Often, pleasure horses are fed all the hay they will eat daily. This is not undesirable with idle pleasure horses, as long as the hay meets their nutritional needs, does not cause digestive problems or makes the horse too fat. Horses performing routinely in winter should have restricted hay intake the same as other times of the year. Hays need to be of at least average or better quality for mature, idle pleasure horses. As hay grows, it becomes more mature, resulting is larger stems and less nutritional value.
Leaves are more nutritious than stems.
Horses like soft hays with finer leaves and stems. They prefer hays that are easier to chew, not abrasive to their mouths and higher-quality hays harvested earlier in the growing season. Never feed moldy feeds to horses. Rain-damaged and moldy alfalfa hay has less protein than undamaged hay. Weanlings fed rain-damaged and moldy alfalfa gained less weight and had less wither height gain than those fed undamaged hay.