Well, it's happened. I have officially had "the hay talk" at every barn I have ever kept a horse. I'm getting pretty practiced at having this conversation, and it went well this time.
The hay talk?
If you board, and especially if your horse is a hard keeper, chances are you know this conversation. You want your horse to have more hay than the barn typically offers. The barn owner has to manage costs. Heavy. Sigh. I don't know. There's no question that hay is good for horses, and knowledgable horsemen/women try to feed as much as they can afford. Barn managers operate on low profit margins, and hay is expensive. It's not fun for either party.
Food is love
But for me, and I suspect a lot of owners, it goes beyond that. I think in my case, the maternal instinct I never could cough up for human babies has been diverted to horses. And part of the mom instinct includes making sure your baby has food. It just feels wrong to ride, clean up, and leave your horse sitting in a hayless stall. I mean, I feel physically anxious.
If I had children, they would all be fat.
Bob always says, "the kind of problems to have are the ones that money can solve." And for me, the easiest and fairest way to fix the problem is to pay for extra hay.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Hey, Let's talk hay
Stay tuned for Part II...
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For horses, it's more than just love - it's the way their digestive tracts are designed. They need to be munching many hours of the day for optimum health.
ReplyDeleteWhen we boarded we provided our own hay so there was no issue with how much. Basically, I wanted them to have hay any time they were in a stall.
Small mesh hay nets are a wonderful way to keep them eating when they have to be stalled.
I own a barn, and the one thing there has NEVER been a dispute about is hay. A horse with out hay is a horse with a mission. Destroy. Something. NOW! So, feed is cheaper than stalls, cheaper than vet bills, cheaper than injured humans...use that for those of you who must deal with reluctant hay feeders.
ReplyDeleteHmm, we figure on 1/2 an average bale per horse per day and base our fees on that. We contract our hay purchase for a year at a time, though, so it's not too hard to figure hay cost. Without the contracts, I'd have to do something else. BUT I would like to say "Bless the hearts of every owner who is willing to pay for extras!"
ReplyDeleteIf I'm happy with everything else about the barn except for how much hay/shavings they provide, I buy extra for my horse.
ReplyDeleteYep, I've had this conversation. First conversation was switching her over to at least a 1/2 grass ration. The other conversation was my request that she have enough hay that it takes her several hours to finish. She was fnishing within 1 hour...not acceptable, as ideally I want hay in front of her 24-7.
ReplyDeleteI laways get "do you realize how many pounds of hay your horse is getting"? Yes, and she needs more. I willing to pay you whatever extra you want in order to have hay in front of her close to 24 hours a day.
Since she's not fat and eating lots of hay, I always get the worming or teeth floating question too.
Reality is, she's a hardworking athlete that is a bit different that the weekend warrior coach potatoes that the rest of their clients are....
My boy is the world's most easy keeper. He is a little IR, and seems to gain weight when he even LOOKS at hay. My problem is that the barn manager, and also the guy who is there during the day, have a VERY generous hand with feed. The manager's own little quarter horse is roly-poly, and mine is getting there.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to starve him, but carrying all that extra weight isn't good for him either, and my trainer keeps saying he has to lose weight or he'll founder.
I do have small-mesh hay nets to slow down his vacuum cleaner feeding style, but that only goes so far.
What gripes me is the barns that won't feed extra, won't let you feed your own, OR that charge ridiculous amounts for extra hay. A barn I used to board at was purchased by a non horse person who wanted to get rich by running a boarding facility. He charged something like $1/flake for hay that by all reports was not even good hay.
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to minimize the cost of hay or make it seem petty to charge. IMHO, barn managers could cut down on the carping/complaining of boarders if they just make extra hay available for a fee. Most people decide they don't really need the extra hay.
I had no idea that hay was an expensive sort of food!
ReplyDeleteThe bulk of behavioral issues in stalled horses (cribbing, eating bedding, weaving, etc.) stem from an inability to act on their instinctive need to roam and graze. You would think that most facilities would offer the option of additional hay for a fee... I guess if it were me, I'd end up hunting up my own hay source. Whatever it takes, right?
