Does anyone use a Hay Play

I haven't used one but for that price I would use one if my horse was in a starvation paddock but not for the stable purely because my greedy cob has flattened her treat ball and wrecks her bed trying to boot the food out. I think it could be quite frustrating?
 
Mine better or there will be trouble! He loves treat balls, well just food really so hopefully he will. Hes having tiny holed haynets at the minute but thats not a permanent solution as he ends up sore from the force he uses to get at the hay! If you want to sell yours Supertrooper let me know, pretty sure a friend is going to get one
 
I quite fancy a couple of these for mine in the summer, they have amazing grazes but it costs me a fortune to fill them with hay cobs! These would be great to top up with hay and keep them busy, they love their toys. Interested to hear any other reviews on them.
 
I can't see how they would manage to get the hay out the holes are to small, I would imagine most horses would find it quite frustrating, not something I would want to use I don't see the point if they never get to eat anything out of it.
 
I concur. It isn't a toy it is basically a mental torture device* - lets them see and smell the hay, maybe even lick it if ball is very full so stems near top holes, but not actually eat anything! Any kind of short-enough-stemmed-to-actually-come-out forage will just spill out pretty quick but most won't at all.

The idea is nice but in practice can't see it working.

*yeah, yeah, keep clam, figure of speech
 
Pinkvboots said:
I can't see how they would manage to get the hay out the holes are to small, I would imagine most horses would find it quite frustrating, not something I would want to use I don't see the point if they never get to eat anything out of it.
Click to expand...

The idea is they spend time shoving it around but only get a small amount out. It might be more effective with soaked hay blocks/straw chaff or similar. I'll have a look when it gets here.

Unfortunately despite my very best efforts mine cannot have ad lib forage. Even on ad lib 12 hour soaked hay and straw he gained weight. Hes on box rest at the minute and anything that occupies him while dispensing tiny amounts of food seems like its worth a try :)
 
Having looked at the website & seen it says '10 reviews' I decided to look at the reviews only to find there actually aren't any reviews?

I think this is yet another 'equine gadget' that is of little use & a total waste of money. I cannot see how a how a horse would get the hay out of the ball. At around £50 surely horse owners have better & more worth while things to spend their money on!
 
I looked at these for my 'always hungry but puts weight on in the blink of an eye' gelding. I, too, think the horse would get frustrated trying to get the hay out of the ball. I use trickle nets which have been brilliant for slowing his rate of eating down. You can use them on the floor with unshod horses like a hay pillow.
 
I had something similar for a horse on box rest. The idea was to keep said horse occupied. However what actually happened is that the horse a: wrecked his bed chasing it around the box and b: then worked out the best way to get st the treats was to keep bashing the ball...against his stable door. Cue one hacked off YO. This looks like it would be great on poor grazing though. it's a night mare trying to keep a fatty or good doer occupied when they will hood through forage so fast. My old (eventing cob X tb mare) was tricky and when I put her on poor grazing came down with sand colic. You could be annoying and stick several haylage nets up but suspend them around the box by putting twine across corners so the haylage net has nothing to be pushed against? So twine across corners and hang the nets off that. It did slow my mare down...
 
FrankieCob said:
The idea is they spend time shoving it around but only get a small amount out. It might be more effective with soaked hay blocks/straw chaff or similar. I'll have a look when it gets here.
Click to expand...

Agrobs make a hay block that is more loosly constructed than the Equiblox ones you had before, that might work quite well as they'll come apart easily but not toooo easily if that makes sense
 
FrankieCob said:
The idea is they spend time shoving it around but only get a small amount out. It might be more effective with soaked hay blocks/straw chaff or similar. I'll have a look when it gets here.

Unfortunately despite my very best efforts mine cannot have ad lib forage. Even on ad lib 12 hour soaked hay and straw he gained weight. Hes on box rest at the minute and anything that occupies him while dispensing tiny amounts of food seems like its worth a try :)
Click to expand...

I do realise it's difficult when horses are such good doers, I had one that had cushings and ems and couldn't be ridden it was a nightmare, she also wouldn't eat hay soaked for hours, I used to double net her hay to slow her down and that is as extreme as I would go.
 
