Dumb question - hay in trailers

[MuddyTB]

Hi,
I've always travelled my boy without hay before as we only ever travel for 45 mins or so and he has always loaded and travelled fine. Recently he's been hesitant to load so I thought travel him with hay to make the experience as nice as possible. But I'm struggling where to tie the hay.

If I tie it to the ring or string he is tied to, the net fills the area his head/neck take up. It blocks his space and he has to really twist to reach the hay. I don't have any other rings to tie to. What do other people do and why can't I get it right?

 

[XxCoriexX]

what kind of trailer do you have?

 

[flaxen]

Do you have a front ramp with top door? I have a cheval trailer and there's no where to tie a haynet and i travel with hay as didnt want my pony to have nothing to eat while away. To combat this problem ive taken some string and looped it through the top of the front ramp foot ( the metal that sits on the floor when ramp down ) and then put the string over the top of ramp into trailer and shut top door. My pony can still reach his net to eat.

 

[MuddyTB]

I have an Ifor 510.
I like that idea flaxen, will have a look at doing that at weekend. Thanks.

 

[HaffiesRock]

I just use a small haylage net so it takes up minimal room.

 

[SuperH]

I tie my nets to the same ring they are tied to. They have no problems eating it. I don't give big nets though and my trailer has a lot of head room as it has a rounded rather than pointed front. Mine are also only 14.2 so they can step back from the front bar, I guess a longer horse may find it more difficult.

 

[Dubsie]

We've a 505 and it has a metal bar in the top corner each side of the nose cone at the front, we tie it on there usually.

 

[Shay]

We've a 505. We tie the net to the tie up ring, but then have another piece of bailer twine from the front of the trailer looped through the net and tied to pull it forward away from the horse's face. You can adjust the height so it will work for small and tall, long and short neck etc. You can get a fancy bit of kit from Ifor that does the same thing. But balier twine is cheaper!

 

[Clannad48]

We've a 505 and it has a metal bar in the top corner each side of the nose cone at the front, we tie it on there usually.

We do this as well

 

[NZJenny]

For me the obvious question is why is he suddenly hesitant to load? If he has always been fine, what's changed to make him not? Something with the float or maybe the vehical?

Don't mean to question your question, but that sort of thing would ring alarm bells with me.

 

[PorkChop]

We've a 505 and it has a metal bar in the top corner each side of the nose cone at the front, we tie it on there usually.

I have a 510 and do the same thing

 

[Cragrat]

I have a 510 and have been doing the opposite to shay - tie the net in the nose cone, but then use a piece of string to pull the net back to the horse. When we get to the venue, we release the string and net falls forward out of the way so we can get the horses out.

But I like flaxens idea - I might trial that method

 

[Clannad48]

Just a thought, but have you checked the tyre pressures on your trailer. We had a similar problem with our mare and it turned out that one of the tyres looked fine, but the pressure was too low.

 

[MuddyTB]

Thanks for all those suggestions, I will definitely try some of those and get lots of bailer twine handy.

My OH always checks tyre pressures and gives everything a check before we go out. But I will double check before we go out again.

NZJenny - I don't know why he's stopped loading, he used to virtually pull me in. He is totally calm once in, just seems to question it now. I am working on this slowly and quietly and will get some help if I really can't get him in, I'm hoping he'll improve again with time. He doesn't go out very often so practice has been limited and it's been taking 10 mins or so to get him in. More work ahead.