ReplyDeleteYes, this has always been a pet peeve of mine as well. Not enough hay, poor quality hay, not the right type of hay that I want....and in my case, not only do I have to pay extra for extra hay, but I have to sort out getting it to the barn! Since I don't have a truck and there isn't enough storage space for a big load, I'm restricted to picking up a bale at a time. Ridiculous really..
ReplyDeleteHere's a thought: if there are enough horses in the barn, there are bound to be some easy keepers like mine. What if those whose horses need more hay talk to those whose horses need less, and work a trade? I'd be glad to give some of my "share" to a barn mate who needs more, and that should even out for the barn manager's budget, right?
ReplyDeleteLiquidambar, makes sense from a barn-wide perspective. The barns I've been at tend to have a lot of thoroughbreds, and the nice easy keeps are scarce. But for barns where the balance is different, that could work IF the easy keeper owner didn't start to feel put out.
ReplyDeleteI don't even mind a poorer quality hay, so long as the horses eat it. Riley is a chub, but also a cribber and a mouthy son of a gun. The hay needs to keep him busy :-)
This is a matter near and dear to my heart, so I'm anxious to hear your story of the "successful" hay talk....
ReplyDeleteHi Marissa, it was successful primarily b/c the barn manager was so reasonable and undefensive. They feed 4x a day, an amount that a horse not on stall rest would probably be happy with. B/c Riley is on stall rest, and gets minimal grain, he really relies on that hay. They understood, and I'm paying a monthly surcharge that seems more than fair for additional hay. We'll also be giving him molasses-free beet pulp so that his tummy is more full. He's now getting the Progressive uber-concentrate, 55% protein, 7% carb, so it's a miniscule amount of grain.
ReplyDeleteWhen I moved my horse to a co-op and started to buy my own hay I gained a new appreciation for why barns try to limit what they feed! Hay is expensive and the past few years it's been scarce because of poor growing seasons. I feed free choice hay now because I can . . . but when I boarded, I wanted my horse to get a minimum of 1.5% of his body weight in hay. I know that didn't always happen! For those of you who want to supplement the hay at their barn you can consider either feeding soaked hay cubes, soaked beet pulp or denghi. Hay cubes and beet pulp are relatively inexpensive and are really a good way to supplement hay without having to haul bales of the stuff in the back of your car.
ReplyDeleteI have a horse that is not particularly a hard keeper but in the winter he needs more hay than the barn supplies. I am more than willing to pay extra or bring in hay--but I have always felt that unless your horse is getting fat, they need plenty of good grass hay unless they are on pasture 24-7. And sometimes even then...
ReplyDeleteAt the barn that I ride at, the barn owner feeds hay only. It's a mix between regular hay and "good" hay like alfalfa or other high-quality hay. Her horses do not colic.
ReplyDeleteOf course, it is also very expensive. Hay is expensive, and feed (I didn't realize this) is cheap. When you are feeding only hay, they need alot of it. Her horses generally do have hay in front of them 24-7, except maybe the day before the monthly hay delivery.
I have a hard keeper, and for YEARS I would have the "hay talk" with the barn manager, who treated hay like he paid for it himself. (the barn OWNER wasn't stingy about it--there were enough animals that the hard keepers were balanced by the easy keepers).
ReplyDeleteThe manager kept wanting to feed more GRAIN (which I bought). Sigh. I want her to be FATTER, not CRAZIER!
I ended up feeding an extra hay meal myself every day. Inconvenient but needful esp. in winter when the pastures were good only for recreation and useless as nutrition.
Now, horse is home. I'm just lucky that we had a GREAT hay harvest this year--I bought lots!
You're so right Stacy, the hay and weight issue is big. My guy has been boarded at a few stables where 15h quarter-types are the norm and it was like pulling teeth to get them to feed him for his size.
ReplyDeleteRight now I am just in love with the feeding situation at my current place. The owner is just as determined as I am to keep good weight on my horse and isn't afraid to throw him 8 flakes a day if needed.
Stuff like this makes me glad my guy is at a place where he gets maximum turnout (pretty much only in if the weather is really bad and for feeding in the morning) and where he's got hay available all the time (especially now in the winter when most of the field is just mud).
ReplyDelete