The best type of hay?

[Lauren_xx]

So, I've been spending a small fortune on small bags of haylage for the past several months and with the fields not looking like they are going to recover quite so quickly this year, I think it's time I switched my pony on to hay to save some money as it looks like I could be forking out for it for a little while longer than I'd anticipated, plus, it wouldn't be the end of the world if he lost a few pounds to be perfectly honest going in to Spring or who knows?!

I'm planning on using the company who I sometimes use for my straw supply. They offer rye, timothy/rye and meadow hay.

Can anyone recommend which type I'd be best off choosing? He's a chubby New Forest pony but quite fussy which is why he's on haylage in the first place but not sure which type of hay is usually the best quality?

Thank you in advance

 

[touchstone]

Hay is so variable that you could end up with different qualities of any variety. Seed hay, usually ryegrass is stemmier and harder to chew, but usually good feed value; meadow hay tends to be softer with a wider variety of grasses and can vary from good to average feed values. Timothy is quite broad stemmed hay, with lower sugar and is usually palatable for most horses. I'd probably go for the timothy or meadow hay and then soak it for a chubby native.

 

[Dry Rot]

Why not ask your supplier? For a chubby native, you don't want "best", you want belly filler hay so you don't have to soak it (i.e. low nutritional value)!

As has been said, hay varies enormously, not just in the species of grass it is made from but the stage of growth it has been cut, how often rained on, to even the time of day it is cut! But your supplier should know better than anyone (except perhaps he who made the hay!).

 

[amandap]

Hay can be nutritious without being high in sugars and conversely stemmy hay, all hays or even straw can be high in sugars with low nutritional value. Stemmy hay is likely to be low in lysine an essential amino acid. The only way to know sugar or nutritional content in hays is to get it tested. I believe D&H do a cheap sugar/starch test.

I would choose the Meadow or Timothy as well. I dream of such choices.

 

[Little Alfie]

Any

Its like rocking horse shyte up north get what you can, while you can.
#

hope this helps :0