My sentiments exactly Barbara. I have never seen a horse starve that had good quality grass hay in front of them. They may take a while to get used to it, maybe even miss a feeding...but eventually, nature and instinct will prevail!
By the way, we have some excellent Teff Grass local here for $12/bale..horses are eating every bit..now...they weren't sure about it the first week..kind of picked at it..but now they eat it very well.
Ranelle Rubin, Business Consultant http://www.rrubinconsulting.com Independent Dynamite Distributor raneller@xxxxxxx
916-663-4140 home office 916-718-2427 cellular 916-848-3662 fax
From: bigcreekranch@xxxxxxxxxxxx To: rnbianchi@xxxxxxxxx; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: [RC] grass hay Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 09:58:52 -0800
I have the same problem. We bought grass/alfalfa
mix, but many of the bales are straight grass. Some of our horses eat it
fairly well, but one of them (our daughter's horse, actually) was raised a race
horse and he considers the grass hay beneath his dignity and station in
life. When a particular batch doesn't suit His Highness, he flips it
out of the deep bin I put it in and then he stomps all over it. The next
feeding, I just give him less, and when he gets hungry, he starts to clean up
what's on the ground. I have no patience with this sort of behavior.
Certainly not at $15 a bale that we have to pay out here in CA.
How do people get their horses to eat grass hay? I have some nice
soft, second cutting grass hay that my horses turn their noses up at and like
to use as bedding. Is it that they aren't hungry? Or are they so
spoiled that they are waiting for something better (I also feed them
grass/alfalfa mix hay and timothy). They didn't really like the Timothy
when I first got it, which angered me as it is expensive hay in our area of MD
this drought year, but now they eat it quite well. Should I feed only
the grass hay until they start eating it? I know that people say not to
feed a lot (any) alfalfa to horses, but least with that hay I know they are
going to eat every strand! I like to offer the alfalfa at the vet
checks at rides because I know they will eat it if they are hungry, not
so with other types of hay.
