Feeding hay from floor

Ginger Bear

Ginger Bear

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Got a little 14'1 welsh cross for my 11 year old cousin last autumn, he came with a very bloated gut, got him cheap & he's a lovely little man so decided that I would sort him out. Vet is treating him for digestive issues/ulcer related problems & he's improved so much already. His other problem is he has a lot of poll tension/pain which vet says can be linked to an unhappy tummy so going to see if this gets better with the treatment & diet change. So far it's improving!

He's currently fed 8lb of hay in a net at night to slow him down and is turned out at 8am all day with breakfast & a section of hay at 6am. I would prefer to feed him from the floor like my other horse as I don't think pulling hay out of a net repeatedly helps his poll tension but how can I feed from floor or in a more natural way without him eating too fast & standing with nothing o eat? Any ideas welcome.

My horse is fed ad lib from floor and would like to do the same with pony but he doesn't need extra weight as you can see below:

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If you can find a way of containing the hay, like a box for example, put a heavy log on top of it so he has to pull the hay out piece by piece. Or you can put a hay net on the floor, so long as it is a small holed one and you have tied up securely (or removed altogether) the tie string, so he can't get feet stuck in it. Mine have these "hay balls" in the field so long as it isn't muddy and wet, and have enormous fun shoving them around the field :)
 
The vast majority of those ulcer related problems stem from having large gaps where the horse doesn't eat anything.

A horse shouldn't be longer than four hours without food.

Ask the vet what he thinks about feeding him adlib. If he says yes or has no opinion try it out.

Otherwise it is quite difficult to give him small portions on one side and check that he eats at least every four hours on the other side.
Looking into his stable and watching him what he is doing is obviously the best solution but who is watching him during the night ...
You would need some electromechanical feeding device as they exist for aquariums.

Obviously, giving him a small hay net at 9 pm that lasts until 7 am is not the proper solution.
 
I'm well clued up with ulcers and the ad lib. With a net sometimes he eats it all, other times he will leave some if been grazing and is full..

It is difficult to not have pony that's overweight but at the same time feeding for his gut issues.
 
Can you get some nice clean oat or barley straw? Takes more calories to eat than they gain, but keeps the gut full of fibre. You could mix hay and straw in a net.
 
If there is some fresh straw in the stable that can serve as kind of emergency food. But that depends on the horse. Some will eat up all the straw, too.

To find out what's really going on there is no other way to observe him, at least a few days, to watch his eating habits. As he won't sleep the whole night, I don't know who will watch him at night. I would speak to the yard owner and show up at midnight, at 4 am and at 8 am for a few nights or get a CCTV camera installed and record him 24/7 but I know I can't expect this from everyone.

That is why I would in first instance feed him adlib if the vet doesn't contradict and watch if he really grows bigger and bigger as assumed.

Easiest thing would be having him outside in a so-called "laminitis field" with poor but constant supply of grass.

My comments on your problems are:

1)
Does he really need a restriction on how much to eat?

2)
If yes then the question is how to limit the hay but not having large gaps in between.
Unfortunately, I don't know of a method for that. But it's not hay in a net or on the floor. It's how to give him small portions in short intervals.
 
Thank you for your suggestions, he would probably eat all the straw too.. Although he was on straw last summer & he didn't but in the winter was eating his whole bed. Unfortunately our yard was an old cattle farm so the grazing although the grass in summer fields is not long it is still very good quality. We don't have a lamanitic paddock either as believe it or not we have 65 horses of which half are competition horses & live in, out of the others that go out we only have one lamanitic & the owner just puts him out for less time.

I'm happy to try ad lib. With the net he has at the moment he's not going in at say 7pm & guzzling the lot, he stands has a sleep goes back to it later etc but the net does slow him down. I've popped back to the yard at 11pm before and he still has hay.
 
I had a similar issue. My mum completely ignored all my advice that she asked for and bought a horse with some issues from the yard we livery on.

Horse is a very good doer and the norm on the yard is not to feed much/ any hay. I feed adlib but we were concerned about the new one putting on even more weight. A small fortune was spent on small holed nets and he'd attack them, just eat constantly without stopping for breath! I hate nets and use a haybar for mine but the new horse just inhales hay. He also has physical issues; he stood like an elephant on a ball he was that tight and contracted. Haynets weren't helping but he was eating more overnight than my big TB on box rest!

We gave up with nets and started soaking hay for 12hrs and feeding it from the ground. At first he just carried on eating but then something seemed to click that he now always had hay and he slowed himself down. Now he'll come into his stable and have a sleep before bothering about the hay and there is hay lefty in the morning
 
Sorry on my phone and I'm useless!

Soaking hay and lugging wet hay around isn't much fun so while I was haybar shopping on mum's behalf I found "hay cubes". They sounded ideal, although expensive, as you can soak and drain hay in them, they are on wheels so easy to move heavy wet hay and the lip seems to stop wastage or pulling too much out. Mum phoned them to order two, so one can be soaking while the other is in use, and managed to get some money off.

So far only the wall fixings have arrived so I can't say how they are working but in theory they seem very practical.

http://www.haycube.co.uk/
 
I have done the same, given up on haynets and instead soak hay and feed from the floor.

I find my mare eats more slowly from the floor, she used to get tense eating from haynets and stand there battling with it until it was empty. With hay fed from the floor, she is more relaxed and takes breaks so the hay lasts longer.

I also mix in some coarse, older hay which she doesn't rush to eat, she leaves that till last and picks at it during the night.
 
This is exactly how pony was standing before receiving treatment from vet/osteo..like an elephant on a ball.. I have found pony is slowing down since the treatment.. Eat said they eat constantly to try and get rid of the gut pain.. & he standing properly now. Thanks for your advise..
 
There is also the Hayhutch... This has slowed bens eating down loads and he is less 'aggressive' when he eats in the sense that he takes chilled gentle mouthfuls of it and doesn't lunge and grab anymore and wolf it down. I also know of people who stick a haynet inside it to slow the feed rate down even more.

If you do buy one enter the Discount Code EQ5 for a five percent discount :)
 
Personally I would soak the hay for at least 12 hours but to be honest with you, i'd be wanting to try and get some of that extra weight off him before feeding truly 'add lib'... If your pasture is good and there is no way of putting im on a 'lami paddock' I'm afraid he'd have a grazing muzzle on if he were mine- at least alternate days, and 12 hour soaked hay when in.

Does he need breakfast? does he need a section of hay before turnout?
 
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