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Benefits of using feetfirstTM hay

Benefits

Choosing feetfirst hay means you are feeding hay made with the health and welfare of horses and ponies as the number one priority.

The benefits of choosing feetfirst hay are:

  • Low sugar and starch without soaking
  • Fully analysed and quality controlled
  • Correct nutritional profile for horses and ponies
  • Made from a mixture of grasses increasing the diversity of the diet
  • Slower chewing rates have been observed so they are truly trickle feeding
  • Highly palatable so they enjoy their food and are more content
  • Removes variability and uncertainty from the most important component of the equine diet
  • Simplifies day to day management.
  • Provides a consistent basis for the management of complex conditions that can show seasonal variation in presentation.

Simplicity

Simple is best

Fed with a recommended supplement, feetfirst hay is all that many horses and ponies will need, even when in moderate work. It can be fed dry or the energy content can be reduced by soaking.

Keep feeding simple. Horse and ponies are designed to eat grass. Feeding feetfirst hay gives them the food that nature intended them to eat.

Reliability

Feetfirst hay is grown from an exclusive grass seed mix produced only for us.

All feetfirst hay is below 10% combined sugar and starch. Each batch undergoes full nutritional and mineral analysis and is identified with a lot number that is recorded on every customer invoice. That means you can trust that the hay you feed is as consistent as possible, making it easy for you to manage your horse’s diet.

Flexibility

The low level of sugar and starch in feetfirst hay allows you to feed an entirely natural forage based diet without the need for soaking yet regulate calorie intake according to workload.

 

Management of Sugar and Starch Intake:

Where a low sugar and starch diet is advisable, feetfirst hay is the ideal forage as hay has been shown to produce a lower insulin response than haylage (McGowan 2018). It is also more cost effective than small bag haylage, easier to store and has a higher pH. It can be fed dry, eliminating the need for soaking and draining heavy haynets.

 

 

High Fibre Diet:

Feetfirst hay is a great source of high quality digestible fibre for the management of ulcers, hind gut issues, good doers and barefoot. The low level of sugar and starch allows high inclusion rates of forage.

Feeding feetfirst hay puts you in control of your horse or pony's sugar, starch and energy intake yet maintain essential fibre intake.

 

Accelerating Weight Loss:

Weight reduction can be accelerated by soaking feetfirst hay to reduce the Water Soluble Carbohydrate (WSC) fraction. This will reduce your horse or pony's calorie intake yet maintain essential fibre intake.

Once your horse or pony has reached their ideal weight, you can increase the energy content of the diet again by reducing or eliminating soaking.

On days off or when there is a surge on grass growth, you can temporarily re-introduce soaking again to control weight.

Feetfirst hay is very palatable so it is advisable to monitor intake. Weighing the daily ration of dry hay will help with weight control. Regular use of a weigh tape will help you monitor progress.