Round bales are notorious for feeding losses when fed loose or in simple ring feeders. | Photo: iStock

Q. I have three horses at home and try to free feed them hay, which until recently consisted of me filling and feeding haynets at least four times a day. In an attempt not to spend my whole day running back and forth to feed horses, I decided to try feeding them from a large round bale. This bale was sold to me as weighing 1,200 pounds. I placed on the ground in my dirt paddock. They have had access to it now for seven days, and the whole thing is just about gone. How can they possibly have eaten the whole thing in a week? The horses are a 17-year-old Quarter horse who weighs 1,250 pounds, a 20-year-old Hanoverian weighing 1,375 pounds, and a 9-year-old Hanoverian/Anglo-Arab who weighs 1,010 pounds.

—S.A.

A. First of all, I want to commend you on trying to keep hay in front of your horses 24 hours a day.  Whenever possible, this is ideal for nonpastured horses, because it gives them the best opportunity to eat for most of the day, which is how they evolved to live. Achieving this can be challenging, though. Providing access to the round bale was a good idea, and at first glance it does seem that big of a bale should last far longer than a week. But let’s see if that is the case