Last weeks blog post on Food Anxiety seemed to resonate with quite a lot of our readers. After receiving some great feedback and further questions, I thought it was a good time to expand on this topic. This was a response from one of our New Zealand customers on their own experience in feeding a horse ad-lib hay and reducing their horses tendency of overindulgence with food, and why they were initially afraid to feed ad-lib hay in a hay net.
Customer Feedback After Our Food Anxiety Email
"Just had to reply to this one Nikki. This Food Anxiety emaill resonates with me so much and is the reason I came across Gutzbusta’s.
I have an extremely good doer and had been taught, like most of us that have grown up with horses over the last 20 – 30 years the way to control a horse’s weight was to control what went in its mouth. Not surprisingly my horse was food obsessed and ended up getting ulcers. Giving him continuous access to forage was a scary concept for me cos wouldn’t he then get really fat and get all the health problems that come along with that?
I did not believe this horse would ever self-regulate the amount he ate. But I had no choice so I gave it a go. He had hay 24/7 in hay nets, big holed ones and lived on a track system. He ate pretty much continuously for 10 weeks then he started to realise that he didn’t have to do that cos the food wasn’t going away.
He started to sleep and spend time snoozing and not be so food obsessed. The change in his over all wellbeing was amazing as you’ve described in your article. I felt so terrible, I did what I thought was right to control his weight.
Being such a good doer, he was getting a bit fat so that is when I started looking for a way for him to still have access to hay but not be able to stuff his gob so much. That is when I discovered Gutzbusta's. Best. Invention. Ever!"
Thank you so much to this customer for providing such a great testimonial of our hay nets and how they helped her horse. She loves our hay nets so much, that she is now a stockist of them with her equine supplies store. 💕
As mentioned in last week’s email, it was seeing horses left without forage or fibre to chew on for extended periods that first led me to develop slow feed hay nets.
The testimonial above highlights that it can take time for some horses to feel calm and secure around their hay. As a species, horses are naturally food-focused, and from both a psychological and physiological perspective, it is not normal or appropriate to restrict forage access for long periods. Horses are biologically designed to graze for 16–18 hours per day.
This is particularly important when managing laminitic or metabolic horses and ponies. Any form of stress increases cortisol levels, and when a horse is anxious about when its next meal will arrive, standing without anything to chew on. Elevated cortisol can interfere with the hoof wall and coffin bone connection, potentially delaying healing. This is the last outcome desired when managing these conditions.
Prolonged gaps without forage also increase the risk of digestive issues, including colic and gastric ulcers, due to disruption of the horse’s natural eating cycle.
Another customer recently shared that at multiday competitions she often sees large 600kg/1300lbs horses fed only a single biscuit or flake of hay in the morning, followed by one or two in the evening, with no additional forage throughout the day. Combined with the inherent stress of competition, this level of restriction places unnecessary physical and psychological strain on the horse, and doesn't make sense when you are wanting a horse to preform at its optimum.
A Customer Question After Our Food Anxiety Email
It’s important to remember that every horse and situation is unique, so please keep this in mind as we discuss the following customer question.
I always recommend working with your equine veterinarian and/or equine nutritionist to assess your individual horse’s needs, and then using that information to make the best decision for your own circumstances.
"Hi Nikki I just read your email and article about horses and hay intake, anxiety etc. This this is my situation:
I have a 5 year old Pony x Stockhorse, who needs to lose 100kgs/ 220lbs. He is getting 4.6kgs / 10lbs of hay per day. Half of this in the morning in the morning and half of this at night, both feeds are in your hay nets, plus he is in a small field for a few months due to an injury.
None of the two feeds last him until the next feed, and there is no pick in his paddock anymore. I have been advised that it is ok if he needs to wait in-between feeds, but your Anxiety email says otherwise.
This horse will put on weight by just looking at it. So, what do you think I should do? He gets low sugar Teff hay in the morning and low sugar Rhodes grass hay at night."
