Does your horse eat peacefully from a haynet?

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teasle

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I put my hay in haynets tonight as I was getting fed up of it being trampled around the box making a mess to muck out and wasting it( costing £6.50 a bale).
But it upset me to watch my horse eat from the net- he pulls and tugs and I can see the muscle under his neck bulge .
He is a good doer and could do with his hay being rationed in a small holed net but he is even worse eating from those. I normally soak the hay to reduce calories but have stopped because of the weather. He left the straw I tried to give him to reduce calories last time I tried, it was barley straw so I ended up giving it to a friend as bedding. Really dont know how to give him his hay tomorrow.
 
I wouldn't be worried, it might just be a change for him if you normally feed from the floor? mine is a violent eater, shes just too greedy! :rolleyes: she tugs at the haylage and almost wallops you with her head. can't feed her haylage from the floor though as I end up with a yucky straw and hay bed! :(
 
He knows what to do- it just seems that it is a harmful way of eating for him. My old pony used to eat quite peacefully once he had settled down to it but this cob pulls and jerks so that I wory about his neck muscles.
 
in this weather i put the majority of the hay in the net and a chunk of hay on the floor. then they can get a nice amount easily and quickly to start with then my pony eats much more contentedly from the net as she has a wad of hay in her belly.

found it helps with keeping her bed tidy too as shes not so frustrated trying to get the hay out of a net on an empty belly.
 
How about putting the net at the bottom of a homemade haybar? Then he can have it in a more natural position (low down on the floor) without the danger or him getting his feet caught.

Also try giving him a little pile loose initially. He'll be hungry coming in if there's nothing in the field and will of course attack his haynet. He might be a bit more gentle once he's had a little.

For the straw, you need to mix it properly with hay and really fluff it out. Then he can pick out the hay to his hearts content but it'll keep him occupied for ages.
 
Do you think that trugs are safe in a stable - I mean if they get pulled over and become a hazard? I did this for a while ith banking up the bedding by the trug but when I cleared the bed the area had become mouldy.
 
No, mine does not eat peacefully -it's beast vs net until he has won! Keeps him busy though and slows him down, which is the main thing. I'd rather he was waging war with a small holed net all night, than standing peacefully with nothing to eat for hours :-)
 
Mine attacks haynets with gusto too. How much gusto depends what's in the net! Tonight she got some haylage in her trickle net, soaked hay in a homemade hay box, so basically on the floor, and 'back up' hay in a standard small holed net. She didn't know what to eat first :p

She's usually a very good doer so just has a tricklenet with soaked hay in the summer. I figure she spends all day with her head down grazing and is worked in a beneficial outline, so a few hours battling with a net overnight is not going to hurt her.

As others have said, a pile of loose hay that they can munch quickly when they come in hungry certainly helps :) And I've used trugs and half barrels in the stable before I got the box, they were fine but she kicked them about a bit.
 
Couldn't you do half on the floor and half in the net. That way he can satisfy his hunger by stuffing the hay on the floor then he can eat the hay from the net more leisurely.
 
Thanks Perissa- I could do that- and have done it some days. But you know what- horse is nosey and likes to eat from the net first as it is by the door so he can lok around at the other horses coming in etc while he eats. Or he takes a mouthful from the pile on the floor and drops it across his bed as he makes for the door to look out.
 
One just eats nicely, the other fatty pushes it, tugs at it and visibly gets cross but I can't loose feed as she would just keep eating until she burst / it's all gone really quickly. Fed her from a hay bar once and she was the same really - literally put her whole face in underneath the hay and flung it out, same with trug bucket - bucket got pushed over, hay all pulled out. She is just like that - a vigorous eater! She has to have a large feed bucket tomstopmher tipping her hard feed out.
 
Can't you put it near the door then?......

Or give him half in a large hole haynet so he isn't pulling on it so hard and half in a small hole hay net.
 
We spend years asking the horse to round, lift his shoulder, achieve self carriage etc etc, but in the stable we ask him to lift his head to reach his haynet, and in years gone by we used those dreadful hayracks that filled the horses eyes with hay seeds.

We don't want any muscle beneath the neck, yet the action of feeding from a safely hung net, develops that very muscle. Hang it head height and the risk of them getting caught up in it is significant, especially a shod horse.

Today I purchased 2 enormous haylage small holed nets as I was fed up with the two year olds trashing their beds. They are not out as much as normal due to the weather and I need to slow the consumption down a bit to keep them occupied. Duly stuffed and put into their barn. After 10 minutes I took them down and tipped the haylage on the floor, I could not let them eat like that. The shire x just lost his temper and choked he also is slightly ewe necked at the moment and certainly does not need to bulk the underside of his neck. The filly was happy enough but again the reaching up is not ideal.
 
My horse has turned his small holed hay net into a small holed hay net with several large gaping holes added where he has 'customised' it...
 
