Grass v hay v horsehage

[Leam_Carrie]

My horse is off ridden work at the moment and lives with my mini Shetland. Their usual routine is out on grass during the day (Shetland muzzled) and on hard standing with hay at night. As horse is just doing in hand work the vet wants her on a bare paddock.

My hay supplier is out of 2020 hay and offered spring cut meadow hay. I think this is likely to be unsuitable for the little one and not great for the big one. So said no thank you - and that I’ll be back in touch in a little while.

I’ve been buying the high fibre and Timothy horsehage, which seems to be going well (both say suitable for laminitics). They’re getting through a bag every three days (there’s some grass around the edges of the hard standing area). They definitely like it.

I’m wondering if I’d be better to just leave the horse out on grass and strip graze some more of the field. Little one could be shut on hard standing during the day (muzzle off) and nibble the grass (I can always make it wider).

I’m thinking hay is probably off until October (there doesn’t seem to be much / any 2020 around). Happy to keep buying horsehage if best option (must just stop comparing the price to my normal hay in my head). Ultimately top priority is they both stay a nice weight.

I assume grass is higher sugar than 2020 spring hay which is higher in sugar than horsehage. Is that right?

 

[Lady Jane]

I recently attended a Webinar about the various types of forage and can't remember all the facts. I do know the only way of knowing sugar content is to get it analysed. Haylage is not necessarily a higher sugar content, the grass will depend on the species and the time of day they are out (sugar content is low in the morning and rises during the day), it depends exactly when the Spring hay was cut (I haven't heard of Spring hay, due you mean first cut?), the time of day it was cut and how long it was wilted before baling. The subject is a mine field. If the haylage says suitable for laminitics it should tell you the sugar content and it may be the safest for you to feed.