As a feeding guide, a horse or pony should receive approximately 1.5 to 2.5% DM (Dry Matter) of its bodyweight in forage. Therefore on average, a 500kg / 1100lbs horse in maintenance up to moderate work should be getting 10-12kg+ (22- 26lbs) of forage (hay / grass from grazing) per day.
As much as we love the idea of ad-lib hay being available, sometimes people are unable to get the correct (low sugar for managing weight) hay, or there may be other issues for why this isn't doable, such as financial reasons, and that is why this measurement is so valuable to give a better guide of how much a horse forage a horse should be getting each day for optimal health and wellbeing.
An overweight horse or pony might be best being fed 1.5% of its bodyweight per day, whereas a horse or pony in light condition might be best being fed 2.5% of its bodyweight in forage per day.
The Dry matter of hay is typically 85% and 15% moisture. For a 500kg / 1100lbs horse, intake is typically calculated as a percentage of body weight in dry matter.
In the question from a customer above, this horse needs to lose approximately 100kgs / 220lbs. A sensible starting point for weight loss is to feed at 1.5% of the horse’s body weight on a dry matter basis.
For a 500kg / 1100lbs horse:
- 500kg / 1100lbs × 1.5% = 7.5kg / 16.5lbs of dry matter per day.
- Because most hay is around 85% dry matter, this dry matter requirement needs to be converted to an “as-fed” amount.
- 7.5kgs / 16.5lbs ÷ 0.85 = 8.8kgs / 19.4lbs of hay per day.
This means this horse should actually be fed approximately 9kg / 19.8lbs of hay per day, divided into multiple feeds if needed, to support digestive health and encourage steady, natural eating.
It depends on many factors such as the eating rate of the horse and palatability of the hay as to if this daily feed amount can be fed out ad-lib, or in one feed, or if it does in fact need to be fed out in several feeds during the day to enable the horse to have hay access for more hours, and decrease the time whereby the horse has nothing to eat in between feed times. This is where our hay nets are such a wonderful management tool, as they allow you to adjust and regulate the feeding rate of your horse or pony through selection of various hay net hold sizes.
Other considerations for the above horse:
- Regular Weigh-Ins: Weigh the horse regularly to track progress and adjust the feeding plan as needed. The less the horse weighs, the less it needs to be fed.
- Exercise: Incorporate a daily exercise routine to aid weight loss, considering factors like the horse’s current fitness level and any health concerns. Even 20 minutes of hand walking 3 to 5 times a week can help.
Remember, any changes to the horse’s diet should be made gradually, and it’s crucial to consult with a veterinarian or equine nutritionist to tailor a specific plan for your horse’s needs.
As a rough guide, hay contains approximately 85% dry matter, the equivalent as-fed hay quantities are as follows for different feeding rates for a 500kg/1100lb horse:
- 1.5% BW (7.5kgs / 16.5lbs DM) → ~8.8kgs (19.4lbs) hay/day
- 2.0% BW (10kgs / 22lbs DM) → ~11.8kgs (26lbs) hay/day
- 2.5% BW (12.5kgs / 27.6lbs DM) → ~14.7kgs (32.4lbs) hay/day
These values represent typical intake ranges for mature horses and should be adjusted based on the horses work load, overall condition, health or movement issues and many other factors. An overweight horse is based around 1.5% BW, whereas a fit horse in full work will need to be fed around 2.5% of its Body Weight.
20 minutes exercise by the way of hand walking 3 times a week can help greatly in managing weight.
Based on the above scenario, this customer was advised by a third party to feed her horse approximately half (4.6kgs / 10lbs a day) of his required hay amount per day, which is not ideal for both this horses mental and physical health and therefore the diligent owner is now increasing the amount of hay their horse is being fed.
This will however change, when it rains and there is green pick, as this then becomes another thing to consider, and that green pick is not a good fibre source for you horse or pony, so although it is when people often start to decrease the hay they feed their horses, it actually isn't the time to do this, which I will discuss in another email.
