Horse not eating hay - what to do

I

ickle

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Hello everyone,

I often read the horse and hound forum but rarely post ... silly really ... but I just don't seem to have the time. I would just be interested in people's opinions on a problem I have with my horse at the moment.

I bought in 10 large round bales of hay to last my horse through the winter and spring and until we get hay again in the summer. The trouble is she hasn't exactly taken a liking to it. To my human eye it looks like good hay, it isn't dusty or mouldy, has seeds on some of the stems and is nice golden-green colour and smells like good hay. She is a fussy horse but she is eating some of it. At the moment I give her 12kg a day spread between 3 meals and she must eat about 9-10kg of this. But before I went onto this hay (I mixed it for a week or so before she went solely onto it) she would eat all that I gave her and more probably if I let her!

Should I perservere with it (she has been on it for three weeks now) or give up; ask the farmer if he will buy it back and find some more (that's not going to be an easy task as hay is in short supply down here and we feel lucky to have this). It has been raining a lot and it is still quite warm so the grass isn't too bad in her field so I am wondering if maybe she is just full on the grass and doesn't want the hay anyway.

What does everyone else think?

Thanks for reading.
 
She's 16.2

Forgot to also say that three other horses are eating the same hay but they probably only get half of what my horse gets.
 
difficult one - if she genuinly does not like it then you'll need to find an alternative before winter that she will eat...
but saying that - does she get much hard feed too? she may just not need it at the mo...
 
ours wont eat hay if they are on grass. also you could pour some molasses over it. but i think she just is full and not intersted in hay yet. i wouldnt get anymore just wait and see, how she gets on.
 
mine is going though a phase with her large bale haylage. The first bale, she chomped through, the second bale, from the same supplier, same crop she is being finicky with.... some days she will eat it, others she will pick at it. Give her a friends net (same supplier, same crop) and she will eat it.

You could try dampening it.
 
Buy one of those sprays you use for weed killer and the like - mix up a solution of mollasses and spray the hay before feeding.

She may also not be hungry enough to eat it all. If the grass is still growing she may be getting enough there.
 
Ours aren't eating much either and our hay looks great. Again, I think its due to the great grass we've got. They're full when they come in, and sleep a lot. I've cut it back. Its too expensive to throw away!
 
Thanks for eveyones replies.

There is a covering of grass in her paddock but it isn't long (maybe an inch or two) but very green and she is getting some grass as she does graze. She is out for 8.5 hours. She also gets about 1.2kg of grazeon a day (split between two meals), a feed balancer and about 500g of hi-fi nuts in her teat ball.

I guess the hay is edible but not delicous so it doesn't tempt her to gorge herself on it and she is therefore happy to be just eating enough rather than too much. I suppose I am going to have to wait and see how she goes when the grass has stopped growing and it gets cold. If neccessary I will have to get some haylage in to mix with the hay if I need to tempt her to eat more.

Thanks again
 
You are offering your horse over 30 lbs of fodder plus grass ,per day. sounds like she is eating what she needs and leaving the rest.
 
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