Other than fresh water, good quality forage is very important to your horses health. There are basically two kinds of hay, grass and legume, each having their own qualities. Legume hay is richer in calcium, protein, and vitamins D and A, but are low in phosphorus.

So what are the different kinds of grass hay? there are many different kinds of grass hay including prairie grass, Bermuda grass, timothy, orchard grass, Kentucky blue grass and brome grass. The different kinds of legume hay are alfalfa and clover.

For healthy adult horses grass hay provides the proper nutrients and necessary roughage to meet the basic nutritional needs, but due to their being higher in calcium, vitamin A and energy, legume hay is best fed to young, growing, lactating and performance horses.

The average 1000 pound horse will eat approximately 10 pounds of hay each day and for young and growing horses dietary supplementation may be necessary because of higher nutritional needs.

When buying hay, try to get hay that was cut the same year you are purchasing it in to help assure more nutritional value. The hay should not feel excessively heavy, this could indicate moisture and possibly mold. Your hay should contain very little weed content, have no trash or debris, be fine stemmed and be green, leafy and soft to the touch.

Hay which has a lot of dust, contains mold or mildew or has a musty odor and is wet must be avoided, this could make your horse very ill and in the worse case can even cause death , on the other hand, slight discoloration on the outside should not cause you worry as long as the inside looks and smells fresh.