Feeding haylage to a good doer?

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Jingleballs

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Our local farmer who provides hay to our yard is struggling with hay supplies (as is every other farmer in the area) due to the horrible weather last year.

So our latest delivery is 2 bales of haylage.

C doesn't get fizzy on haylage but he is a very good doer - so much so that I tend to try and wet his hay to prevent him eating it too quickly or putting weight on.

I'm going to try and find a hay supplier but if that fails would soaking the haylage overnight remove enough of the nutrients to allow me to feed it to him with out worrying about weight gain? They are about to move into their summer field which has loads of grass (need to dig out the muzzle) so he'll be cut down to 1 net a day as he's barely finishing the 2 nets he gets now.

Welcome any thoughts.
 
I dont think that you can soak haylage? perhaps only give him a small amount inside two haynets so it takes him a while to eat it.
 
I would advise not to feed haylage to the good doer if you can help it.

I have always struggled with my cobs weight and on my previous yard we had to feed haylage. We moved yards and he went onto hay and his weight started to drop. I did used to soak my haylage over night and continue to soak his hay now and his weight is fantastic. Im so pleased with him.

I soak his hay for about 12-24 hours and either double the nets up or use very very small holed nets. Good luck, don’t forget it laminitis season!
 
We have an option of hay or haylage on our yard which is included in the cost of DIY livery. The hay is of very poor quality, thorny, smells horrible, dusty, etc. The haylage which is off our fields varies from field to field, and can be very rich and caramelly at times. My horse is the typical good doer WB so I have tried mixing a tub of soaked hay to four tubs of haylage but he has recently stopped eating the hay so I have bought a bale of hay and I am going to mix one section per day into the haylage and this will provide three small tubs and one large haynet per day. This is the best way I can think of reducing the calories without compromising on the quantity he eats. If you restrict horses fibre they are at risk of going on to develop vices and also gastric ulcers.
 
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I'm going to try and find a hay supplier but if that fails would soaking the haylage overnight remove enough of the nutrients to allow me to feed it to him with out worrying about weight gain?
Welcome any thoughts.

[/ QUOTE ]

That would be absolutely fine, just the same as soaking hay. It's for the same thing, getting rid of the sugars. We're on haylage at our yard (hay not an option) and we spoke to a nutritionist before we went to the yard as were really worried about it. We have one horse who balloons just looking at hay, haylage or grass.

Soaking it means you can feed him ad lib fibre to keep his hindgut moving but without stuffing him full of calories.
 
My ID is a good doer although I manage to maintain her weight at an acceptable level on haylage, happy hoof and exercise 4 or 5 times a week
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Perhaps I should put myself on same regime, I could do with losing some weight
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My shetland pony is on very high quality Hayledge - due to lack of storage for hay and it's what the horses get.
He has also had an episode of Laminitis whilst out on loan when he was younger.
He's out for 7 hours a day, and gets a decent small mesh net at night and he's fine - and not overweight. He's been on this regime for years. He's in at night all year round and rugged in the winter (he's 23 now and softened up with the pampered lifestyle)
 
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