Horse Hay: How to Choose, Store, and Feed for Optimal Equine Health
Forage is the foundation of every horse's diet, and hay is the backbone of that forage for most horses, for most of the year. Get your hay selection right and you'll have a horse that holds weight well, digests efficiently, and stays healthy through every season. Get it wrong and you'll be fighting a losing battle with condition, digestive upset, or metabolic issues regardless of how much grain you're adding.
Understanding Hay Types
Horse hay broadly divides into two categories: grass hays and legume hays.
Grass hays — timothy, orchard grass, brome, bermuda grass — are the most versatile and appropriate for the majority of horses. They're lower in protein and calories than legumes, which makes them ideal for easy keepers, horses in light work, and any animal prone to weight gain or metabolic conditions like insulin resistance or Cushing's disease.
Legume hays — primarily alfalfa — are calorie-dense, high in protein and calcium, and excellent for horses with elevated nutritional demands: growing youngsters, broodmares in late pregnancy or lactation, horses in hard work, and underweight horses that need to gain condition. Pure alfalfa is too rich for many mature horses in light work, but mixing it 50/50 with grass hay is a practical way to boost the energy content of a ration without overfeeding.
What to Look for When Buying Horse Hay
Good horse hay should smell fresh and faintly sweet — never musty, moldy, or dusty. Color should be green to golden; brown hay has been rained on or stored poorly and has lost much of its nutritional value. Check for thistle, milkweed, and other weeds, especially when buying from a new source. Stemmy hay cut past its peak of maturity is less digestible and less palatable.
The best way to truly know what you're feeding is a hay analysis. A forage analysis from your local extension office or a commercial lab costs very little and tells you exactly the protein, energy, and mineral content of your hay — so you can balance the rest of the ration accurately rather than guessing.
How Much Hay Does a Horse Need?
A general guideline is 1.5–2% of body weight in hay per day. For a 1,000-pound horse, that's 15–20 pounds daily. Horses with access to good pasture may need less; horses in hard work or in poor condition may need more. Don't restrict hay below 1.5% of body weight for most horses — inadequate forage intake is a significant risk factor for colic and gastric ulcers.
Storing Hay Properly
Store hay off the ground on pallets or a concrete slab to prevent moisture absorption from below. Keep it dry and covered — a hay shed or a well-secured tarp works. Rotate your stock so the oldest hay is fed first, and don't stack new hay directly against old hay until you've confirmed the old supply is clean and mold-free.
Feeding Tips
Feed hay at ground level whenever possible — it's the natural grazing position and encourages proper chewing and digestion. For horses prone to respiratory issues, soaking hay for 20–30 minutes before feeding dramatically reduces dust and spore content. Use slow-feeder hay nets to extend eating time and reduce boredom for horses on limited turnout; they more closely mimic natural grazing behavior and reduce the risk of digestive upset from eating too quickly.
Browse our full selection in our horse hay and forage collection, and explore all of our equine care supplies at Walnut Creek horses.
