Feeding rye grass hay to a good doer

[scewal]

Would you feed rye grass hay to a good doer? She is slightly over weight, so have been soaking the hay for 12 hours.

 

[millimoo]

My shetland is on rye grass Hayledge.
He has a dust allergy and would also rather starve than eat it soaked.
He just gets less of it. However our supplier does a rye / Timothy grass mix, so I'm going to try a bag and see if he'll eat it.
Horsehage also do a Timothy grass version

 

[scewal]

Thanks for your reply. Am going to give them less and see how they go.

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Take care - my pony came down with lami when ryegrass was all I could get for a while :-(. Should be ok if you soak it well but I would def be trying to get something else (if only so they can have a longer chew) - I use oat straw when I can get it to 'cut' with hay.

 

[NOISYGIRL]

I'd be really careful, some rye grass haylage can be really rich, it depends what you' ve got really

 

[DebbieBrand]

Last yer the hay supplied on the farm where I keep my horses ay rye grass, so I had it tested for sugar content It came back as only 7% sugar whereas the meadow hay was 11% sugar. The same grass as alo used to make silage for the cattle and they don't ike it as it's not sweet enough.

 

[TGM]

A lot will depend on when the hay was cut. Early cut will be more likely to be fattening than late cut.

 

[scewal]

My YO sent a sample to be tested today. The hay is made by the local farmer for his dairy cows.
Will let you know the sugar % when the results come back.