Grinding Hay in Horse Feed

Feeding horses can be much more difficult than it sounds. Because the horse's digestive tract is so sensitive and it cannot regurgitate, the feed that a horse consumes must be of good quality and in the proper amounts, or you can have a case of colic or founder on your hands. Because the horse is meant to be primarily a forage feeder, hay is of utmost importance in maintaining good gut health.

Things You'll Need

  • Large knife or machete
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Select good quality hay. It needs to be thin-stemmed and dry, but not brittle. It must not be dusty or moldy. Lay handfuls on the ground and use your knife or machete to chop the hay into finger length pieces.

    • 2

      Pick up the hay, shake out the loose dirt and place handfuls into a large feed tub. Grind or crush the hay with a large mallet or other heavy, blunt object, then add some feed and mix by hand.

    • 3

      Repeat these steps until you have a good mixture of the desired amount of chopped and ground hay with a normal feeding. Add a handful of water as needed to keep the mix from getting too dusty and encourage the feed and hay to stick together.

    • 4

      Feed the hay and grain mixture to your horse and watch to make sure he is consuming it without being too picky or trying to eat the grain away from the hay. It may be necessary to get an old fashioned meat grinder and grind the hay into chaff before adding it to the horse feed.

    • 5

      Contact a local feed mill to see if you can have them grind your hay for you. This can be helpful if you have to grind large amounts of hay, as doing this by hand can be quite time consuming and labor intensive.