Timothy haylage verses hay

[thatsmygirl]

Iv always used older hay for my horses ( native type and good doers) but another winter of soaking hay doesn't feel me with joy to be honest. I went to a open day and was talking to the rep of Devon haylage, now their Timothy has been tested by Dobson and horrell and the fructan levels were below the detectable 0.5g/kg so she said its ideal for good doers/ir horses/ laminitics ect. Iv always stayed away from haylage but they loved the samples. Now even though the sugar levels are so low will it be safe to feed native types? I know the rep said yes but I can still see it putting on weight due to a higher nutrition level?
Thoughts people please

 

[putasocinit]

I always feed it to my cob no problems there, and the racehorses live on it and i dont see any fat ones, agree they do work very hard, but it is like anything, if you eat too much of it it is goin to show on the waist line

 

[LCH611]

I feed ad lib haylage with low sugar levels to an elderly lammi prone pony with cushings and he does very well on it. I also feed 3 young connies on in and they look great - have grown and bulked up on it and a tiny handful of feed, have plenty of energy but aren't silly with it.

 

[sonjafoers]

I've always used the normal blue Devon Haylage (ryegrass) but switched to their Timothy one a few months ago due to my mini being a bit overweight & not eating the hay I bought.

My supplier ordered it in especially so advised that they could only get last years cut, meaning the quality wouldn't be quite as good if I'd waited for this years but I took a chance and bought it. All 3 of mine love it - fat mini, good doer cob x and poor doer TB - and that's last years so I think they'll wolf the new cut down even quicker! None of them appear to have gained weight in it and the mini definitely would have of he'd been on the ryegrass version ( not that I'd ever feed it to him for that very reason ). I think it's kept the weight lower than if he's been on hay.

As I've recently moved to a yard with much more grazing than previously I'm going to change to it permanently as it's definitely edible and much better for them than the ryegrass.