Is haylage suitable for a unshod/barefoot horse?

mightymammoth

mightymammoth

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Hi,

As title just wondering if haylage is suitable for horses on a barefoot/low sugar diet or should they have hay,

Thanks
 
My horse has just come back from being at Rockley for 14 weeks where Nic feeds completely ad lib mixed grass haylage. That said it's all home grown and produced and she knows exactly what's in it. If you know your supply is constant and always from the same place you could get it analysed to check.

When I brought my horse home Nic suggested I get either mixed grass haylage or soaked hay, but told me to avoid rye grass versions of either as they are the worst for a barefoot diet. Hope that helps. :)
 
bikerchickone said:
My horse has just come back from being at Rockley for 14 weeks where Nic feeds completely ad lib mixed grass haylage. That said it's all home grown and produced and she knows exactly what's in it. If you know your supply is constant and always from the same place you could get it analysed to check.

When I brought my horse home Nic suggested I get either mixed grass haylage or soaked hay, but told me to avoid rye grass versions of either as they are the worst for a barefoot diet. Hope that helps. :)
Click to expand...

thanks for this I will probably be best to stick with hay.
 
Yes it will depend on the haylage, some is high in sugars, which is a no no for the barefoot horse. I used to soak mine for an hour or two, to remove the worst of it, but I have to say my boy really looked well when he was in work, and on some fairly rich stuff which I did not soak, so it is trial and error.
I also restricted the haylage intake and fed more non mollassed sugar beet pulp and Fast Fibre and non molassed Dengie Chaff, to provide a variety of fibres, obviously this is a bit of a faff, but I wanted to do my best.
I tweak the mineral intake quite a bit, and I think he is more rock-crunching now than in the first year, certainly the feet look great, he is grazing 24/7 in a field with a nice river. I can never be sure if he would be OK without summer feeding, but his coat is dark, and in previous years it has faded, also he is not itchy, which I put down to micronised linseed.
 
Miss L Toe said:
Yes it will depend on the haylage, some is high in sugars, which is a no no for the barefoot horse. I used to soak mine for an hour or two, to remove the worst of it, but I have to say my boy really looked well when he was in work, and on some fairly rich stuff which I did not soak, so it is trial and error.
I also restricted the haylage intake and fed more non mollassed sugar beet pulp and Fast Fibre and non molassed Dengie Chaff, to provide a variety of fibres, obviously this is a bit of a faff, but I wanted to do my best.
I tweak the mineral intake quite a bit, and I think he is more rock-crunching now than in the first year, certainly the feet look great, he is grazing 24/7 in a field with a nice river. I can never be sure if he would be OK without summer feeding, but his coat is dark, and in previous years it has faded, also he is not itchy, which I put down to micronised linseed.
Click to expand...

thanks for this, i will probably just stick to hay and mix a little haylage with it. I feed pure feeds fibre balance with pro hoof supplement and micronised linseed am just trying to get things in place for if and when he can go unshod.
 
When you feed haylage or hay bear in mind that it will be less in feed value, ie sugars, than the grass from which it was made, as it starts to lose feed value every hour it lies on the ground.

Obviously rye grass mixtures start from a higher point than meadow grasses, and italian ryegrass is probably the richest of all.

The most obvious drawback of hay is the dust and for this reason alone I prefer haylage.

There will be a reduction in the sugar content of haylage as there is something of a fermentation takes place within the plastic.

Some think that haylage will be more acidic than is desireable, but, compaired to the content of gastric acid it is not really worth worrying about.

If either hay or haylage proves to be outside the margin of tolerance for the individual horse then obviously soaking is the solution.

In essence then I believe that haylage is as good, probably better than hay.
 
I think it would also depend on the rest of your horses diet. We have 4 BF horses where I am, my 2 and YO's 2, They are on a paddock paradise track system so have absolutely no grass. They are fed ad lib haylage and all are fine on it.
 
There is hay and hay and haylage and haylage. Either can be single species and/or high in sugar and neither are brilliant for any horses, shod or not.

Single species can be seen in the bale - if it all looks the same, it is, and it will have exactly the same range of nutrients in it and it could leave the horse with too much of one (rarer) and not enough of another (more common)

Too much sugar you can only tell by having it tested. In spring/summer it is safer just to soak it all for at least 12 hours and of course the recommendation these days is that all hay should be fed soaked all year round.

Both meadow hay and meadow haylage are good for barefooters provided the sugar is low enough to suit the horse eating it.
 
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