Helping both you and your horse!

Feeding for a change in workload

Claire Burrow

At Devon Haylage, we strive to do our absolute best for both horses and their owners by producing a forage that ticks everyone’s boxes! After all, a healthy horse starts with forage and a healthy horse means a happy owner!

How can Devon Haylage help my horse to perform at its best?

When we look in more detail into how haylage can help all horses, we can see that it’s not just about the dust free qualities.

1. The feeding of haylage on a long-term basis rather than switching to haylage when needed (e.g. at an event or when respiratory problems do occur), can help to prevent any respiratory issues from occurring in the first place. Some respiratory issues could go undetected but may be affecting the horse ‘beneath the surface’ and only come to light once clinical signs are seen.

2. Haylage is a slow-release feed and so can help to sustain energy levels when you really need them for example during periods of extra exertion at events or on long rides. The reliance on hard feed for adequate energy levels can be reduced thus reducing excitable behaviour.

3. During the excitability of an event or show, some horses may be reluctant to eat hay. The act of chewing has been shown to be relaxing, especially if the horse can eat with a low head carriage. Our haylage is very appealing and tempting to picky eaters. A relaxed horse is a happy horse, and a happy horse performs well!

4. When a horse chews, saliva is produced acting to buffer the stomach against high acid levels which may become a problem when low levels of fibre are consumed. Fibre is also the essential aspect of all horses’ diets, needed to maintain hind gut health and reduce the risk of ulcers developing.

5. Finally, conveniently packed 20kg bales like Devon Haylage are ideal to take away for shows and events as each bale is cut into four distinct quarters, creates minimal mess and can be stored outside freeing up space in the lorry!

At Devon Haylage, we are dedicated to producing the best possible haylage for your horse with customer satisfaction being paramount. The feeding of our haylage not only provides your horse with multiple health benefits, but a pallet delivery direct to your yard also makes your life easier. We are pleased to offer very competitively priced direct pallet delivery of 35 bales to most parts of the UK. You can also have a mixture of haylage types on the pallet should you have horses with differing tastes or nutritional requirements. Our haylage is renowned for being of high consistent quality which reduces the worry and inconvenience of dusty batches of hay, whilst ensuring you never run out if frequent trips to a supplier is required. All our haylage types are nutritionally tested every year so you know exactly what you are feeding. By using the mineral ratios provided on the reports, this helps you to formulate bespoke feeding regimes using targeted minerals to get the very best from your horse without the unnecessary use of hard feed. Sugar and starch content in forage is increasingly becoming the focus for many horse owners as they strive to find a quality forage with known levels which can be safely fed to sensitive horses and ponies. Our thorough nutritional testing puts customers’ minds to rest as all our haylage types come in at under 10% combined sugar and starch as fed. Our customers have reported substantial health benefits in their horses with the regular use of our haylage, not to mention the peace of mind a direct delivery brings.

For a free sample or to discuss your requirements, please email claire@devonhaylage.co.uk or call 01404 813100

Edgemere ltd: www.edgemere.co.uk