Wasting Hay....

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maisie

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My cob has a hay bar which has been fine until we changed to a new batch of hay about a month ago - the new hay is perfectly fine - he just clearly does not think it is quite as scrummy as the last lot!! Consequently he has decided he will pull all the hay out of the hay bar, go through it to pick out the bits he 'thinks' are edible and then pees and poos on the rest.
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He is now almost completely bedded on hay. I don't want to put him back on a haynet as it builds up nice big neck muscles which he then puts to good use when attempting to leg it with me. (we're working on that little problem too!!) He also scoffs any clean straw I put down and favours straw over hay
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Any other ideas what I can feed him from?
 
It wont matter what you feed him from to be honest. If he doesnt rate the hay he will still chuck it about. My cob does the same thing. Sometimes hay that seems perfectly acceptable to us is totally unacceptable to some horses. We have had a few bales like that over the winter and you have to grit your teeth and chuck it on the muck heap.
 
My cob is the same just changed and nothing is being left, The first lot was fne or so I thought but he did not like it. If they are leaving it I would be tempted to change it especially if they eat straw in preference.
 
And people think TBs and Arabs are fussy!!

Glad I didn't get a hay bar as I know this is what my cob would do to it regardless of hay quality! Strange thing is we have had some horrible looking hay at our yard recently that the horses have eaten, then what looks like nicer stuff, to humans anyway, that they have turned their noses up at! Can you get any different hay or swap with someone else what one horse doesn't eat sometimes another will?
 
my cob was on box rest at a different yard which had a hay bar, he loved it cause he got to eat loads and fast.. Hes back home now and has his haynet back.. not a good idea tho cause like you say builds up his neck muscles and he likes using them to have some fun with his mum! lol.. anyways he plays on my soft side and stares at me when i give him his net untill i give in now and give him a couple of sections of hay on his floor, hes a gent tho and dont drag it thro his bed or anything, he just is too lazy to eat out his net.. He loved that hay bar so much,, we are looking to move house and when we do we will have him at the house too, he can then have his long awaited hay bar,, he just loved it so much..
 
Good Idea - might look at one of those. He won't eat steamed/soaked hay. He's such a fussy devil - might look like a cob but I think there's a TB in there, screaming to get out!!!
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My Cob is the fussy eater and I struggle to keep weight on him, however my TB is a 'good doer' and I struggle to keep the weight off
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TB (actually they are both) on box rest at the moment and TB is on Danilon ..... but eating up his Happy Hoof with relish
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I have found that if I sprinkle the hay in mint they eat it. Also I have started mixing in bits and pieces of haylage in with it too and they are eating it then. Although the prob I have had with that is that they are quite good at picking out the haylage and leaving bits of hay in it instead!
 
Walked into Finns stable today and he had emptied the whole of his hay bar on the floor. I now remember why I took the sodding thing down in the 1st place.
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My horse does that every night then eats it off the floor.He doesnt realise that tbs are supposed to be fussy eaters either he will eat anything and is always hungry.
 
Absolutely agree with Spaniel, if the hay is not nice then feeding off a gold plate won't make him eat it.
 
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