Cash
Well-Known Member
My new horse arrived on Monday night, and he hasn't really been eating much hay. His owner gave us two haynets of her hay (one mixed with haylage, to travel with and one just to help him settle in). She freely admitted it wasn't good quality, but that she didn't have much choice as there's little around, and said he'd been preferring to eat his straw. (We let the vet know, and she made extra sure to check he didn't have a cough or anything).
On the first night home, we gave him 'his' hay and a haynet of hay from our local feed store. He ate all of ours, and didn't touch the other.
(Still with me..?)
The last couple of nights he hasn't really been eating much of it at all, and has been eating his straw. The hay we're giving him comes from the local feed store until we can get ourselves sorted with a supplier (hope to get it sorted today). It's really quite good hay, but he's just not interested. He has been really chilled out, doesn't seem stressed, is eating his feeds and the grass in his field (although there isn't much). I gave him some of another livery's hay last night (different supplier) to see if he wanted that- he ate more of that than of ours, but still not enough!
I'm just worried as although he looks fine at the moment, as a TB he doesn't really have much to spare in terms of weight.
Should I be giving him more time to settle in, and hopefully start eating it (as I know that less than a week is a very short time in terms of horses!) or should I buy some haylage or something to try and tempt him? I don't want to confuse/upset him with more changes, but he really does need to be eating some more!
On the first night home, we gave him 'his' hay and a haynet of hay from our local feed store. He ate all of ours, and didn't touch the other.
(Still with me..?)
The last couple of nights he hasn't really been eating much of it at all, and has been eating his straw. The hay we're giving him comes from the local feed store until we can get ourselves sorted with a supplier (hope to get it sorted today). It's really quite good hay, but he's just not interested. He has been really chilled out, doesn't seem stressed, is eating his feeds and the grass in his field (although there isn't much). I gave him some of another livery's hay last night (different supplier) to see if he wanted that- he ate more of that than of ours, but still not enough!
I'm just worried as although he looks fine at the moment, as a TB he doesn't really have much to spare in terms of weight.
Should I be giving him more time to settle in, and hopefully start eating it (as I know that less than a week is a very short time in terms of horses!) or should I buy some haylage or something to try and tempt him? I don't want to confuse/upset him with more changes, but he really does need to be eating some more!
