Refusing to eat hay?

JackDaniels1

JackDaniels1

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Just bought a load of hay in and can not get them to eat it......any of it! They will eat their previous hay and feed so something to do with this new hay :(

It isn't dusty.

What would you do? Seems unfair trying to sell it.
 
I had same problem with some of the hay from my last load. Opened up many bales and none of the horses would touch it. Like you say it wasn't dusty and looked fine. I had words with our farmer/supplier to see if there was a possibility he'd had dogs or other animals climbing in the bales. Cost of a bale now I couldn't just write it off. Luckily he agreed to replace it as we have used him for many years.
 
It's not so much the dust - or not - as how it smells. And horses have a very sophisticated and delicate sense of smell.

Ask someone else or better still several people to smell the hay for you. It may be that something has leaked onto it that has now dried out.

If you are certain that the hay is OK, and that is basically when SOMEBODY's horse will eat it happily, try introducing it to your horse mixed with some Horsehage or similar - just enough to make it smell really nice. That will usuually do the trick.
 
i.ve had the same with a batch last year and some this year it smell lovely looks lovely not dusty but nothing will touch it not even the native dustbins !. i tried mixing it with old stuff they would eat , sprinkled it with molassed water , pepper mint and mixing with ready grass . it is something to do with when it was cut and the growth . as silly as it sounds chew it yourself if it is bitter then they wont touch it , i now "taste" test my hay if it tastes sweet and hay like i know they will eat it
 
there is a lot of hay about like this . It looks and smells beautifull,but they will not touch it. It is probably due to the drought last spring. The hay may have accumulated nitrates which the grass could not use for lack of water. generaly some horses will eat it reluctantly but others simply wont touch it.Incidentaly there is a test called the diphenylamine test for nitrates in hay.
 
i did find that after it had sat a lot longer they did eat it , also they ate it in the field if it was spread out and the air got to it ,
 
Ditto, Fuggly. We openede a new bale of haylage today, and the liveries called me out because the horses wouldn't touch it. We stook around umming and aahing and pulling the bale to bits to see if it was different inside. Once the haylage had been open to the air for about 20 minutes the horses all decided it was OK. Very strange.
 
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