ever hear of a horse that just doesn't like hay?

[Terri]

I feed some horses down the street every evening. One of the horses is a VERY elderly Paso. We are not sure how old, but into his 30s. The girls are always telling me to "go easy on Buck's hay cause he just wastes it". And they are right. When I come in the evening, he still has most of his hay in a big pile. He has either peed on it or slept in it or something. They feed him a good helping of Senior feed, which he scoffs right down. And while he is beginning to look his age with a bit of a sway in his back and bit of gauntness around the hanches, he has plenty of weight and still plenty of "go" when they ride him. Yes, the still ride him and his owner often has to "hold him back" before he goes lame due to his navicular changes. He has the spirit of a 3yr old in a 30 yr old body. He eats some of his hay and doesn't seem to choke on it or have problems. He just doesn't seem to like it. Other than waste it isn't a problem, he has plenty of weight on him and for an old guy looks awesome. I've seen horses 10 yrs young than him looking much older. I don't know if he has always turned up his nose at hay, or if it just recent, but he has been like this since I've been feeding him (2 1/2 years). And they get their hay for a variety of sources and he treats it all the same. So I am just curious, does anyone else have a horse that doesn't like hay?

[icehorse]

My 23 year old Arab gelding isn't big on hay. He never was, & it seems to have increased as he's gotten older. He picks out the pieces he finds to be choice & leaves the rest. Even a wall feeder doesn't eliminate the waste as he takes out what he doesn't want & drops it on the ground out of his way.

He has his teeth checked & worked on regularly, so no issues there, & he'll eat his feed & grass readily - hay he just doesn't have much interest in.

At this time of the year, none of my herd - 4 Icelandics, 2 Arabs & a donkey - are much into their hay as they prefer the grass. Most of the time I find the hay that I leave in the pasture sifted through, but mostly uneaten & they've been doing the same on those nights that they have to be stalled because of storms - in the morning their bags are still at least half full.

I feed square bales of really beautiful, prime second cut hay only, which they finish completely during the winter, but when the grass is up, no hay is good enough for their taste - they're quite picky.

[SandyMM]

A lot of Senior feeds are 'complete'... They have forage added which should be adequate if they are feeding an appropriate amount. He may not need hay at all....

[Linda Y]

At that age, I am going to bet that he *likes* hay, but he can't eat it. My 28 year old knows he can't chew it up, so he just doesn't even bother with it. I give him soaked pellets instead which makes him very happy.

[Terri]

You are probably right. He is clearly getting plenty of nutrition. He is round and happy. I am just used to my furry vacuumms eating anything that comes with in reach. Just weird to see him not eating it.

[CarolU]

He could be bored with eating. If he has no competition, no reason why he should. Try putting him in a position to eat someone else's hay (can be the same hay, just from someone else's trough). For some reason, it is always better when they are stealing it.

[Pam M]

I've found that several of my older ones are funny about hay. Soaked beet pulp seems to do the trick for them.

[Terri]

Funny you should say that Carol. He does love to try to steal it from the shed when I have the door open and I"m feeding everyone. But he does share a paddock with a big qrt horse. But he is the boss and he can take any hay any time he wants from the other horse. Sometimes he does, and sometimes he can't be bothered.

It is not like we have to find a "solution" the senior feed and what hay he does eat seems plenty. He is at a great weight for an old man. Just funny to see him with a big pile of green 2nd cut hay, looking board. Then waisting that expensive stuff.

[DSDECKERT]

At that age, I am going to bet that he *likes* hay, but he can't eat it. My 28 year old knows he can't chew it up, so he just doesn't even bother with it. I give him soaked pellets instead which makes him very happy.

You took the words right out of my mouth!

[Pasolady]

That is certainly strange, not like hay?? As for me and my horses, I just put a huge 1st cut bale of bermuda in my front pasture with 16 month old TWH filly, a palomino and my Paso Fino mare Princesa, a bay, Friday the 14th...well!! there is maybe a third of it left. They have just about wiped that bale out. They also each get a 3 qt scoop of pelleted feed Compete 2x a day. Thought their body weight was great, but now like WOW!

Will try to get a picture of them today and post it! The 2 in the back pasture got a big bale at the smae time and have not even taken it down a third. Kashmir, 6 yr old TWH, palomino and Charla de MiLE, a pinto Paso Fino are both in great body weight.

Charla was so fat she looked pregnant, had to cut her back literally to a handful of pellets, now she is totally awesome. Amazing what a simple, inexpensive surgery will do for a horse. She gaits smoothly, her whole personality has changed. She begs for attention and almost smiles when you feed her. Maybe I'll get some pics this afternoon.

[JennLM]

Funny enough here, when we ran out of cubes (they were coming in the next day) Glory would not eat her hay. Normally she devours it first thing before her cubes. She gets some each night with her cubes. She would not even eat her grain. Horse next door on a different type of hay from a different store, she ran out of cubes same few days and her horse would not eat her hay either. We both got cubes next day and both ate hay and cubes. *shrugs* Both skipped both meals. Drinking and going to the bathroom normally. No clue. Someone new bought the cube business and now there is a wait time unlike before it seems = ( Now we know...

[motorgypsy]

As long as he's holding weight I sure wouldn't worry. They said that Elmer Bandit had no teeth but held his weight fine on wet senior feed (the very old endurance gelding) and the vets who did his necropsy said he was in great shape. They euthanized him because he was having trouble getting up and they thought his stifles had given out but they were fine. Maybe he was just too fat????

Our 27 year old mare has gotten quite thin. She won't eat if we put her in a stall or if we separate her from her buddies and they don't run her away from her grain but when she gets a bit full she'll let them share so they become real porkchops.

She'll gain weight on alfalfa but the other guys again become absolute pigs on it.

After much thought we made a pen in the middle of their paddock under some trees and tie her buddies to the trees outside the pen for their eating. We feed her in the pen, 2 scoops of wet senior feed twice a day and unlimited alfalfa until she says she wants out of the pen. The good thing about this arrangement is that the other horses hang over the sides of the pen trying to get at the grain and hay but I have netting over the panels so they can't reach inside the pen and actually get any. Because they are trying to get at her feed she's eaten much better and seems to feel much better. We've only been doing this for a little over a week so we can't say how much weight she's gained. She still eats the hay from the roll outside the pen and has good teeth but most of her calories are from the grain and alfalfa.

We'll see if we can actually observe some some weight gain from this method in addition to her moving much better. We've added two anti inflammatories to her diet - ginger and tetracycline (low does is not antibacterial - just anti inflammatory.) So who knows what is working but she's a lot more active now.