Hay

[midnight star stables]

Feeding the miniatures is an art. We always talk about grain and protein levels, so I was just wondering what you all preferred with your hay.

So what do you feed? Feel free to post how you feed your hay too.

I'm personally interested in what cut you feed.

 

[WashingtonCowgirl]

Spanky gets a 50/50 grass alfalfa combo, about one flake a day. He also gets Enrich 32 ( 1/4 pound) and about a 3/4 pound of beet pulp (measured dry)

 

[cretahillsgal]

Right now I feed whatever I can get that is not fescue or "cow hay" LOL I don't typically feed alfalfa because of the blister beetles around here.

BUT if I could choose anything I would feed a bermuda/alfalfa mix.

 

[chandab]

I don't have a choice on cut, we only get one cut per year.

I have limited choices as to what type of grass hay I can get, but lately its been a mix of wheatgrasses, mostly Crested Wheatgrass, and some Green Leaf Wheatgrass. When I can get it the horses really like Bromegrass.

I rarely feed alfalfa, but some of our fields have some alfalfa, so its in some bales.

And, in winter I add soaked beet pulp.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

We don't have the option here either of any other than first cut. This year farmers here were lucky to get that off and it was late so the hay is far more mature than I like. I will be monitoring the horses to see how they do and may end up adding alfalfa pellets to give it a bit more value for less bulk if they don't do well. It is a blend of timothy, orchard grass and brome (wasn't one of the poll options so I selected other)which is the standard seed mix for hay fields here and what I usually feed. Some years I can get the same mix at 80% with 20% alfalfa, that is by far the best hay I have fed and I love how my horses look on it. I add to that a loose mineral mix they can access free choice along with salt and a ration balancer. The only other regular supplement here is flax seed for their coats.

 

[Reble]

We use alfalfa/timothy hay cubes.

No waste and good quality.

We buy them by the skid, delivered and put away.

keeping it simple this winter. Just adding:

pellet mineral supplement, & salt block.

 

[Becky]

My grass hay preference is Prairie hay, which is not on your list. It's a very common hay in Oklahoma and surrounding states. As far as cutting, I have no choice in that. I buy hay from my feed stores and take whatever they get.

I generally don't feed Bermuda hay as I've had issues with it from foundering to gas colics. Neither are good. I also wanted to point out that Bermuda hay in this part of the country isn't coastal. It's a native type, generally Tifton 44 or related.

I do feed alfalfa to all of my horses but in the form of pellets with occasional baled or cubed thrown in. I use Cross brand alfalfa pellets and Standlee for the cubed/baled alfalfa.

 

[Margo_C-T]

Really good grass hay is a challenge to get around here; this year I was lucky to find some great quality-area-grown Dovey fescue hay, and the horses clean it up. I also am a firm believer in feeding alfalfa; I prefer third cut, but because it can be 'iffy' to get it off good quality because of the rainy season, I now buy 2nd cut(first cut is TOO fine and 'rich' for horses, in my experience; where I buy from, south of here in central NM, they usually get 4 cuts; 5, in southern NM. As far as I've ever heard, blister beetles have not been a problem in NM alfalfa...but I do go out of my way to buy from a producer I KNOW well, and who I know fertilizes and controls bugs and weeds at proper times.

I feed roughly 1/3 alfalfa to 2/3 grass hay.

Margo

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

We use alfalfa/timothy hay cubes.

No waste and good quality.

We buy them by the skid, delivered and put away.

keeping it simple this winter. Just adding:

pellet mineral supplement, & salt block.

Do you presoak the cubes? They seem rather hard for the little ones to chew... have you found that to be the case?

 

[Just_Rena]

I feed bahia hay round bales. My hubby built me a roofed round bale holder, open on 1 side cattle panels on the other 3.

 

[targetsmom]

I feed second cutting local Timothy hay 4 times a day and feed soaked alfalfa cubes at bedtime to everyone. I also add soaked beet pulp to their twice- a-day grain. The ones I am trying to put weight on get soaked alfalfa cubes with their grain too. They all get selenium in their grain and/or as a supplement because our area is very low.

