I had 5 horses at the time & the big stressor every fall was getting enough hay in the loft to last until the grass started coming out again. I had to definitely feed hay December through March. Depending on the weather, it could be November to sometime in April. The hay has to be good quality- horses don’t tolerate moldy hay & you certainly want “clean” hay i.e. few or no weeds. The farmer I got hay from that Saturday had really good, clean orchard grass hay & he also had nice alfalfa hay. Alfalfa is a good supplement, can’t feed it all the time as a main feed because the protein content is too high. His hay was not the cheapest, but you got your money’s worth in quality - large bales, too.
The neighbor with the horse farm? Some years if hay is high, she spends $60,000 on hay to get her huge number of horses through the winter. Granted, she has hundreds of horses and ponies - but YIKES!
Ithaca can go through most of one large square bale in the winter months, as can the current steer in residence.
Have you met my friend Ridesthemiles? You two are both total horse women!