If you feed hay

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Brandi*

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What kind of grass hay do you feed? Melody seems to be a bit picky when it comes to grass hay. She did like the timothy mix I got once but I can't ever find it. Since the grass is in now I do not want to give her alfalfa. I bought a grassy alfalfa but it looks greener than the alfalfa :DOH! She didn't like the orchard grass I got either. She wastes almost all of it. I like to give her free choice hay at night when she is locked in her paddock but I think she would probably just gobble all of the grassy alfalfa down. Any suggestions on other types of grass hay that horses usually like?
 
My horses get either timothy orchard grass mix or timothy clover mix. They hate plain orchard hay and they hate timothy and rye (the rye is old and bitter until the timothy is mature enough to harvest.).

Knock on wood, I have grown up in my area and have two different local farms I can get my hay from. I usually switch back and forth to ensure I always have a supplier. It helps out alot when you have roots in your hometown.

Carolyn
 
Over here in Oz, we call your alfalfa, lucerne.
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Just be careful giving too much alfalfa to Melody, especially with her history of tummy aches. I had the vet out to Bailey after he overindulged in the stuff. The vet told me it was quite rich and gave him a belly ache. He basically said that he needs less of the rich stuff and more of the plain grass hay.

If you are going to leave her with some hay over night, perhaps just mix a smaller amount of the alfalfa in with a grass hay.

I can't really suggest types of hay for you as we both have different stuff.

Oh yeah, I also soak their hay most nights. It can help wash away excess sugars. They also seem to prefer it wet.

I had 3 bales of hay that Bailey was not interested in at all. I ended up chopping it up into smaller pices using hedge clippers and then mixing it through other hay. We finally got through it all.
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Good luck.

xox Leonie xox
 
We feed primarily brome and the horses love it but we also occasionally mix in some prairie hay...
 
I feel a orchard grass / alfalfa mix hay. Its like 75% Orchard grass and less then 25% alfalfa. It works out great for my horses so far, i really like the hay. Its soft.

I cannot remember who said this but "soft hay = soft belly" ....or something like that? Its true
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Well, I'm really limited on what I can get around here. I'm in the middle of cattle country, so its mostly alfalfa.

But, we do have a little bit of grass hay available. The horses' favorites seems to be brome, then when I can get it they also like Bluejoint and if all else fails crested wheatgrass can be found, but they aren't too fond of it (it can be pretty coarse). When I was in CO, the horses loved the mountain grown timothy; can't get that around here.
 
Never heard of Brome before....what's it like?? I feed a orchard grass/alfalfa mix and they do well on it.
 
We usually feed really nice orchard grass hay, but we sometimes feed timothy from one particular farm (they make it very soft and our horses are crazy over it).

ALL we really feed is the hay above and complete senior pellets. Everyone has free access to minerals (and clean water, of course). Show horses also get ground flax seed... that's it
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I feed a mostly orchardgrass hay, but theres some reed canary and timothy in there too. I try to use the leafy bales, the leaves hold the nutrients!

Coarse hay and stems arnt really digestable, whick, imo, causes big bellies.
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Its probably not the hay. With the new sweet spring growth of grass, she wants the grass right now. Just be careful about limiting it during this time; the sugars are high in the grass which is what causes grass founder.

I use orchard grass here which is what grows well in this region.

I keep some bails of alfalfa back if I have bred mares and will just mix in some of that with the orchard grass.
 
Marty,

I would agree if she didn't act like this in the winter but she did. She always has. I did notice that when I mixed some alfalfa leaves throughout (a very small amount) the orchard grass, she did seem to eat a little more of the orchard grass. It seems like we are very limited around here when it comes to grass hay this year.

I have never heard of Brome. Maybe we don't get it in this area? Or maybe we call it something else? The feed store did have a wheat grass but it looked SO coarse!

Its probably not the hay. With the new sweet spring growth of grass, she wants the grass right now. Just be careful about limiting it during this time; the sugars are high in the grass which is what causes grass founder.

I use orchard grass here which is what grows well in this region.

I keep some bails of alfalfa back if I have bred mares and will just mix in some of that with the orchard grass.
 
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