Question

I own two Quarter Horse mares, aged three and four years old. They both have body condition scores of five to six, so maintaining weight is the objective. The pasture is beginning to get eaten down, so I would like to put out a round bale so they will give the grass a break. My question: is beardless wheat hay safe to free-feed?

Answer

Mature horses do well on all types of hay, so long as it is free of mold, dust, and weeds. Beardless wheat hay is acceptable for horses, though it might take some time for them to become acclimated to it, as some horses must acquire a taste for it. Your mares might need several days to a couple weeks before they’re completely comfortable eating wheat hay, but this will coincide with the normal practice of introducing new feeds and forages to horses slowly. Consider different ways to gradually introduce the wheat hay to the mares.

Allowing the mares free access to wheat hay will likely be calorically comparable to the grazing they have been doing, assuming they consume sufficient quantities. Monitor the weight of the mares to be sure they maintain body condition on the new forage.

Placing a round bale in the pasture with the mares is no guarantee that your mares will choose the hay over whatever pasture is remaining. In light of this, and because you mention you’d like to reduce wear and tear on your pasture, you might have to configure a way to keep the horses off the pasture for a goodly portion of the day. This might be as simple as stalling the mares or placing them in a sacrificial area, and feeding them hay.

Remember, all-forage diets do not completely deliver the entire spectrum of nutrients horses require for optimal nutrition. Vitamin content depletes considerably in forages once they are dried and made into hay, pellets, or cubes. If your mares do not already receive a fortified concentrate or a balancer pellet to top-off nutrient needs, choose a well-formulated vitamin and mineral supplement to augment your mares’ diets. Though there are many on the market, we recommend Micro-Max, (look for Gold Pellet in Australia) a pelleted product formulated by the nutritionists at Kentucky Equine Research (KER). Offer a salt block and water at all times to round out the diet.