When hay looks, feels, smells okay but...

[Gingerwitch]

Horses won't eat it. They eat the haylidge, they eat the straw, they eat the grass and we have loads still, they eat there hard feed, but leave the hay.
Any ideas it's not even dusty, I can't see anything wrong with it, or are they just being spoilt with the haylidge and super nice straw ?

 

[scruffyponies]

Can't help you, but sometimes one lot of horses are really happy with it, and another lot won't touch it. Awkward beasts.

 

[tallyho!]

Definitely a "thing" with one of mine. I had a horse on a yard that only fed haylage and then when I moved to a place where only hay was on offer, I had a week of protest. A proper protest, rugs being pulled down due to not eating the hay and needing something to chew on, hay being pulled out but uneaten and subsequently wee'd on, a trampled bed, tipped water buckets... thankfully it really did only last a week and I wasn't that worried as he had daily turnout but I did chuckle.

 

[limestonelil]

I've never worked this out either. Sometimes I wonder if its something like rats or cats (black ones??) been on it. Or something a mere human is insensitive to. Or just not hungry enough to bother.

 

[fidleyspromise]

I saw a post on FB a few days ago asking similar. Hay all from same supplier and answers coming back were it could be bales from a specific field - so certain grasses in it they're not liking or perhaps mice/rats have been on it/urinated on it.

 

[PurBee]

Unless as mentioned its been peed on by mice or rats in storage...

Mine recently did the same with a choice of low sugar hay, timothy and ryegrass haylage. They eat the ryegrass first...its crack cocaine sugar feast for them! Then the timothy...then the very low sugar hay.

They leave the low sugar stuff...but i see it gone once every strand of everything else sweeter is hoovered up.

so if yours arent touching it, without access to any other feed, then i’d say its pee’d on by nesting rodents in your hay pile, especially if you cant detect any mustiness or mould.

Or sometimes, farmers spray herbicide on the filed once the hay has headed, and its possible theyre detecting that and are leaving it knowing you’ll be offering something else anyway.

 

[Ownedby4horses]

For me, if more than one horse won’t eat it, then I would suspect a problem with the hay, rather than them just being fussy.

 

[ycbm]

Mine recently did the same with a choice of low sugar hay, timothy and ryegrass haylage. They eat the ryegrass first...its crack cocaine sugar feast for them! Then the timothy...then the very low sugar hay.

They leave the low sugar stuff...but i see it gone once every strand of everything else sweeter is hoovered up.

.

My mare is interesting. She chooses low calories timothy before sugary rye grass.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I was told that sometimes hay crops are fertilised with nitrogen and depending on the rate or more so when it’s put on it can make beautiful hay taste bitter.
Certainly when I had amazing hay one year that even the Shetland wouldn’t touch I chewed a bit and it was foul!

 

[shirl62]

We had a lovely batch of hat delivered a couple of months ago...Our 3 cobs loved it and to be honest it smelt so good!..Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when we got a top of hay from same supplier . We thought that the hay was a bit different as it did not look quite the same....our supplier said it was the same but our 3 ponies thought otherwise..They are very reluctant to eat it. We mixed a haynet with the 'yummy' hay and newly delivered hay, they ate the 'yummy' hay and left the other stuff...They will eat the new stuff but are not very keen on it...I think it maybe the edge of the field hay as it has a fair bit of 'stick' in it

 

[planete]

I have just given in and bought my two some haylage. They both refused to eat from their new large hay bale which looks beautiful but my friend's gelding is wolfing it down. Even ex-rescue coblet preferred overnight starvation to eating it.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Years ago one of our gave herselfcolic eating her straw bedding preference to the hay that the others ate with no problem at all. We never did work out why but she had left everything that she had been given. We got her through the colic and sourced some different hay.

 

[Gingerwitch]

Can I get the hay tested? were all on different bales but pretty much most of the 40 horse yard are leaving a lot. Some owners think it's great as it not costing as much as normal, and the droppings are quite green and it was 11 degrees last night do not even cold. I have ordered extra haylidge for over the Christmas break as they will be in a bit longer at night and in the mornings as they will be being hacked rather than schooled at night. I am a wuss so if I think they are not eating I will change/stop etc

 

[SussexbytheXmasTree]

My hay supplier says some don’t like it where sheep have grazed it. I know my older horse won’t eat grass in fields where sheep are kept when we’ve been at shows. He sniffs it a lot tries it and spits it out. Maybe an acquired taste.

 

[laura_nash]

When mine won't eat their hay I put out a trug of Top Chop Zero. If they eat that, there's something wrong with the hay, if not then their just being fussy and aren't really that hungry.

 

[PurBee]

Can I get the hay tested? were all on different bales but pretty much most of the 40 horse yard are leaving a lot. Some owners think it's great as it not costing as much as normal, and the droppings are quite green and it was 11 degrees last night do not even cold. I have ordered extra haylidge for over the Christmas break as they will be in a bit longer at night and in the mornings as they will be being hacked rather than schooled at night. I am a wuss so if I think they are not eating I will change/stop etc

gosh, if most horses on a 40 horse yard are turning their noses up at it, i’d be highly suspicious of it.

