horse nutrition

[brooklyn_21]

what is a good alternative to hay for horses? i usually feed hay, but sometimes there just isn't any good available in the area. i hate to take any chances w/ bad hay and am looking for advice on what else to use. or do i just get good shipped in?

[alishajb]

personally, i believe that grass is the best thing you can give your horse. but if your normal hay is not available and you do not have access to grass then i would choose the next best hay available. it may not be as good as what your horses have been getting but it can still be good. if you come to the point where you can not find even slightly decent hay or grass then i suggest switching them to a "complete diet" feed that has the hay built in, but even with this you should be feeding some amount of actual hay. so either way you'll have to buy hay or find some grass somewhere for your horses.

if it comes down to it then you could always find a neighbor or someone in your area that is willing to lease out a pasture for you to graze your horses on. hope this helped :) good luck

[HooverH]

For daily feed, you can also supplement in alfalfa pellets if you cannot find decent alfalfa hay, I know this year has been really bad for that. (At least in my area). Hoover gets free feed flake hay, alfalfa pellets when the hay is sparse, and daily turn out for snacking on grass unless the weather is really foul.

There are also different kinds of hay, like wheat grass hay, timothy, etc, but alfalfa is the most common.