Oat Straw as "filler" - what do you think?

[Emily+Meg]

During winter our horses are in at night and during the day out in a mud paddock - enough room for a walk trot and canter - despite the mud! and to be out with their friends etc for 12 hours a day.
We give them enough hay so they all keep a really good weight, never had problems with that. Its just that they tend to get bored, and we cant afford to put out ad-lib hay - but we are considering buying massive bales of straw, as filler, to keep them happy and interested.

Has anyone else done this? My yard I work at does this and the horses seem to like the straw!

[alex]

I've often given mine barley straw as a filler, mixed in with the hay, I think you have to be careful that they don't eat too much and get impaction colic, although I think wheat straw is the worst for that. They do like it, but I'm not convinced it helps them slim because of all the heads that get left.

It is impossible to get oat straw round here, no-one grows any.

[Louise]

We used to feed straw on our yard, but I found myself always worrying about colic! We never had any impactions so it wasn't due to bad experience - more paranoia I think!! So I personally wouldn't feed it again, but that's purely an opinion. Through experience I suppose I should say "Yes, it's absolutely fine and we never had any problems with it"!!! Not all our horses used to eat it though - i think they thought it was a bit 'lower class'!! LOL!

[jennyp]

the yard i used to be at did this and milly really used to tuck in and never had a prob with it

[kath]

Oat straw is generally considered the most palatable straw and basically when we feed them chaf/chop thats what they have isnt it. If they will eat it I dont see why not but maybe better to mix the hay and straw together.

[gizzypop]

Its something we've been thinking about doing, the field next to ours has had barley growing in it and they've left some not baled. We're so short on grass because of the lack of rain, we might have to use it to stop them getting bored!!

[pip]

Well, as with all horse feed, you must introduce it very gradually. I would repeat that - introduce very gradually by mixing a bit in with the hay to start in very small quantities. In that awful wet winter I could see my hay supplies going down at an alarming rate, so I filled a haynet with barley straw and kept it permanently in the stable, so my horse could finish her haynet, then if she was stillhungry could pick at the barley straw. (This was after the introducing gradually bit).

I seem to remember that she ate the best part of a Big Bale of barley straw in the end. But my young horse wouldn't touch it! However, I suspect that he wasn't above eating the wheat straw that they were bedded on.
My mare was inclined to weave, so I never left her in the stable with no food. But she wasn't a greedy guts, and simply stopped eating when she was full.
Oat straw is regarded as feed, and it is chopped up oat straw that is in all these chaffs and "Lite" mixtures.

[gem]

I think as above has said really introduce gradually and there should be no problem, mind you I fed adlib hayledge and would far prefer that as a product. Here a bale of straw and hayledge is only slightly difference in price so I would just feed that

[Jen]

I think Oat Straw is the best option, as it has more nutritional value to it, plus you have to be careful that the barley (seeds) don't get in their eyes.

Check out 'Veterinary Notes for Horse Owners' for information on the nutritional value side of things.

Just be warned that I have heard of a yard recently that couldn't understand why their horses were going loopy, until they realised how many oats were still in the straw they had been feeding!

I used to feed my horse Oat straw years ago when times were hard, mixed with hay, but found that he wasted quite a bit, and I also found it hard to come by in the smaller type bales.

[erarab]

We use Bean straw - its kind of dark brown in colour and the horses love it

It has a good feed value too, very good for helping them to keep warm

[varkie]

Many of the yards I've worked at in the past have used it to bulk out feeds for fat horses/ponies with no problems at all.

I rarely use it with my own lot, partly as they're normally living out, but partly because I have found that it does seem to slow the digestion down a bit. Also one of my horses had an impaction colic years ago (one-off) and I would NEVER feed it to her.

[Sutton]

It's great for good doers and I often used it for the shetties. They can live on fresh air if need be. As it is most horses eat some of their straw bedding [if any of them are still on it nowadays] so I wouldn't worry too much about colic.

[wendyihts]

Another thumbs up for oat straw. If you can get organically grown stuff, so much the better. Apparently it's worth checking that the crop wasn't sprayed too close to being harvested. We had lots of oats come up in our field the first year after it was turned to pasture and it made wonderful mixed oat straw/hay for the horses through the winter.