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Free choice hay?

7K views 27 replies 13 participants last post by  OTTB 
#1 ·
I moved my horse to a barn that has turn out but it's in a dirt pasture with absolutely no grazing available unless I bring him to the levee and hand graze. The barn gives 2 flakes of hay a day and it looks to be a medium quality grass hay. I would like to offer my horse free choice hay for the times he's in his stall so he has something to 'graze' on and would go with a decent grass hay.

I told the owner, a horse owner of 20+ years, about my idea and she told me 'oh that's a terrible idea! You could make him sick!' She then told me that I would be wasting my money because he's not underweight. I'm confused... if they can eat all the grass they want when it's available, why would hay be any different? It's not as if I'm going to be offering straight alfalfa! Is it really terrible to offer him free choice hay in his stall? Is it going to make him sick? And if it's so terrible, why do I see people put huge round bales out in pasture for those horses to have something to graze on when they're on dirt or the grass is dead?

I'd love to move him somewhere else that has GRASS pasture turn out, but at the moment the closest place I can afford is an hour away.
 
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