grass Vs haylage (bad skin)

[Sugar_and_Spice]

Can anyone give an educated guess about the nutritional differences? Changing from a diet based on weed and herb filled grazing with some grass to a diet based on ryegrass haylage causes flaky, scurfy skin, though the coat looks shiney.

Last year I tried corn oil and linseed cake, which made little difference. This year I'll try echinacea. If that doesn't work I'll try a sweet itch herbal/omega 3 supplement.

Horse has a general vitamin/mineral supplement too and no hard feed. I can't feed hay. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[Mince Pie]

Can you get meadowgrass haylage where you are?

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

I don't think so. I think there's one that is a mix of timothy and ryegrass. Is that meadow haylage? I usually get high fibre ryegrass as I presumed it was the least fattening, the third option being racehorse ryegrass. I could change half the haylage ration to redigrass chaff or one of the dengie chaffs, but not sure this would help. I'm a bit stuck really with feeding options. The bad skin is not in need of a vet, but I'm sure the horse would prefer not to have it.