You could get it tested...there’s lots of places online that now do indepth analysis of any material and you can specify.

So maybe a NPK test, mycotoxins, herbicide chemicals. Take strands from various different places/bales and mix them up for a sample to test. One handful from 1 bale might just be a small section of ‘okayish’ hay they’d eat, so a variety of tiny samples from all over would be best.
Better still, take some strands from all the hay the horses are leaving/ have rejected, mix them up and get them tested.

 

[PurBee]

My mare is interesting. She chooses low calories timothy before sugary rye grass.

she has obviously grown up and knows what’s good for her! ?

Im quite amused by doing forage tests on them. Ill randomly put piles of various sweetnesses out, and stand by watching as they check out eat pile with a nose or mouth sample....and then watch as theyve made their final decision and park up by sweetest pile, consume the lot, then next sweetest....etc etc

So i buy the forage they leave last!!
When they end up on that i get lots of snorts of displeasure!
??

 

[Surbie]

Horses won't eat it. They eat the haylidge, they eat the straw, they eat the grass and we have loads still, they eat there hard feed, but leave the hay.
Any ideas it's not even dusty, I can't see anything wrong with it, or are they just being spoilt with the haylidge and super nice straw ?

I have the same issue with mine. I thought I was doing really well to get most of my winter supply in one batch and he won't eat it. He's never done that before.

I'm having to swap wiith the supplier and buy in a different lot at the new shiny price

 

[Lois Lame]

I was told that sometimes hay crops are fertilised with nitrogen and depending on the rate or more so when it’s put on it can make beautiful hay taste bitter.
Certainly when I had amazing hay one year that even the Shetland wouldn’t touch I chewed a bit and it was foul!

That was thinking outside the square. Very interesting.

 

[Lois Lame]

Regarding rodents or cats weeing on hay --- I would expect that would make it unpleasant to sniff and a little off in parts too. So I reckon it's something to do with the hay itself. (I mean if they don't snaffle it up after choosing the tastiest bits first.)

 

[be positive]

My hay supplier says some don’t like it where sheep have grazed it. I know my older horse won’t eat grass in fields where sheep are kept when we’ve been at shows. He sniffs it a lot tries it and spits it out. Maybe an acquired taste.

My hay this year is from fields grazed by sheep, previously I got it from my supplier who had cattle, the ponies are eating it but do not clear up everything which is unusual for them and have left the odd bit often with some scraps of wool in it, it is not an issue for two rather rotund welshys but could be for others with more refined palates

 

[Red-1]

If I had bought it and started a big bale, I may consider soaking to see f that made any difference. Not sure I would pay to test it, even if it tests OK, it doesn't help as the horse is still not eating it.

I have donated hay to the neighbours before when a horse took a dislike to it. Her cob wolfed it down with no ill effects, but I couldn't take the risk. They had cows, but the cob thought it was AOK>

 

[meleeka]

I usually take a handful up to my friends horses. If they refuse I know there must be something wrong. Sometimes it works just to feed if loose for a couple of days, rather than in nets. That way they can pick out the bits they do like and it usually gets them eating again.

 

[BBP]

I’ve had that this year, beautiful lot of hay delivered, all ancient meadow, unfertilised. 75% of the bales the horses wolfed down and the other 25% they wouldn’t even sample, not one single stalk. Just sniffed and walked away. All 4 horses were the same, even the extremely greedy Dartmoor left his entire net. I have absolutely no idea why, as to me every bale looked and smelled exactly the same as the nice ones, really lovely hay. Only thing noticeable was most of the rejects had orange instead of pink string. Farmer said this meant it was the first pass around the field as the orange string was from baling straw prior to the hay. But I still do t know the relevance as the bales looked and smelled so good. They would rather eat the super low sugar coarse ‘Ryvita’ that had had an extra couple of days on the field than this beautiful stuff. Felt awful getting rid of so much.

 

[poiuytrewq]

That was thinking outside the square. Very interesting.

I just really hope it was nitrogen after reading all this ?
It was on the farmers suggestion, he was explaining how to buy good hay.

 

[Gingerwitch]

I am glad it's not just our yard. Mine all have loose so they pick what is wanted. Soaking makes not difference. It's going to be an expensive Christmas they are decimating the haylidge lol

 

[LadyGascoyne]

My mare is interesting. She chooses low calories timothy before sugary rye grass.

Interesting - Milagra prefers dead nettles, thistles and long stalky grass, especially if it’s dry.

Mimosa likes short, bright green grass and will only eat thistle flowers.

Milagra loves hay, and Mimosa gets very bored with it and doesn’t see the point.

Weight wise, Mimosa drops hugely in winter because she doesn’t enjoy hay but picks up in spring and summer. Milagra looks like she’s held onto weight quite evenly since she got here, and will probably be fine as long as she has access to adequate forage in winter.

I wonder if it’s the Spanish side? They may have learnt to value drier coarser grasses due to the climate, and to eat to sustain themselves whatever the season because summer is worse for grass than winter is, in southern Spain. Hay was fed all year round when I was in Andalusia. But yours was bred here, wasn’t she?