Many people ask me how much hay my horse eats in a day or how long a hay bale lasts per horse. It is actually quite hard to say how long a hay bale lasts per horse because of the different diets of all the horses across the globe.
When Feeding A Horse, How Long Does The Haybale Last?
When looking at the average horse who is on a diet that primarily consists of hay, these horses will eat between 3 and 5 flakes of hay per day. In a haybale, there are typically 12 to 14 flakes which means that one haybale will last between 3 and 5 days for the average hay-fed horse. This means that in one month a horse will eat between 4 and 8 hay bales.
My horse, Cisco, will eat around 4 flakes of hay per day. This means that one haybale usually lasts for just less than a week.
How Long Would A Haybale Last For A Large Draft Horse?
The bigger the horse, the more food the horse needs. With this in mind, you can assume that a hay bale would not last too long when dealing with a large draft horse.
When feeding a Clydesdale Draft Horse, a lot of hay is needed to keep these giant animals going. Usually, Clydesdales will eat between 40 and 50 pounds of hay in one day. Most hay bales that you can buy at your local feed store weigh between 40 and 75 pounds. This means that some Clydesdales will go through an entire bale of hay in one day!
Usually, this amount of hay is partnered with a bunch of grain and supplements as well which means that these horses may not only eat a bale of hay per day but also might consume several pounds on top of the hay.
How Long Would A Haybale Last For Feeding A Small Pony Or Miniature Horse?
Miniature horses eat a fraction of what even the average horse will eat. Because these little horses only weigh around 200 pounds on average, they don’t require much feed at all.
On average, a miniature horse will eat between 2 and 4 pounds of hay in a day. This means that a hay bale can last up to one month for one miniature horse.
2 to 4 pounds of hay is just around one-third to one-half of a flake of hay which is why the bale lasts so long when feeding such small horses.
How Much Does A Haybale Cost On Average?
It really is hard to say seeing that there are different availabilities all across the world for hay. Depending on where you live, hay could cost you as low as $5 for a bale or up to $20 for a bale.
I was in the state of Wyoming one summer spending some time with some relatives and my relatives said they will pay between $3 and $6 (US Dollars) for a hay bale. This seemed so low to me because at the moment I am paying around $18 to $20 (US Dollars) for a bale of hay.
So on average, because most of the United States and the rest of the world are likely paying more than my relatives do for their hay, I would say it costs around $15 for a bale of hay.