my horse wont touch this years hay!

[VictoriaEDT]

Does anyone have any tricks to make my extremely fussy boy eat his hay??!!

He has been on haylage all summer and when I switched over their routine (out in day and in at night) last week, I switched him over to this years ryegrass soaked for 10 mins. He wont touch it! It has been 5 nights now. I think the quality is quite good considering the weather this summer. I know its not bad because my other horse (who is clearly grateful to be fed!) eats it fine.

I even resorted to adding molasses to the water I soaked it in last night!

 

[madhector]

Try mixing it half and half with haylege to see if you can tempt him

 

[reynold]

soak it for longer so that it becomes softer - it may be a bit stalky and he's being lazy - easier to eat that nice soft haylage than to chew hard on stalky hay ;-)

 

[Tangaroo]

My boys wouldnt eat this years hay when i started feeding it. I was having a real panic cos i have bought loads and it all looks good and smells good. I decided that while there is still grass in the field they obviously werent hungry enough . Sure enough after about a week they started eating it and now eat it fine. When the grass dies down coming into winter you will probably find he is hungrier and then will make an effort to like it!

 

[VictoriaEDT]

lets hope so, I have about 100 bales and really cannot be bothered to get it all shifted because he is behaving like a spoilt brat!! Thanks all