Hay Substitutes for Horses
- Beet Pulp. Beet pulp is a by-product of the sugar beet and is often fed to horses. ...
- Straw. If you read books about horse care in bygone times, you might be aware that straw was commonly fed to horses.
- Alfalfa. Often, legumes like alfalfa will grow in conditions that grass won't grow in. ...
- Old Hay. ...
How to feed your horse the best hay?
Types of hay
- Grass hay
- Legume hay For those who don’t know the difference between the two, the legumes contain higher content levels of protein, calcium, and vitamin A, while the grass hay is known ...
- Avoiding any that seem to be over cured or over-bleached
- Inspect hay for any signs of insect infestation or diseases
What is the best hay feeder for horses?
What Is The Best Hay To Feed A Horse? Lucerne Hay and Grass Hay being the most popular. Lucerne Hay is a favourite hay for horses and contains ample protein (between 15% – 18%). For some horses, this may be more than they require. Lucerne is an excellent option (due to high protein levels) for Foals, Mares with foals at foot, and growing horses.
What type of hay do you feed your horses?
type of hay for horses – Grass Hay
- Timothy Hay. Timothy hay is a common favorite among horses and owners. ...
- Orchard Hay. Orchard hay is another common type of grass hay – it usually has a thicker blade than timothy hay but can be softer in texture.
- Brome Grass. ...
- Bermuda Grass. ...
- Oat Hay. ...
- Rye Grass. ...
- Fescue Hay. ...
How to calculate how much hay to feed your horse?
Horse Feeding Calculator
- Select a lifestyle and weight of horse. (Note: Weights will change based on the lifestyle selected).
- If little or no quality hay/pasture is available, choose from one of the complete feeds in the upper row.
- When feeding hay, refer to daily hay requirement in the gray window, and choose from the concentrate feeds in the lower row.
How does hay affect horses?
What does it mean when a horse has less hay?
What is straw for horses?
Can you use hay cubes instead of bales?
Can horses eat concentrates?
Can you use hay from previous years?
Who wrote Hay Substitutes for Horses?
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About this website
What do you feed a horse in a hay shortage?
Alfalfa pellets and/or complete feed pellets These serve as a good substitute for hay when there is a shortage, but they will be consumed quickly, giving your horse long fasting periods.
Can a horse survive without hay?
Horses can adapt to balanced rations that do not contain hay or pasture, but the absolute minimum of fiber necessary has not been established. However, low fiber/high concentrate rations have been documented to increase the risk of colic, gastric ulcers, and wood chewing behavior of horses.
What to feed horses when there is no grass?
Typical roughage sources are available as pasture, hay, or complete feed pellets. Alternative fiber sources are obtainable (soybean hulls, beet pulp, rice hulls, corn cobs, chaff, and straw), but these don't necessarily alter the need to provide horses with the ability to be “trickle feeders.”
Can I feed my horse alfalfa pellets instead of hay?
Remember, pellets are not a substitute for all your horse's forage needs, they can replace alfalfa hay if your animal has other hay or grass, but a horse must consume long-stem forage for proper digestion. Also, note that one pound of alfalfa pellets has the same nutritional value as one pound of hay.
Can horses live on grass alone?
In short, yes, all horses can live on grass alone. Healthy grass for grazing needs to be rich in nutrients to keep a horse healthy. Optimal levels of Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K) need to be present in the grass. Some areas don't have enough protein available.
Can hay cubes replace hay?
Forage cubes can be fed just like hay, at a 1:1 ratio of the like hay type the horse currently consumes. For example, you would replace five pounds of alfalfa hay with five pounds of alfalfa cubes and adjust the amount if needed to maintain the animal's proper weight.
What is a substitute for hay?
They can be made from grass or legume hay, but the most common sources are timothy and alfalfa. Although they are more expensive than traditional baled hay, these alternatives are both dust- and mold-free, can be easily stored for long periods of time and often come with a minimum basic nutritional analysis on the bag.
Can horses live on straw?
Although straw is often not the most palatable source of fibre, most horses will eat it, particularly if they are on a restricted diet. It can easily be mixed in with hay and soaked or steamed if necessary.
Do horses need grass to graze?
The importance of pasture to horses Horses are grazing animals and most horses in the Midwest meet their nutritional needs from cool-season grass pasture or hay. Forages are an important part of the equine diet and more than 80% of horses have some pasture access.
Are pellets better than hay for horses?
Horses often eat hay pellets faster than traditional hay because the smaller, ground particles are easy to chew and swallow. Hay pellets also do not provide any long-stem forage. However, for horses with poor teeth, soaking these pellets can still provide important fiber and nutrients.
