Not eating hay - arghhhh!

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Jericho

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My 2 horses are out for 12hrs during the day on7 acres of good grass and I started bringing them in overnight about 4 weeks ago to dry out feet/save grazing etc. Whilst they were living out fully previous to that they had free access to some late cut 2014 hay off our field which was actually pretty rubbishy stuff but they seemed to quite like it and even ate it when it got wet and rained on in the field. This hay was fed all of last winter alongside my usual farmers hay without problem.

When they started coming in I thought that feeding them old 2014 hay wasn't going to be nutritious enough so ordered a big round of this years hay from my usual farmer again from the same fields - and although it's coarser and more stemy than my old hay it smells nice and isn't dusty and I have never had any problem with this farmers hay before but they only pick out it, to the point they are hardly touching it whilst in over night.

I got another bale after speaking to farmer and same problem of them refusing to eat it (I spoke to two other people he supplies and they haven't had any problem). So I started putting in my old hay as well in another haynet to see if they would choose this but now they aren't really eating either whilst in over night! They get a large chaff based feed with relevant balancers and speedibeet at 8pm but I am definitely concerned neither are eating much for a good ten hrs even though they have two choices albeit in their eyes two not very good choices. And it seems so wasteful to throw away a nights full haynet every day (I stopped refilling them after a while and just left what was there and only changed it every 2 or 3 days as I felt guilty!)

The obvious answer is change supplier but this is in practical as I can't store much and hay is hard to source here and I can't afford to just throw away what seems perfectly good hay.

Do you think that actually they are just stuffing themselves with grass /lots of fibre during the day which seems to still be growing at the moment and just resting at night, just picking at small bits of hay as and when they get peckish? both are rugged but I am starting to notice that the big lad is starting to drop some weight which they probably could do with anyway? The pony doesn't even that fussed about his breakfast in the morning just keen to get out and onto the grass? What do you think? What has anyone else done in this situation?
 
You've probably answered your own question, if breakfast is not being wolfed down they are not hungry & getting enough grass. If you are still concerned buy a small bale of good quality hay from somewhere & see if they wolf that down overnight.
Mine are out 24/7 & I'm still strip grazing, probably still got another week or 2 of grass before I need to feed any hay.
 
On our yard all horses seem really picky over bales this year, it's most odd, some will eat any of the hay from a number of bales, some will only eat from one, some from none, my mare is. On box rest so I'm constantily trying out various bales as although she's far from slim I don't want her getting ulcers on top of everything else. Some nights she's eaten nothing, we are now on a dubious (to me) looking bale that is brittle and quite dry looking and we are ditching the nice greener stuff which she refused past night. It's a pain in the ar(e frankly!
 
I saw this post and sighed with relief! Grass growing galore at our yard, lots of turnout, very few horses and a picky connemara...if it ain't green, he ain't sure about it!

My boy loves his feed, loves his grass but is so picky about hay, sometimes he'll eat it all, other nights he won't touch it, some nights it's thrown around his stable as he finds that slice that is just right! A nightmare, but isn't dropping weight and always lots of poos in his stable the next morning.

I too think he is full, the hay smells lovely and does eat it, but only when he feels like it.
 
Dubsie said:
The grass is really growing well as its so warm. That's why they're barely touching the hay
Click to expand...

Yep, we are using less than half the hay we would normally feed and there is still some left in the mornings. Field looks lush and green and heads are always down scoffing.
 
I would definately buy a small bale from somewhere else and try your horse on it. I have had trouble in the past with my horse and other horses leaving hay that looked nice to humans but they somehow found nasty .
 
Phew thanks for replies! Feel a bit better but I will try and find some different hay as well and see if it tempts them more
 
Different area to you,but on our hard this year the horses are being v picky abou the hay. Some of it is more prickly so they might not like the texture, as they will eat from a different batch.
 
How many poos are they doing? If there's plenty, they should be getting enough to eat. I have at least four different types of hay on my pile as we're on restricted turnout, horse is fussy but is pooing like a good 'un.
 
i would try some different hay and see if they will eat that. my two refused to eat two big round bales that i bought this year. they were also out in the day with hay overnight. i thought they were full on grass and being picky, but they had eaten other hay overnight so this refusing to eat behaviour was different.. but after a week i decided to try different hay and they wolfed it down. i figured there was something wrong, or somethin that they didnt like with the first two even though it looked and smelled ok to me.
 
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