 

[Minimor]

We only get 1st and 2nd cut here. Unless it is irrigated land (and most hay land isn't irrigated here) 2nd cut is pretty much strong alfalfa. Depending on the year 2nd cut may have quite a bit of grass but that isn't the norm. So, most often our hay is 1st cut.

We like brome hay the best, and the horses love crested wheat if it is cut early--cut late it is much too dry & stalky and isn't palatable.

This year we've got a variety of hay. One hay supplier has some straight grass hay, which is prairie grass and brome. Another field is prairie hay/alfalfa, and then we also got a few 2nd cut alfalfa bales off that same field. He also had a few bales of rye grass/brome/crested wheat/timothy that i am getting.

My other hay supplier also has a variety for me--timothy/red clover, which actually has very little clover & some of the bales are almost straight timothy--very nice hay. Another batch is mostly grass--brome, a bit of timothy, and just a little alfalfa. Some other is stronger alfalfa and brome--unfortunately that is fairly coarse, but the horses go through it & do eat all but the coarse alfalfa stems.

I have only ever bought orchard grass once, and prefer to never buy it again. That hay was what I consider junk hay--not nice grass at all and the horses did not like it. I would have to be desperate to buy that again--much prefer brome, timothy & crested wheat, and of course some alfalfa.

 

[Kim~Crayonboxminiatures]

My dad does the hay I feed my horses, it's some kind of mixed grasses, not really orchard grass, but that's what I picked in the poll because it was closest. I will feed 1st, 2nd or 3rd cutting, depending on the year, how many cuttings we got and what we have available, in a typical year I prefer 2nd or 3rd cutting for the Minis, but sometimes the 1st cutting ends up better so I will use it. I like it to be finer stemmed for the Minis, they seems to digest it better than the coarser stems, but I will feed whatever we have.

I do add beet pulp, but it's more of a filler to round out their pellets meals, add some more to it, and get fluid into them, especially in winter.

 

[Reble]

Do you presoak the cubes? They seem rather hard for the little ones to chew... have you found that to be the case?

Not at all, I guess it depends on where you get it.

We get ours right from the warehouse.

Ours are not the large cubes ours are the mini cubes.

50lb. bags at $11.00 alfalfa / timothy

I can break ours up very easy with my hands..

I do not find it any harder than horse crunch, to me that is harder and they give them dry..

I find my horses break them up and have one that takes a long time eating must have it all broke down before enjoying her meal.

Funny to watch her make sure it is all broke up before eating..

Have been doing hay cubes for 10 years now and no problems. touch wood

So much easier to handle and quality is some much better and as I said no waste and can make sure the correct amount to feed each one.

We will be down to only 7 horses this winter, so not that expensive, we used to have 15 horses give or take and can be a little pricey, but with hay up and down and trying to find the quality needed for these guys find this works for us.

Hope this help answer your question.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Well, it does and it doesn't. I am thinking I'd like to offer my horses alfalfa cubes or pellets to supplement the mature hay available this year but am trying to see the pros and cons to each option. I'm not entirely sure that the cubes available to me are the same as those you can get. I also wonder what the risks/benefits to each choice would be.So you answered my question and left me with some new ones. Maybe I need to start a new thread.

 

[mydaddysjag]

Hay, one of my favorite subjects! (No really, I get a "high" when I go in the hay storage and take a big whiff, love the stuff)

I'm a bit of a hay snob, I wont feed first cut. In my area its very coarse, and generally first cut grass around here is just whatever is growing in a field, weeds, branches, and all.

Im feeding second and third cutting alfalfa and timothy as my baled hay. I know a lot of people have said timothy is coarse, but thats defiantly not the case with what I found this year. My timothy is as soft as the grass in my yard, its divine. I also feed 50% of my hay in alfalfa. I just feed half from one bale, half from another. It gives my control over exactly what each horse gets. I have one who is a bit pudgey so he gets a little less alfalfa than timothy.

