Hay Snob

Last night as I was coming home from the paying job, the skies darkened and snow started to fall. I hadn't expected snow. We'd had wind out of the south, which is always a bother when I have horses in the back pen but then it started to snow. Can you tell I'm ready for spring?

I was able to get out to do chores fairly early (at least before the sun set). I decided I better put the horses in the back pen into stalls for the night. I debated but figured with the wind out of the south that I better. The night before I'd debated on putting them in but the wind was out of the north and they are more protected out of the north.

I'm sure glad I went with my gut instinct. Oh sure, it was a big pain in the butt. I had to maneuver hauling water to fill their water buckets while walking over hidden ice patches. Not an easy feat mind you! By the time I got Junior and Mayhem haltered and into their stalls, Rabbit was more than willing to go in. I'd thought maybe I was over reacting but when I put the halter on Rabbit, I noticed she was shivering. She could have been faking me out but I don't think she knows how to fake being cold. I didn't want to throw a blanket on her because today was supposed to be warm. And I figured the wind would cut through any blanket anyway. The minute Rabbit was in her stall, she was hanging over Junior's stall door trying to get to his grain.

And I can't for the life of me figure out if I'm over feeding the horses or if they simply don't like the hay that I'm giving them (can you say hay snob). All the hay comes from the same field, cut and baled with the same equipment. Nothing is different but I expect that the hay in different parts of the field are different. I personally don't care for this "type" of hay. It's thin and course and the baler can't chop the hay to create nice clean "slivers". So when I pull off one sliver, I tend to pull half of the next sliver. It wouldn't be a big deal but  I'm dealing with 3x3 foot bales so its' not as easy as it sounds. And this last bale, the slivers were huge.

With the nice weather in January and then the cold weather in February, I guess maybe I started over feeding the horses as well. I'm not really sure. I guess I felt sorry for them being out in such cold weather but maybe they dont' think it's that cold. Even the ponies have turned up their noses at some of the hay and it's not even the course hay I've been dealing with. So I'm guessing that I'm over feeding but I also figured if I was over feeding, that they would just gorge themselves on it and not stop until every leaf was gone. So I don't know.

What I dont' understand is, it's not bad hay. In fact, I keep trying to talk my hay guy into doing a little bit more paperwork because it would qualify for certified hay. So, I'll call it dairy quality because dairy farms have to have high quality hay to produce decent milk. So the horses are used to high quality hay. When we buy hay that's not directly out of this field, they may gorge themselves (because it's a round bale and there's no stopping them from eating) but they don't always look the same (at least in my mind).

So now I don't know of the horses are simply hay snobs or if there's something wrong with this hay. It's not like I can pick and choose which bales to use. I have to use what's in front because I can't get to the next bale and we don't have any spare bales because the horses are being picky. We have a lot of space limits at the Sanctuary. So I am just hoping that the weather will warm up, I don't have too many more bales of this course hay, and the horses stop being hay snobs and go back to polishing off every leaf of hay.