Settling new horse

[Wafflesandmaple]

My horse passed her vetting and will be coming home either tomorrow or Saturday, she’s currently fed on haylage at the yard she is at but we only have hay at our yard, I’m worried about colic, how’s best to go about changing it over?

 

[Alibear]

Buy a/some packs/bags/bales of haylage from the local tack shop and ask the yard to use that and mix in hay over a couple of days to swap over.
If the yard won't do it, then get some nets and make them up yourself for the yard to use.

 

[Identityincrisis]

Happy New Horse Day!! How exciting!!

I've never worried about changing forage from one yard to the other and none of mine have suffered any ill effects, just provide more than they could eat to ensure they eat as much as they need for as that will help keep tummies settled

 

[Lady Jane]

The hay the horse has been fed and the hay you have may be completely different so either ask if you can buy some off them so you can do a gradual swap over but most people don't worry about the hay

 

[KikiDee]

Haylage to hay wouldn't worry me too much unless I was going from hay over to very rich small-bale haylage, mine quite often switch between the 2 quite literally overnight depending what I can get hold of. I'm much more wary of switching grazing over than I ever am about what hay/haylage I'm feeding. You could pop her on something like Protexin Gut Balancer for the first few weeks.

Happy new horse

 

[m1stify]

You could always ask for a couple of haynets worth of their hay and mix it in with yours for a couple of days. The small bagged haylage could be a lot stronger than the one the horse has now

 

[Jenko109]

Not something I have ever considered. I didn't know people did this.

 

[little_critter]

Just checking - do you know why she's currently on haylage? Presumably not for a medical reason (eg cough)

 

[Amy May In A Manger]

My horse passed her vetting and will be coming home either tomorrow or Saturday, she’s currently fed on haylage at the yard she is at but we only have hay at our yard, I’m worried about colic, how’s best to go about changing it over?

Ask if you can take a couple of nets of haylage with you to help swap her over.

 

[Traks]

I really wouldn’t worry too much, have never been concerned about differences in forage, only hard feed