So yesterday i think autumn officially arrived.  It is now cold, wet and dark when i get up in the morning.  I need the lights on to mix the horses breakfast and there is another 5 or 6 months of this.... oh joy.  The waterproof coat has come out and now Basil has got a proper rug on.  I guess soon i'll need to clip him.  They have all been losing their summer coats and starting to grow the thick furry ones they have in the winter.  Fidget gets more hair than i have ever seen on a pony and he is still absolutely useless if he gets wet.  He must be like a donkey and have none of the oils most horses and ponies have in their coats.

I've had to buy Basil a new rug for this winter as his one last year was absolutely destroyed by the end of the last.  He and Chesney have big play fights and Chesney always gets Basil with his teeth, either ripping huge holes in his rug or his skin (don't worry Basil gets his own back).  I managed to get the same make as the last one which means the neck cover will fit on this one and saved me a few pennies.  I always find rugs really difficult to buy, i suppose they are like clothes for us.  Chesney has a a wide neck and alot of makes of rugs don't do up around his chest and often the leg straps are too short.  I did find a brilliant outdoor rug for him a few years ago which was a Masta but that got wrecked 2 winters ago and now the one they make doesn't fit nearly as well.  Basil's new one is a Horseware Amigo and seems to fit him really well, so they seem to be great for thoroughbreds, but do not fit Chesney! 

If any rug companies read this please take note-  one size does not fit all!  You need to make different shapes too not just different lengths. 

Hay Alternatives

Obviously the shortage in hay this year is going to be a concern for lots of horse owners.  The easiest way to help this is get them in the field for as much as possible and manage your grass as carefully as possible. 

Unfortunately most yards nowadays really limit winter grazing so this won’t be an option for alot of people.

Haylage is a good alternative for horses but it is more expensive.  It used to be said that as the haylage has better nutrient content you didn’t need to feed as much as you do hay.  It is true that as haylage is heavier you do feed less by volume but more by weight.  The problem with this is that actually you want to keep a horses gut moving, they are trickle feeders and need to eat nearly constantly for the best health.  Of course this year we may have no choice so try and spread the feeding of it over the day where possible.   Use a special haynet which has smaller holes or if you can’t afford a new net put a normal one inside another and that has the same effect.  It makes the horses work a bit harder for each mouthful so they can’t get such big mouthfuls at a time and what they have tends to last longer. 

Haylage is basically made of grass cut before it goes to seed and instead of allowing it to dry completely like hay it is sealed in a bag at 40 -45% moisture content.  The bag as well as maintaining the moisture content helps to keep the higher feed value of the grass.

You can get really big bales of haylage which might be cheaper than the small ones but once open mould develops quite quickly in them.  Obviously then you don’t want to feed it as it will affect the horses respiratory system – this will make any existing problems worse and could cause some to develop eg:COPD.  So unless you have a lot of horses or can share on a yard this won’t be the best way to go.  A bale will usually keep for 7 days once it has been opened.

If you do change from hay to haylage you need to try to make the change gradually as horses digestive systems are very sensitive to any changes in diet.  Of course this doesn’t always work because often they like the taste of haylage and so won’t eat the hay!

When you start out feeding haylage to your horse it's best to weigh out the amount every day - until you get used to estimating the volume.  Remember that as haylage has something like10% higher nutritional value than hay you will probably need less hard feed to meet your horse energy requirements.

There are feeds available advertised as hay replacers from lots of the feed manufacturers eg: DengieHi Fi so these will be worth considering but again bear in mind that most horses will eat a bowl of this straight off so it won’t last and keep their digestion moving.

Silage – is not suitable for horses

Hay – to make hay go further you can use a small haynet, like for haylage, to make it last longer.  Spread it out aswell so they have some every few hours rather than it all at once.  Horses will often eat what is there until it is gone so by spreading out over the day/night will mean that they don’t go to long without eating and it will help keep their digestive systems healthy.   

Fireworks

I’m starting to get worried again about the up and coming firework season.  It is always such a stressful  time as the horses are so scared by the loud squeals and bangs they make.  I really don’t understand why they have to be so loud.  There are loads of nasty stories about mares losing foals and horses running through fences and seriously injuring themselves because of their terror. 

7 years ago i had a lovely horse and she was frightened by the fireworks at a big spring party not far from where they were kept.  She was in the stable next to Chesney and i don’t know what happened as i wasn’t there (it was not firework season) but the next morning she could hardly stand and her hind quarters were wobbling.  We think she had damaged her spine or the nerves and we couldn’t do anything for her so she had to be put down.  It was horrible. 

So i plan to be there with the horses as many nights as possible and sometimes it helps.  I'll put the radio on and try and drown out the sound.

Hay Problems

I had some hay delivered a couple of weeks ago, smelt good, looked nice but would my horses eat it, absolutely not!  I thought it was because there was lots of lovely fresh grass at the same time but that doesn't usually stop Chesney, he is a greedy one.  Luckily i have a nice farmer that took it back and brought me some different, apparently several people had said their horses wouldn't eat it either but we don't know why!  They are wolfing down the new lot which is such a relief.

Blimey the price has gone up this year.  I've found out that it is due to the poor crop last year and the drop in stocks there are.  The small crop this year due to the weather (so there is less about) means that prices are skyrocketing.  This winter is going to be challenging.

I'll try and do a blog about alternatives sometime soon.