I too understand and have no desire to feed from a net.

What I would do is make a home made haybar (just screw a thick board or rubber mat across the corner) then nip along to the local friendly blacksmith and get them to make you a heavy metal grill (suitable shaped) to drop of top of it.

It'll slow the eating (how much depends on how wide the grill holes are), stops them pulling all the hay out and is perfect safe (esp if you use rubber mats and secure the grill inside the haybar with some bungie cords to the floor)
 
teasle said:
I love you AA- you really GET it! But whatwegonnado?
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Don't think there's a magic answer :confused: ;) You'll have to decide if he needs to have his hay intake rationed more than he needs to eat from the ground.
In the summer I take the hit on the haynet, in the winter I'm able to feed more hay so feed her normal ration loose and top up to ad lib with a small net.

Or if you're a bit handy you could make your own slow feeder, there have been some threads about them on here - like a big box with a grill on that slides down as the box is emptied, so he can't scoff it all at once.

ETA - cross posted with KB! :D
 
teasle said:
I love you AA- you really GET it! But whatwegonnado?
Click to expand...

Feck knows !!!!

I can adlib my 2 year olds, they are living on haylage, are very big horses and can eat all day. I just have to put up with trashed beds. However, with a horse that cannot be ad lib feed, there is a problem. Feed it on the floor and the whole lot will be gone before 10pm, that is no good for gut health and a colic risk.

We need to invent a horse hay feeder. Ever seen those automatic cat feeders, we would need a wide tube/chute thingy with a large flat trough underneath it with a sliding lid. Fix a timer and a motor to slide the lid across to allow a set amount of hay to drop into the trough every 60 minutes or whatever. Bingo - trickle feed at floor level.
 
AdorableAlice said:
We need to invent a horse hay feeder. Ever seen those automatic cat feeders, we would need a wide tube/chute thingy with a large flat trough underneath it with a sliding lid. Fix a timer and a motor to slide the lid across to allow a set amount of hay to drop into the trough every 60 minutes or whatever. Bingo - trickle feed at floor level.
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:D Great idea! Quite possibly cheaper to employ a 24 hour groom/hay giver though, the engineering sounds quite complex :D:D
 
Another way to do it is to fasten small grid (say 2 inch square) very thick wire mesh (you'll find it in an agricultural merchant), across the corner of the stable and feed him from floor level inside the grid. Make it a height you can still reach over to pop the hay in but too high for him to reach over and grab it.
 
AdorableAlice said:
We spend years asking the horse to round, lift his shoulder, achieve self carriage etc etc, but in the stable we ask him to lift his head to reach his haynet, and in years gone by we used those dreadful hayracks that filled the horses eyes with hay seeds.

We don't want any muscle beneath the neck, yet the action of feeding from a safely hung net, develops that very muscle. Hang it head height and the risk of them getting caught up in it is significant, especially a shod horse.

Today I purchased 2 enormous haylage small holed nets as I was fed up with the two year olds trashing their beds. They are not out as much as normal due to the weather and I need to slow the consumption down a bit to keep them occupied. Duly stuffed and put into their barn. After 10 minutes I took them down and tipped the haylage on the floor, I could not let them eat like that. The shire x just lost his temper and choked he also is slightly ewe necked at the moment and certainly does not need to bulk the underside of his neck. The filly was happy enough but again the reaching up is not ideal.
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D'you know, I've hung an awful lot of haynets for Grand Prix horses............they didn't seem to be adversly affected, and certainly had no problems with bulging under necks. I really think there are more important things to worry about than a few tugs on a haynet.
 
milliepops said:
:D Great idea! Quite possibly cheaper to employ a 24 hour groom/hay giver though, the engineering sounds quite complex :D:D
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Or, for those of us with stables next to the house, not me sadly.

Build your chute etc, then drill a hole in the wall, attach a piece of string to the lid long enough to reach the sofa and just give it the occasional tug !
 
You can get these things things, can't remember what they are called but you stuff hay into them and horse eats out of this ball thing on the floor. They are like a haynet but made out of plastic plastic bars rather than netting. Will have a look for the name.
 
AdorableAlice said:
Or, for those of us with stables next to the house, not me sadly.

Build your chute etc, then drill a hole in the wall, attach a piece of string to the lid long enough to reach the sofa and just give it the occasional tug !
Click to expand...

If I'm ever in a position to live somewhere I can keep a horse at home - I'm TOTALLY doing that :D
 
mole said:
in this weather i put the majority of the hay in the net and a chunk of hay on the floor. then they can get a nice amount easily and quickly to start with then my pony eats much more contentedly from the net as she has a wad of hay in her belly.

found it helps with keeping her bed tidy too as shes not so frustrated trying to get the hay out of a net on an empty belly.
Click to expand...

I have done exactly the same with greedy feeders, works a treat :)
 
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