Is is okay to let my horse eat as much hay as he wants?
My horse is about 20 years old, not overweight, has 1/2 acre to roam freely. Would it be okay to let him have free access to his hay. He doesn't seem to overeat. He will walk away from his food when he is full and go back later to finish. I've heard that a horse doesn't know when to stop eating.
Yes - offering as much hay as the horse wants is called "free choice" hay feeding. I do believe this is best for the horse's health, because in the wild, horses forage constantly for food. Horses don't sleep much, and if they were free, they would spend the rest of their waking hours nibbling on food.
The horse's digestive tract is designed to always have a small amount of food passing through it. The healthy bacterial flora in the horse's digestive tract can start to die off after as little as FOUR hours without eating. This is why feeding probiotics to horses is normally an excellent idea; their digestive tracts are constantly being disturbed by unnatural feeding schedules. When you consider how long stabled horses normally go without eating every day, it is no wonder that colic is a common problem! Three meals a day is great for people, but not so great for horses.
Roughages are so low in nutritional / calorie content, it's pretty difficult for a horse to become overweight from eating too much hay. That would be like a person gaining weight from eating nothing but salad. 
Some people believe too much hay will result in "hay belly", but that is usually caused by other factors, such as age, or lack of excercise. It will certainly not cause him any digestive problem or colic.
Not only is it physically healthy for the horse, it is mentally healthy as well. Stabled horses that go hours without eating are exceptionally bored and feel hungry. They are designed to almost always be eating, so they feel very restless and unhappy and many resort to activities such as wood chewing and wind sucking to alleviate their "oral fixation", or even pawing or weaving just to alleviate their boredom. The horse feels most relaxed in the feeding position (head down) and while chewing.
I'm glad to hear that your horse is able to walk about freely, too. That is very good for his physical and mental health. Sounds like your horse has a pretty nice setup.
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January 10th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
No. Horses have very unique stomachs. They can eat as much as they want and never get full. Ask your vet how much your horse should eat depending on how old it is. If your horse eats too much, it would not be good for it. Good Luck! Have fun!
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January 10th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
You can allow your horse to have hay access all day and all night, as long as he is healthy and has no metabolic issues and as long as it's grass only, or at least very little alflafa in it. If you just want him to have more to munch on to keep him busy, you can feed your horse oat hay as a filler IN ADDITION to his grass hay. Oat hay is tasty and a yummy treat, but has NO nutritional value at all.
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January 10th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
ya it shouldn't hurt it if its a big horse it probably needs the calories (we can all pretty much agree that hay is low cal) yet it also depends whether or not you take it out for a ride often to let it get lots of excercise
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January 10th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
i am pretty sure that a horse cannot over eat on hay, they continually eat all day long, eating and pooping. The only thing that I know of that they can over eat on and actually do bad things is grain and it is true they usually dont stop until all the grain is gone, but hay isnt such a tasty treat to them its just food. Alot of horses have free choice hay, the only time we regulate hay intake is when we are short on hay supply.
How much a horse should eat is not based on age, it is based on how much work you do with them and how much they weigh. So if your horse is just standing around eating and you dont ride him much you just have to meet the maintanace requirement to maintain weight. If he is just standing around and weighs 1200lbs he should be 1.5 -2.0 of his body weight in hay and about .5 percent in grain. This would be .015 x 1200=18lbs of hay to .020 x 1200 = 24lbs of hay per day and .005 x 1200= 6lbs in grain a day.
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January 10th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Some horses actually know when to stop eating, because they eat until they finish off their food. this usually occurs with horses that had harsh starving situations. i highly don't think that your horse has had one of those, so I think that it should be OK.
However, you should be careful, because some over-eating can lead to Colic. Some grasses and hays can get clogged in your horse's stomach causing terrible pains. After reading about horses dying from Colic for the umpteenth time, i did a huge research project on it and I learned a lot.
your horse should be fine if you monitor his/her intake of food every now and then just to make sure that he stays healthy.
if you don't know what colic is or you just want to know the signs and symptoms of it, just e-mail me.
(runningwithhorses@yahoo.com)
I hope that my advise could be helpful to you.
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January 10th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Yes - offering as much hay as the horse wants is called "free choice" hay feeding. I do believe this is best for the horse's health, because in the wild, horses forage constantly for food. Horses don't sleep much, and if they were free, they would spend the rest of their waking hours nibbling on food.
The horse's digestive tract is designed to always have a small amount of food passing through it. The healthy bacterial flora in the horse's digestive tract can start to die off after as little as FOUR hours without eating. This is why feeding probiotics to horses is normally an excellent idea; their digestive tracts are constantly being disturbed by unnatural feeding schedules. When you consider how long stabled horses normally go without eating every day, it is no wonder that colic is a common problem! Three meals a day is great for people, but not so great for horses.
Roughages are so low in nutritional / calorie content, it's pretty difficult for a horse to become overweight from eating too much hay. That would be like a person gaining weight from eating nothing but salad.
