Haylege v Hay

[ZondaR]

My 24 year old Conne x TB is retiring at the end of May. He is in perfect health, has ever only been ill once (equine flu) and has rarely been lame. But he has slowed down a lot and is not performing as well as he used to and I'm not going to wait for an accident/injury before retiring him. He is fit and I plan on trekking him for the summer, jumping no higher than 90cm if at all. He is currently eating course mix twice a day and a large net of haylege. He will be turned out 24/7 for the summer and I am planning on him only having grass and then when the weather gets cold he will be stabled as necessary.
So I have to plan a budget now for his winter fodder and this is where the title of the post comes in.
Realistically, I won't ride in the winter, maybe a bit of hacking at the weekends. He will have turnout but his feed will need to be supplemented. I'm thinking course mix and hay or haylege? Haylege is richer and he gets a smaller amount, but does he need the richer feed as he won't be working and with hay he can have a larger amount to last longer in the stable? Am I right? Would I save money by buying hay rather than haylege for the winter for a retired horse or is haylege better regardless of cost?
I'd love some advice, education and enlightenment.

 

[Starzaan]

Haylage has a much higher water content than hay, so you actually need to feed more of it than hay.
Neither is better than the other, it just depends what works best for your horse.
I’m interested to see that you say his feed will need to be supplemented by forage - this should be the other way round. Horses are grazing animals, so always start with ad-lib hay, haylage, or out at grass 24/7 and then adjust accordingly. Hard feed is needed for energy, condition, and if the horse really needs them, supplements, it does not replace hay or haylage.

Their guts are meant to be constantly working, so I would be looking at whichever option allowed for the most forage, ideally meaning he has some left over in the stable in the morning. I’d he’s a porker, double net it so he still has access for a long period of time.

 

[ponios]

Not answering your original Q of hay vs. haylage but just a note to say that if your horse isn't working and doesn't need extra feed for condition/energy consider just feeding a balancer.

I have all my horses on balancer 1 retired tb , 1 retired pony, 1 hacker, 1 competition horse and I just feed balancer and a handful of Alfa. My tb was on conditioning cubes for last 16 years so I was sceptical but he looks great on it. I thought I would need to add mix to the competition horse as he works quite hard but so far he is looking great on just balancer and Alfa. They do all have ad lib forage.

Ridden horses were previously getting through 2 scoops each a day of mix and now get less than half a scoop of balancer. It is more expensive by the bag but as you feed less it is much better value. It has halved my feed bill!

 

[oldie48]

I feed haylage because it's less dusty than hay and doesn't need soaking but you do need to ffed more than you would hay although I make my own and it's late cut and made a little drier than most bought in haylage. Micronsied linseed is great for keeping weight on in the winter, it's cheap and I just feed in an unmollased chaff.