Just in case you have not noticed our wonderful purple website has had a bit of an overhaul! We decided that the home page needed to be a bit more interesting and informative; so, after much discussion and furious typing we have got the lovely, brand new, shiny homepage up and running just in time for Christmas!

Here you should be able to find out lots about Silvermoor Haylage, what we have been up to recently, Silvermoor Haylage stockists and also what our riders have been doing over the competition season, or at the moment how they are managing to cope with the lovely festive weather we are having!

In case anyone was wondering who it is dressed in purple on the lovely Showjumper taking pride of place as the main photo, it is the fabulous Vicky Tulloch on Solligette from Darlington.  Vicky has recently started to use Silvermoor Recreation Haylage and just happens to have the perfect coloured show jacket!

With a bit of luck we should have a blog from Vicky too, which I’m sure will be more interesting than the one I do! I think zooming around the country with a wagon full of gorgeous and very talented BSJA horses might be better than zooming around with a car full of Haylage, or at the moment it is full of chocolates and presents for retailers!

Have a look at the new page at www.silvermoor.com and see what you think, any suggestions are more than welcome and if you have a Silvermoor story you might find your horse taking pride of place on the homepage too!

 Just in case anyone was wondering we have a great way of getting Silvermoor Haylage out to retailers; take a look at the delivery vehical we have been using ! 

        We have a lovely photo of our luck winner of 10 bales of Recreation from Blair Horse Trials; Daisy Ussher was a competitor in the CCI* with her gorgeous little horse (actually he’s a pony as he is only 14.1hh on tiptoes!) Little Mickey Finn, they finished in 21st place! A very good score from their first attempt especially when they were competing against the biggest names in British Eventing, Caroline Powell, Nicola Wilson and Oliver Townend were all there to name only a few!

Mickey already has his eye on the Haylage!

       When we delivered their Silvermoor Recreation Haylage it turns out her mum Sara Ussher is a horse behaviourist, which would explain Mickey’s impeccable manners, and she is incredibly interesting, not to mention useful, to talk to about any sort of phobias and habits that horses have. It is defiantly worth taking a look on their site www.saraussher.co.uk as the testimonials really show the difference that Sarah’s training can make, in fact I think my two and I might need a lesson or ten!

       I’m sure that they will love the Silvermoor Recreation Haylage, Daisy was so thrilled to receive it as when she had passed the Silvermoor stand at Blair Horse Trials the smell had enticed her in and the bit she took for Mickey as a sample was very quickly munched, so receiving 10 bales of Recreation for free was the icing on the cake!   We hope to see Daisy at Blair Castle Horse Trials 2011, possibly even in the CCI**?!

       If you would like the chance to win 10 bales of Silvermoor Recreation Haylage, like Daisy did, then visit the website at www.silvermoor.com and click on the big star for your chance!    

       Although the snow is very pretty and good fun I hope you are all managing and staying safe, it’s a bit interesting here with the A1 north of Morpeth getting very wintery but the boys are working away in the shed getting loads and loads of Silvermoor bagged and ready to go out to your retailers so do not worry we will not run short!

       As usual if you would like some Silvermoor Recreation Haylage or Silvermoor Active Haylage into your retailer please just ask as we are always happy to take on more outlets as we have lots of the best quality Haylage for horses for sale!

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Hay is the traditional “feed everything” answer to what to give your horse when he’s stabled over winter.  Hay is also commonly used as a forage replacer for horses and ponies prone to or suffering from laminitis, it is easy to use can be fed ad-lib and most horses eat it happily.  However it’s not always the case that hay is right for you or your horse.   

Did you know the studies recently published by Dengie feeds shows that there are more sugars in hay than in Haylage?? This means that haylage would be more suited to laminitic horses and ponies as it is the sugars reaching the hind gut which are one cause of laminitis in horses.

This difference in sugar content is due to the haylage being fermented, this is a natural process which involves naturally occurring bacteria turning the sugars in the grass into acid and so preserving the grass.  This therefore uses up some of the sugars. 

Haylage has another advantage over hay, it is dust free.  Due to the higher moisture content in haylage compared to hay any dust particles on the grass become so full of moisture they cannot become airborne and it is only when they are airborne that they will be able to cause respiratory problems for both horses and their owners!  Many of us regularly come out of the feed room sneezing after filling nets with what looks like perfectly good hay.  Just think what this is then doing to your horse who has his nose in the hay to eat it, no wonder so many get coughs and sniffles over winter.

Haylage has more of the nutrients found in the growing grass available to the horse than hay, which means that you can often cut down on your hard feed ration, not only does this save you money but it is also the more natural way to feed; horses evolved to eat a high fibre low protein and sugar diet, little and often rather than having the bulk of their nutrients in two large meals a day with not much in between. 

Feeding in a natural way will help to avoid stereotypical behaviours which develop through stress and also gastric problems such as ulcers which can be a result of not enough fibre in the horses diet allowing the stomach to become too acidic and so cause problems.

So when you are looking around your feed store this winter just think about the most natural way to feed your horse, start with their forage – could Silvermoor Recreation Haylage make up the main energy supply for your horse?  If your horse is only in light to medium work then the answer is probably yes! (to put it in perspective my 15.3hh Mare is hunted once a week on Saturday and schooled or jumped on the Sunday and only gets Silvermoor Recreation and a feed balancer with chaff to make sure she chews, twice a day! And she is still a bit chubby, bless her) this way of feeding is also very useful if your horse tends to be a bit excitable in the winter with lots of time inside and not enough time to ride.

We are still looking for more stockists for Silvermoor Haylage so if your local supplier does not stock us, why not?!

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Haylage shortage???

We have been hearing about the ‘forage crisis’ a lot in the farming and equine press, in fact it’s a topic that seems to pop up everywhere! The very dry spring with the hot weather that followed meant that the grass really struggled across many parts of the country, especially those areas which are fairly dry anyway. In some parts a second cut was not even possible! That must be so scary for horse owners, the prospect of having nothing to feed my horses would give me sleepless nights, and I’m sure it would most people.

Be it by luck, good judgement or a combination of the two (I’m sure Ralph and the boys would insist it is the good farming technique) Silvermoor Farm has actually produced more Haylage for horses this year than ever! This means that we are actually out and about looking for new retailers all across the country, we are always open to suggestions about where to visit so any retailers out there who are struggling to get Haylage to sell this winter, give us a call we have plenty of Haylage for sale and of course being Silvermoor Haylage it is suitable for native breeds, hunters and pleasure horses!

I hope you all have a lovely time over bonfire night, don’t forget this weekend to check for hedgehogs under your bonfire and to keep your horses in and calm with all the fireworks, a big net of Silvermoor should help take their minds off the noise!

Pppppssssssstttttttt, come a bit closer, I’ll let you in on a bit of a secret, we haven’t even started advertising it yet…We are branching out with Small Holder Supplies, anyone with a few sheep, goats, cows, pigs, llamas, alpacas, camels??, watch this space for more information on how to get hold of small bagged silage, straw and haylage for livestock. Ultra convenient being able to store your straw outside and carry 25kg bags of silage for you sheep/goats/cattle. If you would like some more info just email info@silvermoor.com and we will let you know how you can get your forage stocks for winter!

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