What do you think makes a 'good' forage for horses?

Done but rather complicated and didn't provide photos - sorry.

Also couldn't answer 'how long is your horse in cm's' as have no idea!
 
Question 22 is a bit odd - I'd rank 4 or 5 of the 'selected' answers I HAD to give, as a lot of 'tosh' to be honest (sorry!)
Also length of horse is a bit odd to ask for an on-line survey, could have done this when at yard but as survey was more than half way through, I've left it
No photo's, again - sorry.
 
I've done it too. One comment is that the first condition score doesn't tell you which scale to use 1-5 or 1-10. whereas the second used the 1-10 (which means I answered the first one inaccurately) I also accidentally bypassed the "send photo" bit, thinking that there would be instructions at the end.
 
Thank you for participating, any information we gather is valuable to this project.
It is absolutely fine if you don't know the length or girth measurements of your horse as this was designed in the instance that people completed it on paper where they could gather that information. Similar with the photos, it was designed to try and gather more information about weight measurements and BCS. The data for forage provision/choice etc is the most important at this stage.

As for the ranking question, you should be able to select that an option is not applicable to you - I will check this is still the case.

Many Thanks for you feedback and comments.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NationalPreservedForageSurvey
 
Mine is is much the same, mind you we dont get the wet weather the counties further west get so it was cut and dried the same way from the same fields both years
 
Sorry, I tried but there were so many inappropriate answers with no space for appropriate ones I had to abandon it in the interests of accuracy.
My 2012 crop (and I imagine many peoples') was made very late in the season (August) due to the constant rain, it is therefore much poorer in nutritional value than 2013, which was made in early July. Maybe your research would be better focussing on the producers rather than the users? You might end up doing fewer samples than as well.
 
Yes, we are thinking of potentially focussing on producers following this. The idea of focusing on horse owners first was to gauge what horse owners are doing, considering forage is such an important part of a horses diet.
The samples have shown very interesting nutritional analysis in some cases.
 
Done. Wanted to send photo but couldn't work out how! 2013 hay much better quality, haylage no difference that I can tell (Ireland, Connacht).
 
The trouble is that what is defined as good nutritional value can vary from horse horse, I need a forage that basically just fills the horse up without too many calories or sugars. A poor doer might need just the opposite, but I'd expect even a low nutritional value forage to be dust and mould free and of decent quality.
 
Thanks for all the participants so far. The project will be running for another month or so and then we will be collating all of the findings. If you haven't already taken part then please do so.

We are hoping to analyse another round of forage from all over the UK, which you can be part of by taking part in the survey. Forage from all over the UK so please share and post on your Facebook sites if you get chance. For the 2012 samples, we struggled to reach Scotland and Wales - please share with as many horsey people as you know! Many Thanks

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NationalPreservedForageSurvey
 
I only got asked a few questions before it ended. Have no idea what this survey had to do with forage because of this. Is this because my horse didn't have any of the diseases listed?
 
cobgoblin said:
I only got asked a few questions before it ended. Have no idea what this survey had to do with forage because of this. Is this because my horse didn't have any of the diseases listed?
Click to expand...

Thanks for taking part. The main body of the questions asks what forage you feed, why you make that choice, what is important to you in terms of forage provision and a few questions about when you feed, how you feed etc.

Maybe there was an error if you have only answered a few questions. It should only take about 5-10 minutes though. There are additional questions depending on your choices but you should definitely get the impression the survey is about forage if it worked as it should.

I will check it from this end also. Many Thanks
 
Done...with quite a bit of added info in your 'other' boxes as i felt some of the questions i couldn't answer accurately enough with the answers to choose from.

Hope that was OK. I just wanted to give you an accurate a picture as possible relating to my own horse and his circumstances!
 
I filled in quite a long survey. Answered all of the Q's about weight and condition. I found the one about behavioural problems a bit odd as it listed "exuberance" as a behavioural problem, so I had to tick yes for that. Horse has always been exuberant, it is just his personality. He is like it if you restrict his grazing and/or feed, and if you give adlib, whether he has hay or haylage (just worse on haylage), and whatever hard feed he gets. So in that case it isn't a nutritionally related behavioural problem because it's just him. He is also sharp and spooky (which I think the survey classes as a behavioural problem), but again he is like that whatever the weather, season, whatever feed he gets (be it a handful of Good Doer or High Fibre cubes, or 2 feeds a day of Speedibeet, Alfa-A and oil, haylage, hay, soaked hay, just grass... whatever), so it isn't related to nutrition. It's just him. He is like it it whether he gets a calmer, magox, or nothing at all.

so that is a bit of an odd question, because it assumes that any of what the survey defines as "behavioural problems" are exclusively caused by feed/ forage. Some horses are just highly strung, like some people are.
 
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