I have a boy with ulcers who I took off of grain, and to keep him from going beserk at feeding time, and keep some water in him, he gets a mash of shredded beet pulp and alfalfa pellets. I only feed it soaked.

I use producers price pellets, which are the tractor supply store brand, but are manufacturer by purina mills. I tried the standlee pellets, but they are over 2x the size, and take much longer to soak. They were seriously bigger in diameter than a pencil and over an inch long. I had to soak them for 2 hours to get them to break down.

During show season, I feed TNT chops timothy/alfalfa hay. Ive tried other brands such as lucerne farms hi fiber hay, and triple crown alfalfa forage, but both were the consistency of straw, an icky brown color and covered in molasses. The triple crown was the worse of the two. I really like the TNT chops, the hay is green, soft and fine, and although it has some molasses, you would never know by looking at it.

Im still trying to figure out if it safe and how hard it would be to run my baled hay through a chipper/shredder to get chopped hay. I really, really like the hay I got this year.

I feed my regular baled hay out of the "busy snacker" hay feeders. They are a slow feed hay feeder, that really slow my guys down. The fastest I have seen one of my horses finish their hay is 2.5 hours, but Ive seen then munching their morning hay at 4pm, so they really do work. they arent the net type feeders, they are made of a rigid nylon webbing, so the horses cant get their legs caught. The holes are about 1/3 the size of a hoof.

 

[Becky]

I tried the standlee pellets, but they are over 2x the size, and take much longer to soak. They were seriously bigger in diameter than a pencil and over an inch long.

Hmmm..... that's really interesting. I have occasionally purchased the Standlee pellets from TSC when I can't get them from the Cross Brand feed store. They're the same size pellet as the Cross brand. 1/4" pellets. I haven't had any problems with them. Any of the alfalfa pellets I've bought locally are 1/4" pellets. That includes the Nutrena pellets. Which I don't like because the bags are full of corn! I don't feed corn to my horses.

 

[Sandy B]

The minis get a Orchard grass that has about 10-20% alfalfa in it as well. It is my understanding that grass hays are only cut once unless irrigated. They also get about 1# of Purina Mini Horse & Pony Grain. I will increase that next spring as the mares get closer to foaling and then during lactation. Our stallion also gets more during breeding season.

My full sized horses get Alfalfa in the morning and the Orchard Mix at night. 1st cutting alfalfa is usually bought up by all the dairys as it is very rich in nutrients. Here in California we can get multiple cuttings from the alfalfa. 2nd & 3rd cutting is usually very nice horse hay. After that it tends to get a bit too stemy but still feed able. My adult horses get Purina Strategy.

All horses have access to mineral and pure salt blocks.

 

[noblebrook]

I found that the change in my breeding program has also brought about a change in the type of hay I use. The smaller A mini's needed a grass hay to keep the weight down---I like my horses to be able to munch through out the day---the R/shetland horses definately can use more alfalfa mixed in with the grass. I still like to have mostly grass hay and supplement with the grain for nutrition though.

My feed store offers hay analysis for $25.00 and it is well worth it, it is quite shocking how little food value is in hay these days. I have a great local hay supplier who furtilizes regularly as well so I was a bit

surprised, but I quess it is happening to all our food sources thes days

Great thread Des!

 

[chandab]

Hmmm..... that's really interesting. I have occasionally purchased the Standlee pellets from TSC when I can't get them from the Cross Brand feed store. They're the same size pellet as the Cross brand. 1/4" pellets. I haven't had any problems with them. Any of the alfalfa pellets I've bought locally are 1/4" pellets. That includes the Nutrena pellets. Which I don't like because the bags are full of corn! I don't feed corn to my horses.

Becky, I too like the Standlee pellets, and have no problem with them. But, I can get an alfalfa dehy pellet locally (only two horses really like them) and they are about the same size as the ProAdvantage grass formula pellets (so about half the size of the Standlee hay pellets).