Best hay for fat mature mares during the winter?

[toowoombatoo]

I have two quarter horse mares that are easy keepers. I recently moved them to a new barn that feeds high quality orchard grass hay - nice, soft, green, and must taste amazing because they plow through it. They’re starting to get fat after only a few weeks of hay, so I’m worried the hay is “too good”. I don’t want to reduce the amount of hay because they are in a dirt lot with nothing else to eat. Ideally I’d like to feed them some sort of hay that takes some effort to eat (I’m getting a slow-feed net for square-bales this week) and has minimal calories but enough fiber to keep their poopers workin’.

What type of square bale hay should I ask for at a feed store? Neither one of them have a metabolism problem, so I’m not planning anything extensive like NSC testing of every bale I buy, but was hoping there are hay types that are known to be lower calorie.

[clanter]

we have Morgans which are very easy keepers, we switched to Teff hay

[walkinthewalk]

The best hay is the hay that is tested for starch and sugar content.

The orchard/mix grown in my county always tests very high but the orchard/mix grown by a horse hay grower in the next county over has always ALWAYS tests in the 8% range - for the last 6-7 years.

Meaning don’t throw all orchard hay under the bus but whatever you buy, don’t buy it unless you get it tested first. If that can’t happen , what are the odds of someone soaking their hay?

[Texarkana]

If it is available, bluestem prairie grass is the absolute best stuff for fatties. It’s basically rice cakes for horses.

[luvmyhackney]

If it makes you feel better my QH stays fat on first cut grass that test low in sugar and in two nets.

He has to work to stay out of the obesity category.

[DMK]

It probably depends on where you are for availability. I’m in GA, our go to low calorie hay is typically fescue or orchard/fescue mix.

[OzarksRider]

@Texarkana

If it is available, bluestem prairie grass is the absolute best stuff for fatties

I fed bluestem to my two easy keepers for years, and they did great on it. The past two years I’ve had to switch to Bermuda because bluestem wasn’t available. I also like teff, but it’s hard to find where I live. I don’t mind if the hay is a little stemmy, because that seems to slow them down as they sift through it.

OP, if you do switch to a less rich hay, consider supplementing with a forage balancer formulated for easy keepers to make sure your horses get all the nutrients they need.

[Mango20]

Maybe see about getting the first cutting of the current hay, which sounds more like second cutting if it’s soft and green. First cutting will have more stems and seed heads. It’s what I feed my easy keepers, and it’s generally less expensive, too.

[JB]

It would help to know what your options are.

A horse may not have a metabolic issue, but if a hay is high NSC, and especially high in starch, it can be high in calories and pack on the pounds.

In general, cool season grasses are lower NSC than warm season grasses, but you can’t rely solely on that. How many weeks/months of hay would you be getting? If just a few weeks, then testing isn’t a reasonable option, but if it’s a couple months, then it is, as long as you can buy a random bale, wait 1-2 weeks for test results to come back, and then get the full supply

I’ve seen a lot of 2nd cut OG that was absolutely perfect for IR horses in all ways, but I’ve also seen 2nd cut that was totally inappropriate in all ways, from calories to esc to wsc to starch.

[toowoombatoo]

A few additions:
They get a Triple Crown ration balancer for feed twice a day.
They’re in MD, so whatever hay is most common central east coast.

I’m not sure if my barn will support buying a different hay just for me, so I might have to buy it myself and I don’t have storage - so this would be a few bales at a time to see if this helps with their weight gain. They’re in a dead lot, so the only calories is the ration balancer and hay. I don’t have time to ride them as often in the fall/winter since it gets dark as soon as I leave the office

[greywithchrome]

Look for a mature hay, more brown and stemmy instead of green and soft. You don’t necessarily need to replace their hay entirely since you’d be buying it yourself, you could try doing half and half to ideally reduce their calories. And when you buy a slow feed net make sure you get one with decently small holes. My easy keeper Morgan eats from 1.25" holes and I’d argue that’s even a little too big, I am going to look for one with 1" holes. The rest of the farm has 1.75" holes.