Some people believe too much hay will result in "hay belly", but that is usually caused by other factors, such as age, or lack of excercise. It will certainly not cause him any digestive problem or colic.
Not only is it physically healthy for the horse, it is mentally healthy as well. Stabled horses that go hours without eating are exceptionally bored and feel hungry. They are designed to almost always be eating, so they feel very restless and unhappy and many resort to activities such as wood chewing and wind sucking to alleviate their "oral fixation", or even pawing or weaving just to alleviate their boredom. The horse feels most relaxed in the feeding position (head down) and while chewing.
I'm glad to hear that your horse is able to walk about freely, too. That is very good for his physical and mental health. Sounds like your horse has a pretty nice setup.
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January 10th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Absolutely yes, if he does not have much grass. Just watch his weight. Horses don't really need to "stop eating", in fact they are designed to eat constantly. If left to his own devices a horse will eat for 18+ hours a day.
However, their systems were designed for rangy, scrubby ground. It's our doing that what we provide them to eat - in lush, green pasture - harms them. They did not evolve to eat what we grow for them; what we give them often offers too much in the way of energy, since we start adding grain on top of it all.
The average pasture gives an idle, un-worked horse all he needs to live on.
If this small paddock he is in is low in grass then by all means give him free access to grass hay. I would not necessarily give a horse free access to legume hay (like alfalfa) however, since he is older, the higher protein content might do him some good due to his very slightly higher requirements and since alfalfa has a lower risk of colic than such grass hay as bermuda hay.
If he stays a healthy body condition score of 5 or 6, then there's no need to worry.
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January 10th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
It depends on the kind of hay you are feeding.
If it is alfafla hay- then no. Grass hay may be okay. But sometimes they can get a grass belly from overeating. I feed my horses flakes of hay several times a day with some grain. Different horses have difference margins of care and requirements. Make sure you are keeping a good worming schedule on that small of an acreage. Quest is what I prefer. Otherwise you need to follow up and rotate wormers every six weeks. Make sure his teeth are floated every 6 months and he is not dropping any food or grain.
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January 10th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I worked on two large standardbred nursery farms in Illinois for a total of 12 years. Both farms fed barren mares free choice hay, 24/7, without any complications. During breeding season, barren mares also got a small grain feeding twice a day.
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January 10th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
A horse is not like a cow, but grain and alfalfa needs to be controlled. If he's healthy and you feed him weedfree, moldfree GRASS hay then yes he can eat all he wants. If you have alfalfa he needs to be regulated.
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January 10th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
This is a question best answered by a vet that knows your horses metabolism and individuality; just like humans some can take in empty calories. At 20 he may or may not be able to chew certain types of hay properly and this could cause digestive problems in addition to varied nutritional needs. I would also recommend an Equine nutrition book as well to give you some breadth. Happy Trails!
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January 10th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
if ur horse knows when he is food u should let him have the hay. some horses r a better judge than others. if u own a pony they r not as careful as horses r and do not when 2 stop eating. unless ur horse starts getting over weight i wouldn't worry about it.
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January 10th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
this would not be a perfect idea bc if the horse is eating grass and hay there would be to much food in his system and he could get sick if the horse is in the barn the horse will become over weight and that is bad for their legs causing laminitis
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January 10th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Be careful not to feed him too much…. he might get a collick, which could kill him if it is really bad….. if he is grazing just let him eat. i have had a horse die from collick
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January 10th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
they do(every 7 h) so ya go a head
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January 10th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
It is fine to let him have free access as long as your horse doesn't eat 5 bales of hay a day! Give him free access, but don't let him over-eat or it can be unhealthy is he gets real over weight. Just watch out for signs of over eating.
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January 10th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
hmm ya ive heard that too "they don't know when to stop eating" i knew a horse that almost died bcuz he got out of his stall and eat too much hay and oats! but um no don't let him get fat bcuz he will.if you ride him, you might still want to fit a saddle on him! haha. just don't let him eat TOO MUCH but i don't know i guess since hes old, i guess hes kinda retired he can eat as much as he want!! but watch his weight.
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i have 3 horses as well!
January 10th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
I say it is ok best bet is a round bale…
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January 10th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Its okay for your horse to eat as much hay as he wants because hay is roughage. It won't really make him gain any significant weight. Horses can't really eat to much hay either, because it won't make them colic or founder or anything like that. That's why when a horse does colic or founder you take them off grain and just feed them hay for awhile.
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January 10th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
That depends on the type of hay you are feeding. If you are feeding an alfalfa mix and a straight alfalfa hay, I wouldn't give him free choice. But if you have a "grass" hay, you should be relatively safe to allow him more access to this. Enjoy your older horse! They are great friends!
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January 10th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
with some horses the over feed on hay and colick but some horses will stop eating the hay when they get full so you should get some hay and try it for about 1 to 2 weeks if he gorges himself then no but if he doesnt then its ok and dont leave sweat feed out all the time.
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