I need some feeding ideas, please

[Shawn]

Here is the situation, I have 3 horses. Two mares and a gelding.
The gelding (Poco) is 31 years old and it wouldn't hurt him to stand at a round bale all day and eat. He gets grain/beet pulp TAD.
One mare (Star) is a super easy keeper. For instance, in a dry lot, only trees to eat and a round bale, she gained about 50 pounds when I had to feed 3 round bales of brome instead of prairie hay. She gets nothing else.
The other mare (Candy) used to be a real easy keeper and I guess still is. She isn't gaining on air anymore, but doing ok with the full time bale in front of her.
I gave both the mares Safe Choice pellets over the winter. Candy gets about a pint scoop TAD and Star gets a handful (literally to keep her from pouting) TAD.

My question is. I'm trying to figure out how to feed these guys next winter without burning through 18 bales of hay like I did last winter!! I fed 5 the previous winter before I got Poco. I forked hay over morning and evening for the mares and they did fine. (no pellets even) So I know the girls are getting more hay than they really need. But Poco needs the extra calories. I suppose I could rig up something that he could be placed somewhere and fed a square bale, but that ups the cost, too, as I don't buy but about 30 squares as "emergency" hay to feed when I can't get a round bale for whatever reason. I really don't want to buy squares.

Any ideas? I already have a "cow creep" to keep the horses from getting in the east end of the barn, but it allows them to have the west end in the winter. So that's one point of separation. I hate to try to figure out too many other ways to separate.
And the biggest problem is I work 8-5, so I can't exactly stand around waiting on him in the morning, and there's limited hours at night to do so. Help.

[marseydoats]

I have a horse with bad teeth, and I just feed him 90 minutes before I feed everybody else in the evenings. Basically, I get home from work, grab his and his buddies feed, separate them with an electric fence gate, and then go about my business. If he isn't done eating in 90 minutes, I just give him more time. In the morning when I have to leave for work, if he isn't done in the allotted time, I just take his feeder and store it in the grain freezer. I can't leave him and his buddy apart all day, and his buddy would eat ALL the food.
You can fork hay off a round bale, but its a major pain in the butt. And you need somebody strong to help you get the "top" off. We just pull back the inch at the edges and top where it gets weathered, fork off what we need, and put the top back on.
I fed my 32 year old OTQH a kind of bran mash for the last 7 years of his life. He got grain, calf manna, and bran mixed with warm water and did really well on it. he had a stroke when he was like 25 and lost most of his eyesight. we didn't think he was going to make it to live to this farm, but it really agreed with him. He put on some weight and actually regained most of his vision. Old guys are a lot of work!
HTH.

[wyomama]

Can you figure out any way to keep Poco with the cows over the winter? Then he'd have a bale all the time, and you could feed the girls TAD?