Are cubes better than hay?
Because of how they're processed and stored, cubes typically have less dust and lower propensity to mold. Transporting cubes is much easier than loading flakes of hay as well. As much as 20% of conventional baled hay may be wasted when fed1, while cubes have little waste.
Is it better to feed horses on the ground?
Why feeding hay and grain from ground level is in your horse's best interest. You can reduce your horse's risk of choke, colic and respiratory disorders and increase the amount of nutrients he gets from his ration by doing nothing more than eliminating chest- or head-high feed tubs and hay racks.
Should horses always have hay?
Some say horses should have access to hay all day, every day to keep their digestive tract working consistently and properly. Others recommend feeding a few flakes of hay at meal time is sufficient for most horses.
How long can horses go without forage?
In addition it is recommended that horses spend no longer than four hours without access to forage to try and limit the impact on the stomach of excess acid. Horse owners can increase forage feeding time using a variety of methods, including haynets and forage slow down feeders.
Do horses need to graze all day?
Horses don't need to eat all the time, but it does help their digestion to eat small amounts of forage throughout the day. Constant access to hay helps promote healthy digestion; however, you need to consider your horse's age, diet, and digestive health, along with the type of forage it's eating.
Do horses need more than hay?
Horses require fiber in their diet for the gut to function normally. It is recommended that the diet contain no less than 1 percent of body weight of roughage such as hay, pasture, etc. For example, a 1,100 pound horse requires at least 11 pounds of roughage.
What to use when there is a hay shortage?
One of the first things you can use when there is a hay shortage are hay cubes. Hay cubes are often available even when bales of hay aren’t. These can be purchased at the feed store as 50-pound bags and fed pound per pound (weigh it!) as you’d feed hay.
What is the impact of drought on horse hay?
In certain parts of the U.S., particularly the western states, drought often causes a hay shortage, or at the very least has a huge impact on horse owners’ wallets as demand for short supply escalates hay prices.
What is haylage used for?
Because it has 25 to 50 percent more water in it than hay, you’ll need to adjust amounts, often feeding 1-¼ to 1-½ times as much haylage as you would hay, pound for pound. It’s useful for reducing dust and mold spores for horses with inflammatory airway disease. This high-moisture, highly fermentable feed should be used with the cautionary advice of your veterinarian. Haylage is packaged in plastic that keeps out oxygen, thereby promoting the growth of anaerobic bacteria, such as botulism. Mold also proliferates in haylage once the bags are opened. Only feed haylage that has been produced, preserved and stored properly, and be sure to immunize a horse that eats haylage against botulism.
Is hay a complete hay alternative?
It is not meant as a complete hay alternative because one block, weighing in at 2 pounds, expands only to a flake of hay, and these blocks are quite expensive. The hay blocks do serve a purpose, however: they are handy for traveling and for increasing water intake in a horse’s diet. The key is to use these alternative fiber substances as ...
Can you use alfalfa pellets for horses?
Again, be cautious with alfalfa-based feed if a horse isn’t used to it, and use pelleted feeds only as a supplement.
Can horses eat alfalfa?
If your horse isn’t used to alfalfa, then ease him into it gradually, and even better, only feed a proportion of his diet as alfalfa cubes, simply as a supplement to hay. These cubes also generate less waste than hay.
Is beet pulp good for horses?
These an excellent source of fiber and calories. Beware of feeding beet pulp to horses with metabolic problems, especially if it contains molasses . For young, growing horses, beet pulp is high in calcium, which could imbalance the calcium to phosphorus ratio, which is critical to normal musculoskeletal development.
Choosing Horse Feed Hay Replacements
If you are going to use a fiber supplement, then I recommend using those that have shorter chopped fibers. This way, the food will feel more substantial in your horses mouth.
How Long can Horses go without Hay?
Horses are herbivores, which means they eat primarily grasses and other plant material. In the wild, horses graze on pasture for up to 18 hours a day.
Will a Horse Stop Eating when Full?
The question of whether or not a horse will stop eating when they are full is one that many horse owners struggle with. Some horses refuse to stop grazing, eat their hay and other food at the same time, and then go back for seconds. Other horses will only eat until they are about 3/4 full before walking away from their food source.
What is complete feed for horses?
COMPLETE FEED – These have been specially developed to give your horse the right balance of grass, forages, vitamins and minerals and can be fed instead of hay if they have at least 15% fiber. They’re much higher in calories so it’s important to read the label before giving to your horse.
Why do horses eat?
