Guest blog Tophooi: What is really good hay?

If you ask horse owners what the biggest challenge in horse keeping is, I think it is finding good quality hay. Not too dusty, not too rich, the right structure that suits your horse and tasty for horses. Because what is really good hay?

21 January '25 - 5 min reading time

Who is Tophooi?

Tophooi actually came about by chance. We (Jurjen & Esther) have a paddock paradise in Drenthe where we house our own horses, but also boarding horses. All different breeds, different sizes and different needs. But we do want to offer the possibility of unlimited feeding, which presented challenges! We have always purchased the hay through various forage traders, but there was always something. Analyses that were incorrect, mega dusty, mold, sand, much too high in sugar or according to the horses completely inedible. And if we had a nice batch, the next one was a disaster. Because Jurjen is a driver and is active in the transport sector, the idea came to get hay in France ourselves. The Dutch hay was a complete disaster and of too poor quality for our horses. No sooner said than done. And this worked out so well that we continued to get hay from France and Germany. Of course, something like this does not remain quiet in the area, which is why there was an increasing demand for us to also sell hay. This has slowly grown into an industry where we have weekly loads of hay from Germany and France for delivery throughout the Netherlands and Belgium. In addition, hay can be collected from us by people in the area.

But what is good hay?

Good is of course, a broad concept, but we mainly look at the quality of the hay. We always look for unpacked hay in large bales, since we feed that on our paddock paradise. In addition, we want hay that is low in sugar, always below 8% and that is long and coarse in structure. Horses really have to chew on it, then they benefit a lot from all the fibers and because it is so low in sugar, they can also eat unlimited amounts of it. We do not mind a little dust, as long as it is not mold. But most dust comes from pollen or sand that has gotten into it when shaking the grass. We do not accept bales with mold in them and will therefore not sell them.

Hay is hay and not haylage/silage

The question is often asked whether we also have packaged haylage or silage. But no, we don't. Hay is hay and therefore not haylage or silage. Horses do much better in terms of digestion on unpackaged hay. Haylage may be easier to store, but it has many negative effects on the intestinal tract of horses. Horses suffer from manure water or are completely bloated, are often listless, which means that more concentrated feed has to be fed and they acidify more quickly. At Tophooi we therefore only have unpackaged hay, with which we can support the health of the horses. And we have many customers who have switched from packaged to unpackaged and, for example, have purchased a trailer and come to collect a bale every week/2 weeks and cover it well with a tarpaulin. With a little creativity you can go a long way!

My horse won't eat your hay!

A statement we hear regularly and secretly we always have to laugh a little about it. Our hay is low in sugar, very structured and horses really have to work on it. Fantastic actually! But many horses switch from haylage/silage to our hay and that is quite a change. The old hay/haylage is high in sugar and haylage is generally a bit tastier due to the acidification process. Horses therefore have to learn to eat the new hay as it is no longer sweet and sometimes this can take a while. But if they are hungry, they will really eat it! Many of our horses are spoiled.

Consistent quality is also important

What we “used to” encounter was that there was no consistent quality in the batches. From super quality to big crap within a few deliveries. And that had many negative effects on the horses. Bad manure, wet manure, colic, everything was discussed because of this. We therefore insist to ourselves that the horses get a consistent quality of hay, we simply do not accept bad quality. By making good agreements with our relations in France/Germany, we also get super quality hay delivered. We do not squeeze the farmers there, but give them a fair price and in return we get a fair product from them. This means that our hay may not be the cheapest, but it is always of good quality!

So what should you pay attention to?

Therefore, pay attention to the following things when you go looking for hay:

• What is the structure? Does it suit your horse? For dental problems you usually prefer softer hay, but for frugal breeds or with unlimited feeding you often prefer a coarse structure.

• What does the analysis say? Hay that is low in sugar is actually preferred for all types of horses. For older horses or horses that lose weight easily, it is nice if the protein percentage is slightly higher. But this is currently very difficult to find and proteins are relatively easy to add to other feed.

• What does it smell like? Sometimes hay smells extremely nice, but horses turn their noses up at it. There is a good chance that it contains sweet grass, which we as humans find delicious, but horses find less tasty. Hay should not smell musty in any case, it should smell fresh.

• How dusty is it? Dust does not automatically mean mold and it does not automatically mean that horses will cough from it. There is dust and then there is dust. Dust that is caused by a little bit of sand in it or by pollen is no problem for horses. These are not causes of coughing. Mold is a reason for coughing.

  
  

All information in this article is sourced from https://askheltie.com/en/articles/heltiehorse/guest-blog-tophooi-what-is-truly-good-hay