How do I eliminate HAY for my horse? Need some guidance

[IPEsq]

I would try not to replace with pellets only. Because you don’t have a digestive issue as the reason for no hay, you will want her to have some longer stem forage. Some of it can be pellets, sure, since you have a lot of pounds to feed, but cubes and chopped forage would be better for her gut than pellets.

[whhisperbaby11]

Deer feeder may work best for you, but there are automatic soaked cube feeders that are set up for horses. Used one for many years.

[SLW]

Can you feed her hydrated beet pulp? I feed Standlee (hydrated) molasses free beet pulp shreds to my “trending IR” horses who live on a dry lot. I also fed it to my horses when I was fox hunting as an addition to their hay rations. In my experience it the horses love it and it keeps a nice bloom on them.

[sascha]

Just a thought in case you do go for soaked feed as part of the rations. A pinch of salt before adding the water will keep a small amount of soaked feed from freezing. May be an idea to experiment with and bonus, a little extra salt will keep your horse drinking well in the colder months.

[Cowboy_Girl]

Since you are out west, try your co-op/grain elevator. Lots of them produce timothy pellets. You can feed dry or soaked. Can buy bagged or by the ton. I always keep some as windy day/bad weather and travel option.

[millerra]

oi - what a nightmare. sorry. If it were me, I would first try getting super clean small squares that i could drop 3-4 flakes into a tub of water and then feed. Of course, in the winter, this quickly turns into
a potential nightmare w/ ice build up. I’d get away from rounds because even the driest hay in those can be a bit dusty. Why would I be stubborn about hay? Because when it gets really (ND) cold, I would want my horses munching free choice hay as much as they can for heat production. If I couldn’t do hay, it would have to be something that doesn’t have to be wet to be fed. My old mare would never finish her complete (soaked, no teeth) hay before it started to freeze, even if I started w/ hot water (WI here). So I guess that leaves you w/ the bagged chopped hay (never have fed that - $$$?).

This sounds like a real challenge; good luck. Honestly, I think I would try med control before giving up hay. Better living through chemicals and all.

[SuzieQNutter]

We don’t feed hay.

We feed lucerne chaff, a prydes feed called Easigoing. Which is extruded based on barley and has no oats, corn or molasses. It has protein in it. We boil whole barley for them. We add biotin and they have a 007 lick block that has all their needs and they have access to grass 24/7 for most of the time, except a severe drought.

[Montanas_Girl]

Equine nutritionist chiming in.

If the horse cannot have hay and a complete senior feed isn’t an option, chopped hay or hay cubes are preferable to hay pellets. The fiber length is longer, and they also take more time to chew/eat, which is preferred for both digestive health and the horse’s mental/behavioral health.

Many, many, many horses in the western performance world live on alfalfa cubes on the road - no hay, not soaked - and do great. When I was in graduate school, the vast majority of our research studies involved feeding horses alfalfa cubes as their sole forage, so that we could precisely measure what the horses consumed. On my thesis study, I had 12 horses (ranging in age from 2 to 18) on free-choice alfalfa cubes for 15 weeks. No chokes, no real turnout - they lived in dry lot “runs” - and all of them consistently consumed 2-2.5% of their body weight in cubes every day. I fed the cubes in large Rubbermaid water troughs on the ground.

It is not ideal, but it can absolutely be done. It helps that cost isn’t (much of) a factor in your case! I’d personally suggest trying a couple of varieties of chopped hay and some cubes to see what your horse prefers. Not all horses are fans of one or the other.

[Moshposh]

I have a friend whose horse can’t eat hay. She uses pellets and has this really cool automatic feeder she doesn’t have to constantly be out there to feed him

[FjordBCRF]

Ive had an auto feeder for my easy keeper for a few years now and that thing is worth its weight in gold. I’m surprised more people don’t, my vet always comments on how nifty it is.

[Alterration]

@2tempe

equine nutritionist that you can meet with telephonically.

I read that as “telepathically” which caused me to think “well they must be hard to find…wait…no I guess they wouldn’t be”…and cackled for a good 5 minutes. I think that’s too much internet for one day.

Sorry for the derailment, carry on.

[beau159]

@thereadinghorse

Interesting. I can‘t suggest anything to replace the hay. It’s just an interesting read. I have never come across the idea to not feed hay anymore. We do have heaps of horses with breathing issues. But our general suggestions here are:

• watered or steamed hay or dry, good quality haylage
• buy an inhaler and inhale every day
• let horse move after inhaling
• inhaling medication if necessary (cortisone, ambroxol)
• feed something from the ground (out of a bowl) after inhaling so mucus can come out
• get rid of other dust sources such as dusty bedding etc.
• determine if horse has certain allergies and try to minimize the allergens
• if acute give medications such as expectorants, bronchodilators

I’m trying not to derail the thread from the original question, because it’s real easy to go off tangeant talking about asthma treatment … but I’ve done pretty much ALL that, and then some.

