Round bales verses squares.Stalls verses outside Horses

Our broodmares and a 2 year old filly that's pastured with them get round bales. It's much more convenient and less expensive than try to feed them square bales. The 2 boys on their pasture I'm haying with square bales. With only 2 horses it's actually more economical to feed squares. 3 horses or more is what makes it worthwhile to feed round bales in my opinion. With 2 horses you end up with more waste than hay eaten because it takes them so long to eat it and the weather gets too it. I also use squares for my stalled horses. I stall my young horses (weanlings/yearlings) in bad weather. The adult horses have shelters, but tend to not share with the youngsters. I also stall my broodmares starting a couple weeks before foaling and for a month or so after foaling. During that time they get squares.

I use round bales in the pasture. Horses need hay available at all times. In bad weather or for whatever reasons my horses need stalled, I keep sqaure bales in the barn for easy access to place in hay nets in the stalls. Whether I keep my horses in stalls or in pasture, I handle them daily so it makes no difference.

I've used both, but now that I have to feed my horses seperately in a stall (most are rescues, and on special diets) I'm using square bales. They have free access to the barn and pasture so the nets are full all the time and they can eat it whenever they want. There is also grass in the pasture for grazing. Imagine their joy when the snow melted enough that they could see grass and it was still green! :)

I feed my horses round bales normally, although now days in Northern Michigan the snow is to deep to even get the four wheel drive pick up into the pasture . So for the last week and a half I have had to feed square bales, I can't wait for the snow to melt down a little. My horses also have free choice to their lean to shelter, which 9 times out of 10 they don't use, although this winter they have used it more because we have had such bad winds.

I have always used square bales in New England. Round bales were strickly for cows. Now that I'm in Alabama, we have found that most horse people use round bales. We only have 2 horses and they are in a rented pasture with no barn so we have no place, and no way, to get round bales so we just buy a quantity of square bales. Hay was extremely difficult to get this winter and also very expensive. Our horses are pastured with no barn and they seem very healthy and happy. Having come from the Mt. Washington area in northern New Hampshire, they are much happier since they don't have icicles hanging from their faces anymore! Praise the Lord!

Living in Finland and Maine growing up, horses were always stalled during the winter because it was simply too cold outside. They always were given plenty of pasture time during warmer months, including about a month of vacation time in a rented larger field where they were allowed to purely exist as horses. Getting them back in shape afterward was always a chore... Here in Washington State I don't currently have horses, but the ones I work with are usually out at pasture year round because the climate is so mild. If I had my own I would keep them outside - I feel it's more natural than cooping them up in a small stall.

Personally, I think the big round bales are easier if you have the equipment for managing it. The square bales are nice for someone running just a small ranch with little machinery or trucks. I have always stalled my horses at night just so they get used to being handled. They each have a large stall and it also allows for grooming and personal feedings if medically necessary. (ex. underweight, overweight, pregnant, etc....) That is just what I have always done.

I have worked with both round bales and small square bales, and for the most part I prefer the round bales. They are much nicer to deal with in the winter especially here in windy Wyoming. We used to feed small square bales that we through off the back of a trailer, and we would have to feed the horses seperatly from the cows or they wouldn't get much food. Now that we use round bales we just feed them with the cows and if it seems they aren't getting enough food, then we give them an extra little square bale. As far as stalls go, I prefer them becuase it makes it nice when you have to gear up to go round up the cows or anything else. You don't have the wind blowing you every where, or the snow freezing you or the rain..etc. Yet the horses don't seem to mind all the weather so I figure they prefer no barn. Unless of course it is hailing, then they want a barn or at least some cover and refuse to budge till the weather is gone.

I am in Montana and work at a kids camp we have 36 horses right now and they stay outside 24/7 365. I worked ten years in Michigan at a camp were we ran 100 head and they were out side 24 7 365 I have used small squares rounds and big squares. And to tell you the truth I like the big squares the best IF you have a barn to stack them in and the equipment to handle them. its funny back in Michigan people use to ask why we left our horses out side in the winter I would always tell them that wild horses have been living outside for year and have done just fine.