Anyone use a haybar?

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FarriersFriend

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If so what do you think? are they any good. I can't face another winter with haynets (don't like the things anyway) so I'm considering the haybar.

Any thoughts-good or bad are welcome,many thanks :o
 
i like mine, Chico eats well from it and makes little mess. So much easier than haynets, i havent found any negatives with mine yet.

I have an eezhay in pretty purple colour! When i ordered it i couldnt decide what colour i wanted so asked them to surprise me :D
 
We have 4- two have been broken by naughty horses :rolleyes: But if the horse doesn't insist on climbing in them they are v easy and do seem to work well :)
 
Horse at my old yard refused to eat out of a net and started to drop condition, so his owner bought him a haybar and every night he just finished everything off.
He stopped coughing as much too, the dust all seemed to drop to the bottom, and eating down seemed to help him tenfold.
 
Easy during the winter especially when not having to fill loads of nets. Fits a lot more in than you think. I ve emptied nets into it thinking that ll fill it up but it hasnt touched it :P

Horsey thinks its great especially when she goes digging for the best hay :D

Only problems i ve found is that i need it higher off the ground than they say to get the dust out easily and if all the haylage isnt eaten daily and i just top up i need to check that its not going mouldy underneath. It usually ends up i clean it out once a week over winter and twice over summer.
 
I have one, so much easier than haynets and more natural for your horse to eat from. mine is a tad wonky now after horse decided it was perfect for scratching his bum on and ripped one side out of the wall lol.
 
Two words - LOVE THEM!!!!

It saves so much time, especially in the winter when you need all the time you can get of daylight. Only downside is that my horse likes to take his hay out sometimes when he's bored - but I suppose it also acts like a boredom breaker :)
 
I have used them in the past and my horse was a tad messy on them. We ended up with more hay on the floor once he threw it about when he went digging with his head and then used the hay on the floor as a pillow to sleep on. Might have a pic somewhere of him with his head at the bottom of the haybar and the hay on top.
I would say it depends on the horse. if the horse is clean and tidy then I think they are a great idea. If the horse is a messy one then they can be a nightmare. So its all dependant on the horse.
 
We have had them for years, they work very well for us. We don;t use haynets. The haybars are good for all but one, who empties the haylage out onto the floor. I often think that I should just put the haylage on the floor for her, but she enjoys emptying the haybar out :D
 
My messy mare just stuck her head in and flung the entire contents on the floor so it became an expensive rug rack for a while. YO's husband built several, they are wider and lower and work really well, messy mare doesn't chuck haylage out! Proper haybar was donated to YO's mare who eats beautifully out of it! Two more on the yard have them and love them!

I bought a huge laundry bag for filling the haybar, saves a lot of time and spillage and is easy to weigh!
 
Had them at my old yard and whilst my personal opinion is that they are a more natural alternative to nets I think they're expensive for what they are. Some of the horses used to be just fed hay from the floor (just had a clean, bedding-free corner that it went in) before the haybars were installed and I think the idea of putting the haybars in for these horses was in the hope of stopping some of them draggin hay all over their bed. Can't say that it worked! The horses that were determined they were going to make a mess would just drag all of the hay out of the haybar and then spread it all over their bed, so the end result was essentially the same and the ones who would eat nice and quietly and properly without feeling the need to drag hay all over were the ones who had been doing this in the first place. I guess they do perhaps give something by which you can gauge how much hay you are giving and they maybe do keep the stable slightly tidier than just feeding on the floor in most cases. They are quite difficult to clean and get all the hay seeds etc out of though (& god help you if your horse decides to poo in it, yes this did happen on a few occasions!). Personally I wouldn't buy one out of my own money as I don't really see enough advantages over just feeding hay from the floor to justify it. Maybe I am missing the point?
 
Funnily enough, was thinking about this the other day! Am tempted to get my beast one as I do think it's more natural for them to eat from the floor than the haynet, but he's on shavings so he mixes it all around in the bedding, making it harder to find! There are a couple of horses on the yard with haybars, and they do look like a nice idea to help reduce waste. xx
 
I hate using haynets, takes SO long faffing around filling and hanging them, and I dont think they are good for the horses.
Two of mine are tidy eaters so have hay loose on the floor, the two horses would throw the hay in their beds, waste it and make a right old mess, so I bought two haybars and they are ...... FANTASTIC. :D

Horses love them, no mess, no frustration tugging at a haynet and building up muscle in the wrong place, no coughing etc, well worth the money.
 
My mare loves hers. She's a messy troll though and chucks it out and poo's on it... So to stop wastage I have a tie ring on the back wall just above the height of the bar and tie a net short IN the hay bar.. She's still eating in the natural position, her hay lasts longers (shes a chunky cob on a measured amount) and stops her chucking it out and pooing on it. Works for us and I wouldn't be without it :D
 
My mare is very messy with her haylage so I was thinking of getting her one.

She likes to stand near the door though so I was thinking of using a dust bin and then tying it to the bars of her stable with rope to keep it in place. It could be near the door then.

If I have something in the corner, like a hay bar, she just paces from the corner, back to the door and back again!

I don’t know if it’ll work or not though!?
 
We have haybars at my yard, but I still need to use a haynet for my toad of a youngster, as he drags the hay out, trails it around his bed, then uses it for a toilet. Then gives me evils when I turn up in the afternoon because he's ran out of hay. Dumbass!

My TB drags all his hay out too, but he tends not to trash it, so I let him :rolleyes:.
 
All the boxes on my yard have them and not had any problems, really easy to use. Just make sure you leave a little bit of clearance at the bottom when you fix it to the walls to make it easier to sweep out.
 
Keeping them clean is easy!! My top tip is to put a rubber feed bucket in the bottom. The rubber settles into a triangle shape. Just grab the handles, empty and put back in - easy! I feed soaked hay and it holds all the water if I haven't had time to let the hay drain for long and catches all the seeds.

My boy is very messy in the stable, he simply cannot poo in the same spot twice but he eats the hay from the haybar very nicely and not a scrap is wasted. He used to empty it but got bored with that game.
 
I have one and love it but I do think they are expensive for what they are... but got fed up of wating for the OH to make me one.

My mare was always fed on the floor which was a bit messy. She now keeps the hay in the har bar most of the time but sometimes still chucks the hay all over the place if it's not quite to her liking.

I still use nets for the my old fatty though as he's on restricted hay so I try to slow him down a bit.
 
Greenleaves said:
Easy during the winter especially when not having to fill loads of nets. Fits a lot more in than you think. I ve emptied nets into it thinking that ll fill it up but it hasnt touched it :P

Horsey thinks its great especially when she goes digging for the best hay :D

Only problems i ve found is that i need it higher off the ground than they say to get the dust out easily and if all the haylage isnt eaten daily and i just top up i need to check that its not going mouldy underneath. It usually ends up i clean it out once a week over winter and twice over summer.
Click to expand...

use a rubber bucket (the type that are made from recycled tyres with handle each side) drop on in - when the dust and bits collect at bottom you just reach in pull it out empty and drop back in!
 
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