@candyappy rye is a grain hay, timothy is a grass hay. Rye is established to be high in fructans.
@Scribbler and @Garythesquirrel I already have my E-A form filled out & the check written; wait 'til DH gets home with the two sample bales of hay and I ask him to hook the corer up to the drill and get me a sample, lollollol
@SusanO Thank you:) I keep hearing this as well - that a lot of horses don’t like rye hay. The Seller of this hay claims his stalled show horses and his stallion eat it very well. I guess they would, if that’s their only choice, lol. Still-in-all, the hay is supposed to be “pristine”, so I’ll see in a few hours if it really is. My idea of pristine is there hadn’t better be a smidgen of weeds to be found nor do I want to see cut up soda cans baled from the edges of the field:)
The guy only has 200 bales left from the 2,000 he set aside to sell but I was already concerned when he said “rye”. The orchard/timothy/mix I have been buying for the last few years consistently tests in the 8% range for NSC value. Anything too much more than that is going to be unacceptable as my foundered horse teeters on the edge as it is. He can’t even have steroid injections for his arthritis due to laminitis concerns. I have money saved to try PRP Therapy as soon as the temps cool down.
If the guy sells the hay before I get my test results back, so be it, I will just go back to the other Seller and pay the really big dollars for hay I know is going to test low in NSC.
To whine for 20 seconds — I could probably have a winning, Lower Level Dressage horse, with two years of lessons to learn how to ride Dressage, for the money I have tied up in my first metabolic horse and now this 26 year old beloved-broke-to-death-go-anywhere-swim-rivers trail horse who blows in my ear better than anyone, when I come in the barn every morning.
Long as he wants to keep going, I will keep spending my retirement money and thank DH for still wanting to work because he is hyper and can’t be still, lol