Unlike most animals (including cows) horses need to continually eat, this is because of the way their whole digestive system works. Right from their gastrointestinal tract that is designed to always be digesting small amounts of food around the clock to their hindgut which is where most of their energy comes from.
Why do you need to increase forage for horses?
This then means that you need to increase the forage you’re giving them because they’re not able to get so much of it themselves. If, however, your horse doesn’t normally have access to pasture then there’s nothing to make up for during the winter.
Why is silage so hard to make?
The big drawback to silage though is that the production of it can be difficult because the bags mustn’t be torn at all, if they are then the horse is at risk of contracting botulism ( Food poisoning caused by bacteria growing on food not properly sterilized ).
How long do horses graze?
Left to their own devices horses will spend up to 17 hours a day grazing but this isn’t because they’re being greedy. They’re don’t have gall bladders so aren’t able to store bile for digestion this, coupled with the small stomachs, means that they can only digest small amounts of food at a time. On top of their grazing horses should be fed ...
How much can a horse eat?
Horses are born grazers that can eat up to 25lbs (11kgs) a day so you can imagine that if you’re keeping a horse without any natural grazing you’ve got a lot of making up to do. That doesn’t mean that you can just increase the amount of food you give him, it means that you need to replace the grass he’s not able to eat with more forage.
Can you soak alfalfa before feeding it?
The disadvantage of them though is that they can often be quite expensive and if you don’t soak them beforehand then there’s also a risk of your horse choking on them. ALFALFA – Alfalfa shouldn’t be used to completely replace hay but instead fed in combination with it .
Forage 101
Forages ‒ the leaves and stems of plants such as grasses or legumes available to horses as fresh pasture or as preserved hay ‒ make up the foundation of the equine diet.
Special Circumstances
There may be times when a horse cannot consume hay or any long-stem forages due to poor dentition or jaw issues, feed sensitivities, or a variety of other reasons. In these cases, it is important to ensure the horse is provided with ample fibre and the nutrients that would be otherwise found in hay.
Free-Choice Feeding
Also, ideally (just like with hay), you would provide the fibre sources free-choice. This may be tricky as most of these feeds should be soaked prior to feeding. I usually recommend offering fresh beet pulp or rice bran at least 2 times per day, and up to 4 times a day in the summer (due to the heat and flies).
What can replace all of your horse's hay?
Bagged chopped forage. It can replace all of your horse's hay, if necessary. 2. Hay cubes. Chopped cubed hay (usually alfalfa or timothy or a combination) is another 100-percent replacement. Soak cubes to reduce risk of choke. 3. Hay pellets.
Can horses eat soybeans?
The hulls-- not the soy beans--are high in fiber, relatively digestible, provide about 12 to 14 percent protein and are accepted well by most horses. They can replace all hay but, again, a lack of long-stemmed fiber may lead to wood chewing and similar behavior.
How does hay affect horses?
When hay becomes scarce it often leaves horse owners scrambling to keep their horses healthy and well fed. Any number of natural disasters can affect the growth of hay fields. In most areas of North America, farmers are able to harvest two hay crops per season. Some areas may even be able to get a third 'cut'.
What does it mean when a horse has less hay?
Less hay means not only is it harder to find, but it will cost more per bale. Horse owners may have to ship hay in from other areas, and that too can add to the cost and take more time to source and transport.
What is straw for horses?
Straw is the stalks of harvested grains. Since the plant has come to the end of its life cycle, it has no nutrition. Used in combination with a concentrate that provides ample nutrition that includes mineral, vitamins, and proteins, oat straw can give horses something to graze on.
Can you use hay cubes instead of bales?
Hay cubes may be an alternative to bales. Grass and legume hay are dried and chopped and pressed into cubes. The downside of hay cubes is that there is an increased chance of choke if they are fed dry and they don't fulfill the horse's need to chew. Since hay cubes tend to be expensive, they could be used in combination with poorer quality hay.
Can horses eat concentrates?
There are a lot of different forms and vitamin/mineral/protein/fiber combinations, so you'll need to examine the labels and match the concentrate to your horse's needs. Feeding concentrates by themselves is not recommended. Your horse will still need a source of fiber.
Can you use hay from previous years?
Yes, you can use hay from previous years as long as it has been kept clean and dry. The nutritional content will decline over time, but that can easily be made up with concentrates. Testing is the best way to figure out how to make up for any shortfalls.
Who wrote Hay Substitutes for Horses?
Hay Substitutes for Horses. Written by. Katherine Blocksdorf. Katherine is an avid horseback rider and trainer who contributed to The Spruce Pets for over 12 years, publishing 400+ articles. Learn about The Spruce Pets' Editorial Process.