@IPEsq

I would try not to replace with pellets only. Because you don’t have a digestive issue as the reason for no hay, you will want her to have some longer stem forage. Some of it can be pellets, sure, since you have a lot of pounds to feed, but cubes and chopped forage would be better for her gut than pellets.

And yes, that was one of my thoughts/questions to make sure she would still be getting digestable stem forage. I wasn’t sure if the cubes and/or chopped would be sufficient but I suppose.

I’m assuming cubes HAVE to be soaked? Or not? Again, trying to figure out what is going to work during a cold winter of freezing temps. Or maybe chopped would be better if I don’t have to soak that.

@whhisperbaby11

Deer feeder may work best for you, but there are automatic soaked cube feeders that are set up for horses. Used one for many years.

Can you post a link to said feeders?

@SLW

Can you feed her hydrated beet pulp? I feed Standlee (hydrated) molasses free beet pulp shreds to my “trending IR” horses who live on a dry lot. I also fed it to my horses when I was fox hunting as an addition to their hay rations. In my experience it the horses love it and it keeps a nice bloom on them.

I don’t think there would be any issue feeding her beet pulp. I personally do not have any experience with beet pulp as I have never had a need to feed it before.

@millerra

oi - what a nightmare. sorry. If it were me, I would first try getting super clean small squares that i could drop 3-4 flakes into a tub of water and then feed. Of course, in the winter, this quickly turns into
a potential nightmare w/ ice build up. I’d get away from rounds because even the driest hay in those can be a bit dusty. Why would I be stubborn about hay? Because when it gets really (ND) cold, I would want my horses munching free choice hay as much as they can for heat production. If I couldn’t do hay, it would have to be something that doesn’t have to be wet to be fed. My old mare would never finish her complete (soaked, no teeth) hay before it started to freeze, even if I started w/ hot water (WI here). So I guess that leaves you w/ the bagged chopped hay (never have fed that - $$$?).

This sounds like a real challenge; good luck. Honestly, I think I would try med control before giving up hay. Better living through chemicals and all.

Oh trust me, we’ve done meds. And meds. And more meds.

When it gets REALLY cold, I actually pull my hay net off so that they can eat more freely. They have to eat more in order to stay warm in those temps. When it’s more “regular” winter, then the hay net stays on. Because I agree it is best for their tummies to be grazing all day like nature intended (without them getting obese ).

@SuzieQNutter

We feed lucerne chaff, a prydes feed called Easigoing. Which is extruded based on barley and has no oats, corn or molasses.

Big NO on that. One of the main ingredients in that is SOYBEANS. My horse cannot have soy as I stated in the OP.

@Montanas_Girl

Equine nutritionist chiming in.

If the horse cannot have hay and a complete senior feed isn’t an option, chopped hay or hay cubes are preferable to hay pellets. The fiber length is longer, and they also take more time to chew/eat, which is preferred for both digestive health and the horse’s mental/behavioral health.

Many, many, many horses in the western performance world live on alfalfa cubes on the road - no hay, not soaked - and do great. When I was in graduate school, the vast majority of our research studies involved feeding horses alfalfa cubes as their sole forage, so that we could precisely measure what the horses consumed. On my thesis study, I had 12 horses (ranging in age from 2 to 18) on free-choice alfalfa cubes for 15 weeks. No chokes, no real turnout - they lived in dry lot “runs” - and all of them consistently consumed 2-2.5% of their body weight in cubes every day. I fed the cubes in large Rubbermaid water troughs on the ground.

It is not ideal, but it can absolutely be done. It helps that cost isn’t (much of) a factor in your case! I’d personally suggest trying a couple of varieties of chopped hay and some cubes to see what your horse prefers. Not all horses are fans of one or the other.

Thank you for chiming in. I’ve never fed the cubes before so that’s good to know that you can feed them dry and horses can get their stemmed forage needs from them. That was one of my big questions on if these “packaged” things is going to give them what their digestive system needs.

[2tempe]

Telepathically…yes they have ads on the radio all the time - California Psychics

The nutritionist that was was recommended to me was actually several states away…

[SuzieQNutter]

I checked some other prydes products after your post and all the ones I tried had soya beans in them so they seem a no go.