|
|
 Elite Veteran
Posts: 824
 
Location: Duvall, WA | I am bringing my horses back home for the first time in a few years and need to figure out what hay to buy. All the boarding stables fed Timothy, but I always used to feed orchard grass with about 30% alfalfa, plus a little straight alfalfa. We are in the NW so both options are really nice hay. Opinions? Thanks in advance! |
|
| |
|
 Expert
Posts: 5290
 
| I love orchard Alfalfa mix!!! My horses won't touch timothy. Bad news is, this latest load of orchard/Alfalfa they don't like either... Spoiled brats. |
|
| |
|
  The Color Specialist
Posts: 7530
Location: Washington. (The DRY side.) | Orchard grass all the way! I will say, I am feeding Timothy and alfalfa right now. But ONLY because I get the Timothy for FREE. (Broken big bales from friends that grow and sell export Timothy.) If I had to pay for it, I would NEVER feed Timothy! (No matter how good the Timothy is, most horses only eat it if they HAVE to.) |
|
| |
|
Elite Veteran
Posts: 824
Location: Duvall, WA | So glad to hear this, these are all fancy hunter-jumper barns and they insist Timothy is better but couldn't say why. I hate the short pieces it has, and my horse looked way better when she lived with me and ate orchard grass. Just checking, tho, thanks for the opinions.
Edited by NipntuckLR 2016-02-10 11:36 AM
|
|
| |
|
The Color Specialist
Posts: 7530
Location: Washington. (The DRY side.) | LOL. They probably think timothy is "better" because it is a LOT more expensive! |
|
| |
|
 That's White "Man" to You
Posts: 5515
| Timothy has a reputation for giving the horse the stamina it needs without making the horse fat. I feed a timothy alfalfa mix and I'm not that trilled with it. I do agree that it doesn't make the horse fat, but that is because he just picks out the alfalfa and leaves the timothy on the ground. |
|
| |
|
The Color Specialist
Posts: 7530
Location: Washington. (The DRY side.) | HAHAHA. Exactly. Most won't get fat on it because it's hard to get fat on someting they won't EAT! Iceman has NO problem getting fat on timothy. (He has been raised since birth to eat what I feed him, wether he likes it or not, because "that is ALL you are getting"!) But I do get major stink eye when I am feeding timothy! |
|
| |
|
The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| NipntuckLR - 2016-02-10 10:45 AM
I am bringing my horses back home for the first time in a few years and need to figure out what hay to buy. All the boarding stables fed Timothy, but I always used to feed orchard grass with about 30% alfalfa, plus a little straight alfalfa. We are in the NW so both options are really nice hay. Opinions? Thanks in advance!
My understanding is Timothy is a harder/leaner feed. There is less sugar content in it then alfalfa. This is why horses prefer the alfalfa to Timothy as with humans, not many of us prefer bland over sweet.
I also believe there are less complications with Timothy, no blister beetles, can be fed to any horse as it is a safe feed.
Our hay crops are orchard/Timothy/alfalfa (after a few years the alfalfa winter kills, we rotate about every 5) |
|
| |
|
Elite Veteran
Posts: 824
Location: Duvall, WA | I don't believe we have blister beetles in WA. I would be feeding some alfalfa regardless of if the grass was timothy or orchard, just curious which of those two is better. |
|
| |
|
The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| NipntuckLR - 2016-02-10 1:53 PM
I don't believe we have blister beetles in WA. I would be feeding some alfalfa regardless of if the grass was timothy or orchard, just curious which of those two is better.
I believe orchard grass has more sugar content then Timothy.
Honestly between the two, I would choose orchard grass over straight Timothy anyday, it is easier for me to access, and my foundered horse has no issues with orchard grass. |
|
| |
|
Meanest Teacher!!!
Posts: 8552
Location: sunny california | i prefer the timothy. mine clean it up and yes they eat the alfalfa first then the timothy. i don't want them gorging on it anyway. i used to feed orachard grass but just had too many problems with sugar content and some loads the horses would not touch it even though it was beautiful |
|
| |
|
Elite Veteran
Posts: 883
Location: Southern Indiana | We used to always be able to get Timothy hay and it was the best grass hay. The horses ate it almost as well as alfalfa. The guy planted wheat and was no longer going to grow the Timothy, so we went to orchard grass. It's still really good hay, just not as good as the Timothy. Heck get some of both. It doesn't hurt to have some variety. Either way you can't go wrong when you feed it with some alfalfa. |
|
| |
|
Elite Veteran
Posts: 1131
| We had a load of timothy given to us, and my stubborn old gelding won't touch it. We even tried mixing it with alfalfa (which is what we feed everyone else because yay straight alfalfa energy. haha), and he actually picked out the pieces of alfalfa and left the timothy.... he used it as bedding more than he ate it. lol |
|
| |
|
 I Love the Oldies
Posts: 3767
Location: Central Washington | RacingQH - 2016-02-10 9:31 AM Orchard grass all the way! I will say, I am feeding Timothy and alfalfa right now. But ONLY because I get the Timothy for FREE. (Broken big bales from friends that grow and sell export Timothy.) If I had to pay for it, I would NEVER feed Timothy! (No matter how good the Timothy is, most horses only eat it if they HAVE to.)
Agree! We live 30 min south of Ellensburg (seems like the Timothy capital of the world) and I use to work for a hay exporter there. I would get some Timothy kick outs once in a while when the good ones were available....anyway, my horses hated it and they never looked good on it. So never again. We only feed orchard grass and alfalfa.
Not to mention you will pay 3-4 dollars more a bale for timothy.
|
|
| |
|
 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1078
Location: Salem Ky | I've never had a horse that actually liked timothy. They will use it as bedding. My favorite hay is Alf/Orchard Grass mix. |
|
| |
Folks on-line