Haylage verus 'hard feed'

[Charlie007]

Could I have your opions on the above. My horse cribs but I don;t think its caused by ulcers (vet also of this opinion). I have heard that haylage can cause more 'gas' and make them more uncomfortable? He is currently on ad lib hay, plenty of hifi with a few nuts thrown in. Would it be a good idea to ( and cheaper) to put him on haylage with no 'hard food' at all? Would he also need to be on adlib haylage as he is on a straw bed which i;m sure he will fill himself up on!! Or is it a case of 'if it aint broken...'? Hopefully he will be going out everyday, but really depends how fowl the weather gets!!

 

[ThePony]

If you are worried about the hayledge causing more gas then why would you want to change from hay onto it. Even if you feed hayledge then I would still feed a small hard feed for vits and minerals. I wouldn't imagine it would be cheaper, hayledge round here is a fair bit more expensive than hay.

 

[Angua2]

my vet is of the opinion that most leisure horses are fed far to much "hard feed" and should be on adlib hay or haylage.

I have taken note of this and reduced my girls "hard feed" to mostly hifi and sugarbeet with a sprinkling of economy cubes.

As for the expense, I buy big bale haylage which does seem to work out cheaper to haylage and oddly allows me to feed far more!