does haylage affect your horse

debsflo

debsflo

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reluctantly i am having to introduce haylage as my horses wont eat hay and have tried 4 different types but am worried it will make them fizzy .it is the high fibre haylage but wondered if some horses are just as chilled on it . hard to assess at the moment as due to the high winds theyre all quite skitty.
 
I found mine did get a bit more excitable when first going onto this autumns ryegrass haylage, but have levelled out now as are using the energy for hunting etc.

However if you are feeding the high fibre horsehage they should be less likely to re act to that as lower protein and calories, so maybe a bit skittish because of the weather.....

Can you mix the haylage with your hay so it is introduced gradually?
 
No, never saw a difference. Mind you, I could probably feed him a sack full of oats and nothing would happen!
I agree, if you get a lower sugar content haylage they are less likely to have a reaction.
 
Nope never had a problem even with my skitty TB who gets high on air :p
The only thing I saw a difference on is if we gave him the green horsehage but he was fine with the blue one :)
 
Nope doesn't affect mine, I have a friend who swears her horse goes nutty on it but in my opinion it is more that she thinks he does (I was looking after him for a weekend and she didn't tell me he was on hay and he was fine with me on haylage but with like with humans I think it depends on your constitution and the content of the haylage.
 
My horse blows bubbles out of his bum and catches you out with the odd squirt if he has too much haylage and not enough grass! Temperament though is fine - any tips for runny bums?:eek:
 
Re the runny problem - my mare has also had this problem (coloured with big white socks and a white - well should be ! ! and black tail) Had the chance to have a trial pot of Fine Fettle Happy Tummy and all I can say is what a difference. Gone is the "very wet" area between her hind legs. Have just ordered some so hope it continues to have this effect. I may manage to return the white bits back to her tail !
 
We have some very good doers, so feed good quality straw (currently barley straw), about 1/3 straw to 2/3 haylage, we also feed pink powder and have not had a problem. This is the first year we have fed haylage and did have concerns about this. A friend had a problem with her gelding having very wet droppings, she has managed to sort this out by feeding straw along with the very rich haylage she was feeding.Our farrier is convinced that the gut imbalance caused by feeding too much/too rich haylage is contributing to the rise in incidences of lamintis.
 
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