Brome Hay

[Charlie Horse Acres]

Does anyone else feed brome hay? Looking for average daily amounts fed, and if that is with or without other feeds. Our brome hay quality is finally good this year so we have stopped feeding beet pulp but I am still struggling with some of the horses getting hay bellies. All of my mini's are between 29 and 32 inches.

 

[chandab]

My horses love their brome hay, they usually get it in a mix with Crested Wheatgrass; the brome does tend to be a little coarser than some other grasses, so that might explain the hay belly. I feed it the same as I do any grass hay.

 

[Charlie Horse Acres]

I have a three year old (29 inch) right now that looks pregnant and since I took him off the beet pulp his pretty round rump is GONE! But on the beet pulp he looked even more pregnant. My vet keeps saying lay off the hay, lay off the hay but I had him to the point of not getting hardly any (literally a handful twice a day) and he lost some of his tummy but the rump went completely Plus he has started picking his own paddock!! So I want to increase the hay again and I am thinking of decreasing his feed (we feed strategy).

 

[chandab]

Any idea how much the little guy "should" weigh? Most of mine are B-size, the closest I have to 29" is my 31" stallion who is 175# at good weight. So, even if we figure your little guy weighs 175#, which is probably too much; and, feed 1.5-2% of his bodyweight, that means he should get about 2.6# to 3.5# of feed per day (that's hay and grain, most of it should be hay/forage). If he's as portly as you say, he probably doesn't need any Strategy, but rather just hay and a good vit/min supplement to make up for what the hay might lack. [if you feel he has to have something in his bucket when everyone else eats, then just a handful of soaked beet pulp with his vit/min mixed in.] A slow feeder hay net might be in order for him so it takes him longer to eat an appropriate amount of hay. I bought one from SmartPak last winter that has pretty small holes, I think they redesigned it, so the one available now is hopefully easier to fill (none of mine have any any problems eating out of hte net): http://www.smartpake...px?cm_vc=Search I'm also using Hay Pillows, really like them (I just finished helping with the proto-typing on the mini size which will be available this fall, according to their FB post): http://thehaypillow.com/

Here's a pic of my girls iwth their hay pillow: