What the Hay?

Kentucky Equine Research’s selection of products that will be available on the venue involves a combination of meeting the horses’ needs, fulfilling the various federations’ requests, and adhering to regulations imposed by the host country.

Eighty-eight tons of timothy were used at the World Equestrian Games in 2010 compared to around 10 tons of alfalfa hay and smaller quantities of chaff and haylage. European teams preferred timothy as their primary forage, although horses from 27 federations also consumed haylage. Surprisingly, alfalfa was used by horses from 40 different countries.

In Tryon, we’ll be offering alfalfa, orchardgrass, and first- and second-cutting timothy hays. Teams also had the option to pre-order haylage and chaff. For ease of shipping and storage, we offer hay in the form of compressed bales. These bales may be pint-sized, but there’s a lot of hay packed in there–around 50 lb to be precise.

We visited the venue this week to see progress on our office and storage spaces, as well as routes to get the delivery trucks where they need to be. We were also introduced to our delivery vehicles for the event. These trusty steeds will be working overtime to get deliveries out to the stable areas.