is fed more than once a day, weigh all rations and add the pounds together.
-
5
Feed the hay depending on how many pounds your horse needs. According to the C Level of the United States Pony Club Manual of Horsemanship, you should feed about 2 or 3 lbs. per 100 lbs. of your horse's weight. An 800-pound horse, for example, should receive between 16 and 24 pounds of food a day.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
This article applies primarily to grass hays such as Bermuda and timothy. Legume hays such as alfalfa are often far too rich in nutrients for horses to eat large quantities of, and are normally fed only to horses that need large amounts of protein (such as racehorses). Give only a small flake of a legume hay to your horse each day if you choose to feed this type of hay.
This article also assumes your horse is stabled or kept in a dry lot (with no grass). When calculating how much to feed your horse, you need to take into account how many hours a day your horse spends grazing on grass, as consuming grass accounts for some of the pounds of food he gets a day, too. A horse that eats a lot of grass needs less hay and grain.
"Easy keepers" (horses that gain weight easily) or "hard keepers" (horses that have a hard time keeping weight on) may require a different strategy. Generally, with a hard keeper, you will subtract pounds from the feed ration (starting with grains) until the horse's weight is controlled, and with an easy keeper you will add pounds (starting with forage to avoid adding too much energy) until the horse gains weight.
