Feeding hay in the stable.

[sarah]

Hi everyone, can I ask how those of you who stable your horses feed them their hay?

I have always preferred to feed it loose from the ground as it seems a much more natural way for them to feed, as well as being much quicker for me than making up hay nets.

But, and its turning into quite a BIG BUT - my daughter's new horse Splodge makes the most incredible mess and wastes so much of his haylage when I do this.
When he first came I tried him with it on the ground, but it didn't work, so I used nets, which is what he was used to anyway, but last night I was watching him eating, and it looked so uncomfortable and un natural trying to yank bits of hay out through the small holes, and it struck me that the tension going from his poll, down his neck and into his back from a prolonged and quite violent action surely cant be good for him. So, I tipped all the haylage out on the floor.
This morning, it has literally taken me hours to muck out his stable, as he had dragged and trampled tons of haylage deep into his shavings bed, I ended up throwing away so much, and a lot of his bed too. It was also by then very heavy to fork up, which plays havoc with my joints.

I have heard about Haybars where they pull it out of the top, but many horses just nudge it all out with their noses, and then its all over the floor anyway!
There is also a similar corner feeding unit, but it has bars and a lid, so they cant nudge it out, but both products are quite expensive, and some people have found them dangerous with horses pawing at them and hurting themselves.

So, any thoughts, suggestions, feedback etc?

[em]

Hi sarah

Two ideas... I have always made my own corner hay boxes.... get a piece of 2x2 rough sawn wood and cut it to the length you require... ie however deep you want your hay corner , that is the height of your two pieces of 2x2... mine are usually 3ft...

Fix these batons .. one on each wall approx 2.5 to 3ft from the actual corner where the two walls meet

You then get a length of 4x 1 planking and fix lenghths of this to the two batons.. thus making the front of your hay box ... the walls make the other two sides ... you end up with a triangular section that makes your hay box.. if you hinge the bottom plank you can then open it to sweep out the bottom of your box also if you get some galvanized tin you can bend this over the top of your hay box to stop them chewing the edge... the hay is quite deep so they cant push the hay out into the stable..

Idea two is if you ask Avril she has large plastic containers fixed to the corners of her stables they are deep too possibly 3-4ft... i am not sure where they came from but lotties pony took to it staight away..

Hope this helps and honestly making your own corner box is a doddle... x x x

[huntingcharliehunt]

I too loathe filling and tying up haynets, and don't like to see horses bending their necks upwards to eat. I use hay hutches which can be used outside and inside and they work well for me. When they cann't go out, which to be honest is most of the winter as I don't have enough grazing to allow it to get poached, they "free range" in the yard, and I find the hay hutches work well because you can fill them right up, can last for 2-3 days, and the lid prevents the hay getting wet. At night they go into the stables where I often take the lids off and they then must become like Avril's plastic containers!
I use the medium size, and if anyone is interested just type "hay hutch" into the search engine. Be warned, they are expensive, but for me (and I have tried most ways) they have been worth it.

[em]

I have looked at those hay hutches and thought they looked fantastic.. i also like the fact that you can put a haynet inside the hutch if your horse gorges on his hay..

really gald to get a review on them .. now just to save the pennies!

Em x x

[avril]

We've had similar problems but on a bigger scale. In the past we've tried the usual haynets, hay racks, loose on the ground, and homemade alternatives, none of which were satisfactory. We found a supplier who shipped us a pallet of plastic water barrels with the lids removed. We were careful to make sure they only contained lime juice previously. We fixed these into the corner of the boxes, and hey presto, a great result. For feeding outside we bought round tomb stone feeders from MCVeigh Parker. They are suitable for horses as they can't get their heads stuck. Quite costly at around £350 each, but well worth the investment if you have three or more horses and they last forever.

[chattysmum]

A local farmer gave me one of those large wooden apple crates which I put in the field in the winter - brilliant. Not sure about in a stable though

[Joy]

Hi everyone,
I use a hay bar for the stable which works really well as long as you break up hay or haylage wadges really well!!!

For the field we have tried hay hutches which our one horse got her foot stuck in and luckily as she is a nice calm horse I was able to extract it but it took a few minutes- heaven knows what would have happened to her if she had panicked or I was not in the field when it happened!!! Hence we got rid of hay hutches and got a galvanised hay feeder- this was ok but not ideal as one horse is a bit bossy and was hogging it!!!!

anyway we sold the galvanised one and my husaband built 2 hay feeders which are wooden and square and about 3 feet high with mesh in bottom to let dust etc fall through- these are brilliant!!!!

It only took him a few hours to make the two and cost about £80.00 to make the 2 feeders!!!

Hope this helps!

Kind regards
Joy

[sarah]

Thank you all for your replies and suggestions, I will consider all options, and do some research.

Meanwhile, mutterings will be heard from my hay barn, as I struggle to fill nets, only to find the drawstring has become buried and I now cant pull the top tight, so I have to tip all the hay out and start again ......