I am the 'proud' owner of a fat appaloosa who can empty 5kg of double netted hay in less than 30 minutes. To be honest so long as she has a double net in there to fill her tummy I don't mind too much if she spends the rest of her time chasing around a ball for a few mouthfuls. She gave up with her treat ball when it wasn't easy to get the grass nuts out & sadly I think she'd do the same with this.

I've been trying to find out if there is a UK version of hay pillows. We're not allowed haynets in the field but something designed for the field would probably be OK. I've started mixing the evening hay allowance with straw - slowing down one of the horses, but not the one that needs weight watchers!
 
SEL said:
I've been trying to find out if there is a UK version of hay pillows. We're not allowed haynets in the field but something designed for the field would probably be OK
Click to expand...

You can make your own hay pillow. I was too lazy to do it from scratch so bought a Marts net and made one from that. They dont work when its muddy though as they just end up coated in mud
 
WelshD said:
Agrobs make a hay block that is more loosly constructed than the Equiblox ones you had before, that might work quite well as they'll come apart easily but not toooo easily if that makes sense
Click to expand...

He eats the Equiblox ones in about 5 mins so I dont think the Agrobs ones would last a nano second. I was soaking the Equiblox to make a big tub trug of slop mixed with chopped straw, but hes cant even have that at the minute

Pinkvboots said:
I do realise it's difficult when horses are such good doers, I had one that had cushings and ems and couldn't be ridden it was a nightmare, she also wouldn't eat hay soaked for hours, I used to double net her hay to slow her down and that is as extreme as I would go.
Click to expand...

Hes getting it triple netted and he can eat 2 kgs of hay in minutes. Hes being fed tiny amounts up to 10 times a day but it still concerns me that hes stood in with nothing to eat. If he got his hay double netted in one go he would be stood all night with nothing to eat.

SEL said:
I am the 'proud' owner of a fat appaloosa who can empty 5kg of double netted hay in less than 30 minutes. To be honest so long as she has a double net in there to fill her tummy I don't mind too much if she spends the rest of her time chasing around a ball for a few mouthfuls. She gave up with her treat ball when it wasn't easy to get the grass nuts out & sadly I think she'd do the same with this.
Click to expand...

Thats my thoughts on it as well. Hes relentless so I dont think he will give up. I'll have to see how it goes. The intention isnt to frustrate and upset him, and my main thought was how useful it would be when he gets to go out on a bare paddock where it will keep him moving without a lot to eat
 
I have one for my section B he has it in his stable at night it says it holds 3kg of hay but he only has 2Kg in it at night, and its always empty in the morning, I love it and he has worked out that when its full he picks it up nods his head and he gets hay then as it gets emptier the hay falls out as he pushes it around the stable, I bought it as all the hay pillows I was looking at said not for shod horses this is the only thing that horses with shoes can have. He also has to be fed from floor not from a net because of respiratory problems. I always make sure that he has 1Kg loose on his floor so he can quickly eat that when he comes in and has access to a lick at all times (he doesn't go mad on the lick now he's had it replaced all the time)
 
SEL said:
I am the 'proud' owner of a fat appaloosa who can empty 5kg of double netted hay in less than 30 minutes. To be honest so long as she has a double net in there to fill her tummy I don't mind too much if she spends the rest of her time chasing around a ball for a few mouthfuls. She gave up with her treat ball when it wasn't easy to get the grass nuts out & sadly I think she'd do the same with this.

I've been trying to find out if there is a UK version of hay pillows. We're not allowed haynets in the field but something designed for the field would probably be OK. I've started mixing the evening hay allowance with straw - slowing down one of the horses, but not the one that needs weight watchers!
Click to expand...

Hay pillows you can make or I use nibbleze nets and really like them.

FC I'm not sure if the suggestion was putting an agrobs block in and because it is looser small bits would break off as it rolled about?

I imagine it also depends on the hay, we had some pretty soft stuff last year that would have come out fairly easily could compared to some other
 
A friend of mine has one and her horse seems to like it. She says the secret is how you fill it. I haven't seen it in action but she says the hay needs to go in in layers so when the horse gets a mouthful, more gets pulled to the edge and sticks out of the hole - same idea as a box of tissues. Just stuffing the hay in doesn't work
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top