Haylage

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GrumpyHero

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My horse is usually a pig and scoffs all of his hay ... i've never seen him have any left in the net. He has now switched onto haylage for the winter and I went to skip him out this morning and he still had about half a net left.

Tied him up outside his stable with a net and he just stood there looking sad not eating it. So i went to get a bit of hay to see if he'd eat that and he ate it straight away.

Do some horses just not like haylage as much as hay?
 
Most prefer haylage, mine certainly do when I tried to gradually swap from hay they ate just the haylage meaning my plan of a gradual swap was not going to work.
It may just have been some was not so tasty, harder work to chew or that he was full up and the hay was more interesting, try mixing for a few days until he is just on the haylage but if he really wont eat it you may have to go back to hay.
 
have just moved mine from hay to haylage and not had any complaints from him. Could it be that its possibly a bit off? Haylage only lasts 2 weeks and if the seal has been broken on the wrap you'll often find a mouldy bit.

I much prefer haylage as you don't get all the dust issues, and its much more cost effective.
 
YO puts haylage out daily, most liveries use it so it's never out for more than a day. They bale their own haylage and it doesn't look/smell mouldy.

I've ordered some hay from YO so will try mixing hay into his nets to encourage him to eat it. He was eating it last night as I left the farm, just didn't seem overly interested this morning.
 
I 'think' the nutritional content of haylage is higher (because its moist and therefore has more nutrition in it), is it at all possible that he was 'full'? I know for most horses this isn't even thinkable ;) I'm on a small private yard with 3 horses and 'just' manage to cope with haylage as a bale lasts for approx 10 days.
 
I'm hoping he is full! Though he is a greedy ****** and is the type who usually eats and eats until theres nothing left.. however thinking about it the net i gave him yesterday at about 5pm when he came in is one of those massive shires haylage nets .. nearly the length of me!!
 
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