?? for those of you who have horses on dry lot

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AppyLover2

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I'm new at keeping my minis on a dry lot and need opinions from those of you with more experience. I feed morning and evening. They each get a flake of hay each time. In your opinion is that often enough to give hay? Someone mentioned to me that not being able to munch on something all day could cause stomach problems. Advice/opinions much appreciated. Should I be giving them more hay at mid-day?

Edited to clarify that they get hay in addition to their grain.
 
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Horses are grazing animals and they eat "little and often". The more meals in smaller quantities you can split their feed up into the better it is for them BUT if outside work prevents you from giving them a noon time meal what I would do is give them a meal in the morning and another when you arrive home and then just before you go to bed. The morning and night meals should be the biggest. I am home during the day so quite often split their meals into 5 or 6 small feedings over the day.
 
The horses I have on dry lot are fed twice a day and each get half a flake a day (unless they are a harder keeper, then they get more). Mine take several hours to clean up all their hay. It depends on the richness of your hay; if it's a straight grass hay, they may be ok with free-choice hay, but if it's got alfalfa in it too, like mine does, they could kill themselves by eating themselves into obesity and beyond!
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I would estimate that the majority of horses get fed twice a day; with jobs, etc, that is what works for most people. If the horses aren't on strict diets, IMO twice a day feedings are just fine.
 
I have a drylot for the show horses. They are stalled at night and on the drylot during the day normally from 11am-6pm. They eat their two meals in the morning and night in the stall (grain, hay). When i turn them out to the drylot, i normally spread out a block or two of hay really thin so they can pick at it throughout the day and it is almost like them grazing.
 
I consider my farm a drylot farm, even though I have a bit of grass. But they eat up the new growth every morning. I feed 2/3 of their hay portion in the am, 1/3 at night when they are stalled. I also supplement with beet pulp in their grain, both feedings - this seems to take care of them eating all their hay right away in the am. They have some left for their early afternoon munchies.

I also notice at night, they eat a portion of they hay and then around 1-2 am they go back and eat the rest.

If I take the beet pulp away, they don't have enough fiber and chow through their hay right away in the am. Then they are hungry all the rest of the day.

I also spread the hay around the paddocks, so it mimicks that natural grazing.

But the bottom line - they only get fed 2 times a day, that's what my schedule allows.
 
My horses are all dry lotted and fed 2x a day (hay and complete pellets each time).
 
Thanks you all very much for your replies. I'm still feeling my way through this and really appreciate the advice/comments. They are definitely ready for meal-time and are all losing a little weight - which is a GOOD thing. I give them 1 cup of Purina Horse Chow 200 morning and evening (the pony gets 1 1/2 because of the size difference) along with their hay. I've had to make a conscious effort to get weight off my mare because she was obese....the others were merely pleasingly plump. But when Kitty came down with laminitis I got concerned about all of them. When I switched from Strategy to Horse Chow the woman at the feed store said I would need to feed more(?). So far I'm not, but am watching their weight so they don't lose too much.
 
When mine are in dry lot they get lots of hay. I separate it into several piles and I do put it out twice a day, but more often in winter. They aren't obese at all but I do prefer them to graze on it often so no ulcers.

Sounds like your feed store lady is correct. My QH is now on Horse Chow because he had a laminitis attack a few months ago and I had to lower his sugar content so he cannot have Senior Feed anymore; it's full of sugars. I notice that he does need more hay now than before since he is on Horse Chow so that's ok.
 
I feed 4 times per day: Morning, Noon, Dins, and a good handful at night (9 or 10); with grain (Gro 'n Win) in the morning and for dinner. Probably works out to 4 lbs. of hay each/day.
 
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My guys are on a dry lot and to keep them "grazing" I will spread out two flakes of hay into small handful piles and I spread them as far apart as possible. This keeps them moving around a lot instead of standing in one place eating all day long. I will also give them a small handfull of hay when I get home and then do the same thing again in the evening.
 
Frankly the more often you can feed them, the better. We give three feedings a day but since no one is home to give a noon meal we give them an early dinner then late-night snack instead. Anything to keep food in their stomaches (and keep them from chewing down the barn overnight from boredom!)

Leia
 
I am in Nevada. Everything is a dry lot here. I have 4 horses. I had them 2 in each pen until I decided Dusty could be on his own. I am getting my hay in 50# boxes and I take one flake out of the box and split it between ALL 4 horses. I do this 2x's a day and they are tending to be a bit fat coming out of this last winter. We do have sage bushes in theire pen if the want to munch. They haven't eaten one bush.
 
I feed twice a day too. I stay at home, but prefer to just feed twice. They get stalled at night to get thier own portions of grain and such. But I've never had stomach problems and I've been doing this for years. Just be sure to give them psyllium for sand colic every once in a while.
 
I split it up.. they get fed @ 6:30 am w/ grain then at noon then an tiny bit around 3 then grain @ 4 then when they go to bed at 7:30 they get some more. It seems to be working
 
We have nothing but dry lot here too, and I have been feeding that way for 35 years. We feed twice a day. We feed a high quality alfalfa hay, in feeders, never on the ground. All the horses we have ever had, full sized, big POAs and the Minis, all have done fine this way.

We have never been available to feed 3 or 4 times a day, so that has never been an option. Most people I know here also feed twice a day.
 
Our stallion is stalled all night and day till 3:30, then he goes on the drylot (large roundpen) till a around 5:15 sometimes earlier/later. His time outside includes his workout etc. The roundpen has other horses surrounding it, and he is stall next to my gelding, so he does get equine interaction. He gets fed 2 times a day.

AM: 1 flake grass hay

PM: 3/4 of a flake hay w/ grain and coat supplenent.

Same thing goes for my gelding, just different drylot and he is in with horses for a few hours.
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Twice a day here and I feed a bit more than I would if they were "stalled".

Some blows around and they seem to nibble away most of the day, and lay down and rest a fair bit.

I only use the dry lot in the fall and spring while the grass is recovering from Winter, then in the fall, it recovers from the summer grazing.

Where we live it's 6 months of winter and 6 months of "poor snowmobiling"
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