I agree I think it’s a bad idea and a recipe for a disaster. One thing I found interesting is a lot of people around here seem to have at least one horse dealing with laminitis which in my mind would be even more of a reason to ensure you have good quality hay and know what’s in it.
Definitely, a friend of mine had a horse pass away from that last year. Its so scary
I also moved from the east coast to the Midwest and yep, it seems to be a Midwest thing. I see a lot of "hay" where I am that doesn't even look edible. Yes, it is absolutely dangerous! My supplier (the 5th in a year) luckily knows what they have, and I am glad to know what is in the hay I feed, but most people just bale whatever. It is mostly referred to as mostly cattle hay and silage bales. They'd mow lawns if they could! Pasture testing is also a must in some cases. I watched a case of fescue poisoning in a pregnant mare after someone said their pasture was ok for mares but didn't test. It was tragic. The owner was inconsolable. It is part of the reason I always want to know what I feed.Question, is it common for people around you to feed hay to their horses from random weedy fields and ditches or is it a Midwest thing? My neighbors keep telling me just to bail my ditches and weedy field (even has wild marijuana lol) because that’s what everyone around here does? Maybe it’s because I’m from the East coast, but this just seems bonkers to me and like a recipe for disaster? Don’t get me wrong we bailed our own hay, but we were always very particular about walking the fields to check for toxic plants or any plants that could cause abscesses in the horses mouths every spring, all of our fields were originally tilled up then seeded heavily with Timothy and fertilized/reseeded with Timothy as necessary. We would use a horse safe weed killer in the fall after bailing and rotate which fields we baled alternating every year. Maybe I’m the bonkers one? I thought what we did in the east coast was normal, but everyone here looks at me like I have four eyes with how particular I am
That is also part of the reason for the hay supplier switches. I really needed a low sugar hay for Max, even though I soaked the hay for a while, I needed something not baled in the afternoon. (highest sugar time) Most people can't tell you what is in their hay or when they baled it.
That is exactly why I had all of the fields completely tilled and completely re-seeded with a mix that had certified tested fescue seeds. Then did the re-testing. I don’t even have pregnant mares, but I didn’t want to run into that issue down the road. Also yes I completely agree with the time. We always used to make sure that we cut our hay early morning. I’m thinking about sending in a soil sample to Logan labs here for mineral content too. I asked if anyone in the area had any issues with selenium poisoning (because of the studies I read about it happening more commonly in the Midwest). They think I’m crazy I guess? Everyone here seems to just feed the pre-mixed feeds. I was looking at the labels at the local feed store and some of them were pretty high in selenium which is great if your soil is low in selenium, but not if your soil is high. Although I even was told to “just feed sweet feed to keep the yearling weight on”. I might as well just bake my horses a sugar loaded cake at that point
I’m still having my soil tested for selenium levels. I noticed a lot of horses around here have brittle hair and hooves which could be many things, but I still have my selenium toxicity concerns. Based on the US soil data map our area is on the high side. I am a big Dr. Kellon fan I have been reading her work and articles since I was 13 and now I’m almost 30
Oh gosh, yeah, the sweet feed thing. That is why Max was in such bad shape when I got him. We feed Sentinel LS Performance now, hard to find but we order it. It is the only thing that works for a wide variety of horses. We've fed it to a mustang, thoroughbred cross, a hard keeper paint, and Max. It works for all of them, despite the different nutritional needs. The paint was fed Triple Crown Senior for a while, but the formula was changed and when opened one day, it was so sticky with molasses that it came out like a candy bar! Not good for a horse that is prone to founder.That is exactly why I had all of the fields completely tilled and completely re-seeded with a mix that had certified tested fescue seeds. Then did the re-testing. I don’t even have pregnant mares, but I didn’t want to run into that issue down the road. Also yes I completely agree with the time. We always used to make sure that we cut our hay early morning. I’m thinking about sending in a soil sample to Logan labs here for mineral content too. I asked if anyone in the area had any issues with selenium poisoning (because of the studies I read about it happening more commonly in the Midwest). They think I’m crazy I guess? Everyone here seems to just feed the pre-mixed feeds. I was looking at the labels at the local feed store and some of them were pretty high in selenium which is great if your soil is low in selenium, but not if your soil is high. Although I even was told to “just feed sweet feed to keep the yearling weight on”. I might as well just bake my horses a sugar loaded cake at that point
OMG
Do you have any good books that you recommend?
I don’t know of any good books, but I would highly recommend Dr. Kellon’s articles. She also does offer classes on equine nutrition as well. As far as grasses a lot will depend on your region. For grasses, I knew I absolutely did not want clover, limited rye and any fescue needed to be endophyte free. I settled on a mix that was Bluegrass, Orchard Grass, Timothy, Endophyte Free Fescue and was supposed to have only 1-2% alfalfa. Well that was a lie because my pasture is covered in alfalfa which I did not want. I have used seed mixes with as much as 20% alfalfa and I did not have as much alfalfa come up as I did with the supposed 1-2% alfalfa in the seed mix. Alfalfa has its place, but it’s one of those legume grasses that I think should be able to be used or removed from a horses diet as needed. I just don’t personally like to give my horses tons of alfalfa. Once I get my other pasture up I am going to spray the alfalfa to kill it off and have a mill do up a custom mix of bluegrass, orchard grass, timothy and seed very heavily. Then let those pastures sit for 8 months, switch the horses around and repeat on the other pastures. We recently had flooding the bluegrass and orchard grass seemed to fare very well compared to the other grasses so I am going to stick with those as my main two types in the pastures. http://www.drkellon.com/resources.html@HollowOfWisps what grass do you have in your pasture? Just started reading about it and already overwhelmed!
