What to look for when buying quality horse hay

I bought hay for the first time in my life yesterday.  I know what your thinking....how is that possible.  Well my parents have always had a farm and I've never had to get hay anywhere besides the barn.  This last year my parents sold the farm which left me to look for hay on my own.

I've never had to think about what it takes to find good quality hay.  I started looking at the feed store and realized I would need to win the lottery to buy hay from them on a on going bases.  I started looking on Craiglist and found about a million ads for "Quality Horse Hay".  What did that mean.

I had reached another point in my lack of knowledge concerning something horse related.  So what do I always do, that's right research it.  I found an article explaining everything related to picking quality hay for your horses.  The article located at horsetalk.co.nz is titles Horse hay: how to identify the good stuff by Neil Clarkson.

I always understood looking for mold.  Mold and horses a huge no no! But I never thought about looking for lots of leaves.  It makes perfect sense.  Indie hates it when his hay has lots of stems.  I also didn't know  hay should be baled when the moisture content is around 15 to 17 per cent and if hay sits out in the sun to long it loses it's vitamin A.  There is so much more but I'll leave that for you to discover we you read it.  Here's a link to the article:
http://horsetalk.co.nz/2012/11/04/horse-hay-how-to-identify-the-good-stuff/#axzz2XkNdJ06v

I feel very confident with the hay I purchased.  Indie's not so sure about it.  He stuck his nose in the feeder and then looked back at me like, "What is this?" He's so spoiled.  I know he'll get use to the change and am so grateful I was able to find a farmer who has enough for the entire year so we didn't have to change hay on him again.


A little hay hauling humor!

 

Horse behaviors and what they mean

There have been so many times I have wished God gave me the ability to talk horse.  What I wouldn't give to just know what Indie is thinking.  Could you imagine what a team we could make with our horses if we understood them. 

I have been riding for over 25+ years and I can honestly say I learn something new every day when it comes to horses.  For example just recently I learned that when Indie pins his ears he isn't necessarily mad, he might just be listening to me.  Wish I would have known that years ago when I thought my horses was just being naughty.

After learning about the pinned ears I started doing some more research on Indie's behaviors.  I found an awesome website that gives you the inside scoop on horse behaviors http://www.esc.rutgers.edu/publications/general/fs525.htm.  The article written by Carey A. Williams, Ph.D. covers everything from the 10 natural horse trait to body signals your horse can display and what they typically mean.  Even if your a professional in the horse world I believe there is something for everyone to learn from this article.