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There are so many diverse options available when it comes to choosing the right diet for your horse. Their food can be steamed, soaked, or fed directly, and there is also hay and haylage to choose from.
But what is haylage, and how does it differ from traditional hay? And which feeding options are the best for your horse and their specific needs?
The ideal diet for your horse will depend on a number of key factors, including their weight, health status, routines, and even more specific criteria like their respiratory health. Hay and haylage – two types of forage for horses – provide more than just simple calories. They are vital for providing essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals and may even reduce your horse’s hard feeding needs when given at the right proportions.
In this guide, we draw on our expert knowledge and what we’ve learned running our own equestrian centre to answer the question of, “what is haylage?”. We also explore how the choice between haylage vs hay can affect your horse’s digestion and overall health.
Understanding Equine Dietary Needs
High-quality, calorie-rich forage is rare in the wild, so horses’ digestive systems have adapted to function optimally when eating low-energy, low-nutrient foods. This adaptation provides the dietary guidelines for domesticated horses, who need lots of fibrous forage to remain healthy.
Feeding your horse quality forage, such as hay or haylage, helps to ensure their diet contains enough fibre. This is essential for reducing the risk of colic and other digestive issues, including gastric ulcers and constipation.
Haylage vs Hay as Forage
You have two main options for forage for your horse: hay and haylage. Both these options are made from cut grass, but they vary in how they are processed and the moisture and nutrition they contain.
Hay is produced by cutting grass and drying it out in fields through turning. Once dry, the hay is baled. This low moisture content helps to prevent mould from forming, but it does produce dust, which can cause issues for horses with respiratory conditions.
What Is Haylage, And How Does It Differ?
Haylage is baled far earlier than hay. Cut grass is wrapped in polythene, ensuring it retains its moisture content. This wrapping can also promote fermentation, which prevents fungal growth. Once haylage becomes exposed to air, it has a higher risk of mould, but it does not produce dust like traditional hay.
When you feed your horse a diet with a low percentage of dry matter, you must provide them with more forage to ensure they get enough nutrients and fibre. If you compared equal weights of hay and haylage, the hay would contain significantly more dry matter than the haylage. This means you would need to provide your horse with more haylage to ensure they receive comparable nutrient value from their diet.
How to Feed Your Horse Hay and Haylage
Use this general feeding guide to ensure your horse gets the right food for their needs.
Hay
Good quality hay is a simple and nutritious forage.
How much you feed your horse will depend on their weight and unique dietary needs. If your hay is of a lower quality or your horse suffers from respiratory problems, consider steaming or soaking your hay before feeding. You can do this by soaking the hay in clean, fresh water for at least 10 minutes and then giving it to your horse immediately thereafter to prevent mould growth.
If your horse is on a restrictive diet or suffers from metabolic disorders or laminitis, you may need to soak their hay for longer. In these instances, you can soak their hay for at least one hour before feeding.
Haylage
Haylage may be the better choice in some cases.
This is particularly true if your horse reacts poorly to the dust in hay forage but still needs the extra nutrients and calories that would be lost during the soaking process. Once you open a haylage bale, you should use it as quickly as possible. The general rule of thumb is between two and seven days, depending on your climate and storage conditions.
When feeding haylage to your horse, remember that it’s usually richer and more palatable than traditional hay, and they may eat it rapidly. You can slow their eating down by feeding haylage through a specialised hay net with small holes or using a grazing muzzle. However, haylage is best avoided if your horse is on a weight management diet or suffers from laminitis.
Assessing the Quality of Haylage vs Hay
Regardless of whether you choose hay or haylage for your horse, forage will make up the majority of their diet. This is why it’s important to assess the quality of the forage you provide carefully. Feeding your horse high quality food is the best way to promote optimal health and longevity.
When your order of hay arrives, look for markers of quality like an attractive golden hue, a faintly sweet smell, and a high ratio of leaves to stems. If your hay is faded or brown, has a musty or unpleasant smell, contains plenty of stalks and seed heads, or has black marks, it may be of poor quality.
Quality haylage and wrapped hay are characterised by a slightly damp feel, a pleasant sweet smell, and a leafy appearance with soft, pliable stalks. Just be aware that if these forages are excessively damp, their plastic wrapping is damaged, or if you notice large black or white patches on the bales, they may be spoiled and unsuitable for feeding.
Choose The Best Option For Your Stable
Haylage vs hay both provide valuable forage for horses, but the right choice will depend on your horses’ individual health statuses and unique needs.
At Ayr Equestrian, we also stock a range of supplements you can use to optimise your horse’s health. However, we always recommend working with an experienced equine vet if you’re concerned about your horse's nutrition, as this will ensure they’re happy, healthy, and well-fed.
