The Catch in the Rye

Since their arrival Tonka and Raven have been eating hay that is a mix of orchard grass, tall fescue and Italian rye grass. The rye was quite mature when the hay was cut and the horses tend to avoid its distinctively yellow and woody strands. We picked up the last 45 bales from this 2007 cutting a few weeks ago, and Martin suggested that we also take a few bales of straight Italian rye grass from his first cut of 2008. Based on prior performance I doubted that our spoiled brats would eat it, but the hay did have a nice look and smell. We have been mixing it in with their regular fare whenever a bale comes to the surface, and they tend to eat it out of the feeders before they move onto the older stock. I guess rye is more palatable when harvested early?