In winter my arab gelding gets grassy hay, free choice, almost exclusively except a very small supplement of flax, vitamins, handful oats, wheat germ (that's his treat). I hand feed him very small pieces of carrot, but he has to work/do some little trick for them. When the first tiny shoots of green  come up in spring he is out on pasture looking for any little bit, but still relies on freechoice hay for most of his fill. What quickly happens is he decides the grass is better than hay, and I want him to have a balance, so gradually I have to cut down the time he spends in the pasture or he'd just have a belly full of tiny green shoots. When the pasture really comes in full force, by May, I have to put a grazing muzzle on him  and restrict total time on pasture because he really would pig out. So the time he spends in his dry lot/paddock is for hay, and the rest is a relatively short time out on the pasture. With this combination his weight stays good, not too fat, of course he works a lot more in summer, and his feet are good even on daily rocky trails (barefoot). But last year he got a little too much pasture and went tender, which resolved itself because I got him off the grass as soon as I realized. No vet treatment was necessary and we were back on the trail after a couple of weeks r&r. Also his behavior gets pretty kooky if he gets too much fresh greens. I supplement with magnesium on the theory this might help.

Sometimes he probably is bored when he can't be on the pasture all day, and he isn't trail climbing, but he won't die of boredom. On the other hand he could die of laminits if he gets too much pasture or grain but not hay, so easy choice.

-- Edited by Marlene on Saturday 16th of April 2011 06:46:29 PM