So as I am husband of the year apparently I did buy a archery set for my good lady for Valentine’s Day and yesterday it was put through its paces on horse back, took a bit of persuading her to not have me holding her horse but eventually she did and she stood perfectly, no one injured but the farm cat nearly took one to the head!! 

Katherine Cosper the haylage is basically meadow grass that is cut and partially dried then wrapped in plastic to trap in the moisture but exclude air, it then slowly turns from grass/hay to haylage which is much higher in sugars than normal dried hay 

the grass/hay is normally a mixture of Timothy and rye grass varieties.

Alfalph is not grown in the UK much if at all, staple diet of our horses is grass in spring and summer and hay/haylage in winter 

standard hay is much lower in sugars but dusty so can cause reactions to sensitive horses, one of mine has COPD which hay triggers attacks (she has inhaler!) 

Colic is common in the UK when horses are swapped from outside grazing to stored hay etc and laminitis is also a major issue in spring with sugars in fresh grass along with overgrazing areas 

Katherine Cosper I’m really not aware of downsides to bentonite and it is used widely in the livestock system in Europe.

I feel your pain on the Alfalfa starting to be poor, our Haylage (wrapped hay that ferments) is now at the time of year where it either is mouldy or smells like treacle, the latter the horses adore but it does nothing for the waist line! 

Luckily the days are longer and the ground warming up so the grass is coming through and full of sugars 

The cubes make perfect sense and can be consistent for feeding

Katherine Cosper good question, as far as I am aware it is exactly the same product, we used it as a binder in products we manufactured and also as loose clay granules, it all was mined from the same raw materials and just processed further. 

I never thought about cubes, we just feed chopped Alfalfa for a couple of our warmbloods, can’t feed it to the Gypsy Vanners as it causes major problems with mallanders and sallanders in the feather behind the knees 

Richard Boatwright

What a fantastic update to read, sounds like your doing great and are full of enthusiasm and energy, hats off to you and enjoy taking them out and about 

Jessica Walker Being English and riding English for years I know exactly what you mean on the 1 rein stop, but it is sinking in along with keeping my hands down! 

Wow that’s one hell of a dint in your lid, glad it took the brunt of the force and your relatively unscathed, hope you recover quickly and get back in the saddle easily, no injuries to the horse either I hope 

I will leave Richard Boatwright to answer in full but my take is as he said on the Nachees series,  once Richard has introduced the bridle and snaffle bit he never goes back to a halter to work in, always the bridle so when working the code on a lead rope then it goes through the curb strap and neck ties as realistically it’s the most practical way to tie the lead rope with no pressure on the bit while working or tied up

Lynn Morrison sounds like this has made him turn a corner and fingers crossed it only improves from here and he learns to be able to cope better with pressure situations, it will make a big difference to both of your lives.

I have put 2 of ours with ulcer/girth concerns on the bentonite clay and certainly the older girl is not wanting to bite as much when changing rugs etc, the other I’ve yet to saddle up but might put my big boy pants on and get back on the numpty soon!

in all seriousness I’ll saddle him tomorrow and see then work him in a neck rope and driving ropes for a bit