How to Choose Great Hay

Choosing the right hay for your horse

For many, hay is the life line of your horse's daily feed rations.  Getting the right type of hay, or the best quality is often a mine field.  Whether you are making your own hay or buying it there are a few simple steps you can take to ensure your horse is kept happy, warm and healthy.

Choosing Hay

Your first impressions count when it comes to looking at your hay, a good green/tan colour is a great start.  Avoid hay that has a lot of weeds in it.  Not only will your horse not eat it so will be wasteful, some weeds can harm your horse such as the damage to the liver that Ragwort causes.  The seeds left behind will grow in your paddock leaving you to have less grass for your horse to eat - again not ideal. 

Look for mould, dirt, stones and sticks, this clearly should give you warning signs that this hay is not up to standard for your horse.  Is it dry to touch?  Dampness will lead to the hay souring and it will keep poorly long term.  Avoid all moisture!

Smell your hay.  It should smell delicious!  Fresh, sweet, clean and literally good enough to eat yourself!  When you look closely at the hay is there plenty of leaves in it or is it mostly dry stalks.  You want leaf as that's what makes the hay taste nice and it is what your horse's digestive tract can break down efficiently giving your horse the nutrition it needs.

Making your own hay - what you must know

This is a real challenge!  First thing you need to find is a reliable contractor who has had experience cutting hay in your region.  Choose a paddock that grows well and is not too wet or too dry.  You will need to remove weeds prior to growing your hay so that you don't spread the seeds around when you feed your hay out. 

When it is cut, get the hay turned at least 3 times before being baled.  Ensure the days on which your hay has been cut are gloriously sunny.  Once baled get it in the shed as fast as possible if your weather is unpredictable.  If you get caught out with the rain turn the hay bales so that the spikey, cut stalky side it facing up.  It will dry more effectively than on the other side.

If you can cook make a nice picnic dinner and invite your friends to come help with the proviso they help you bring in your hay.  Also men love to compete so divide your mates into two groups and the winning team wins a chocolate fish or something else yummy!

Storage

Stack your shed right and tight.  Jam the bales in close to each other.  If the first layer of hay is lengthways in your shed, lay the next layer width ways.  This will make your hay more stable and less likely to fall on you. It will also preserve your hay better over longer terms.

Types of hay

There are three major types of hay:

1. Legumes

Lucerne, otherwise knows as Alfalfa, is by far the most popular type of hay, however clover hay is also very popular.  Lucerne has a very high protein component so is brilliant for keeping weight on and building up muscle.  Care should be taken when over feeding young stock as excess weight can cause bone growth issues such as Development Orthopaedic Disease.   

2. Grasses

This category tends to be based on pasture grasses and generally comes in mixes of species, however some horses require less nutritional content in their hay so hay made from more fibrous grasses such as brown top is developed to fill your horses stomach without the calories.  Can be offered in higher quantities as the nutritional value is less than Cereal or Legume hay.

3. Cereal Grain Hay

This type of hay is made from cutting unharvested cereal plants that have the seeds such as oats still in the seed heads.  They contain a much higher nutritional content.  Have consideration about your horses entire diet to ensure you don't over feed your horse with too many grains as some horses become excessively excitable when fed high amounts. 

You will need to watch this hay as when it ages the seed heads fall off leaving just the stalks.  This leaves the hay with a poor nutrient level and is better suited to bedding in stables.

How is hay digested in the body

Your horse's diet should be fibre based and hay is one of the easiest, cheapest and most accessible forms of fibre filled forage you can offer.  It travels through your horse's stomach and small intestines where it collects in that large intestine.  Here it ferments with the assistance from bacteria that live in the horses gut.  The process the bacteria goes through causes heat.  This heat will keep your horse warm in winter.

The fibre also encourages your horse to chew a lot.  Horses tend to graze freely for up to 16 hours eachday.  When this ability is lost the horse will enter into a state of distress, which some will replace with habits such as weaving, wind-sucking, box walking and cribbing.  By giving your horse access to hay will lessen the chance that these bad vices will occur.

Can you feed last year's hay?

Yes you can, as long as it has been stored in dry area where it was not unduly contaminated by dirt, dust or mould.  The nutritional content does diminish over time so be aware of that.

Wetting hay and why you would do this

When you soak hay for 15 minutes or more you will notice the water will become discoloured.  This is the sugars within the hay leaching out.   Feeding soaked hay to horses and ponies who have suffered laminitis is a very good idea.  You will need to soak it between 15 mins to 24 hours.

Wet hay is also advisable to horses that are sensitive to dust as even the most excellent hay will contain some dust.  Horses with choke or chest infections would also benefit from hay that is wet.

Where to Feed

When feeding your horse on dirt, sand or other gritty surfaces make sure you hang your hay in a hay net or manger as your horse can develop sand colic or impaction colic, which is taking in too much dirt/ sand or other contaminant.

Add your Comment

Name*

Email

Message*

Enter the letters above

Get a different image