Feeding haylage from the floor slowly?

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loren

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Hi Everyone,

I have recently had the vet out for my horse as he was coughing in the the morning, among other things the vet has said to swap to haylage and to feed it from the floor, unfortunately he is a bit of a piggy with it and scoffs it very quickly if it's not in a net. My vet mentioned that there were some feeders out there that meant you can feed from the floor, but can also slow him down, but I've not had any luck in finding something like this. Does anybody here have any ideas or suggestions?
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Thanks!
 
I use either a big plastic hot water tank that you can get from builders/plumbers merchants and my other horse has a large round rubber/plastic tub thing that I think may have been from a garden centre but I'm not sure as I was given it!

There are also the Haybars, but they are expensive and the horses I've seen with them still manage to drag the haylage around their beds!
 
Thanks for the link, I'm just not sure about the bars being close to the floor like that, maybe just being paranoid though!

Haybars are good, but they don't slow the eating down unfortunately
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Loren,

Hi, I think that unless your horse has teeny tiny feet he'd be fine with the size of the munch station bar spacings, they are probably less than the holes in a regular size haynet.

There is also a weighted device like wire mesh that fits ON TOP of a hay bin/feeder, and as the horse eats the level of the mesh drops. I will look for a link for you.

OK, not quite the one I had in mind but along the same lines. I imagine there will be something similar available in the UK. There is even a video with it.

http://www.slowdownhayfeeder.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=1
 
We've got the munch stations on our yard, but be warned, a determined messy one will still be able to drag quite a bit out.

It is possible to get ones that have horizontal bars as well as vertical which are even more effective!
 
I have a munch station - it is very good but I am not sure I like the way the head twists to get to the hay

I was given a tip of using a haylage net tied inside a hay bar i.e. put a tie ring right inside the haybar low down so that no chance of empty haynet being dragged out once empty. I dont do it myself and wonder that it sounds a bit difficult getting the haynet tied up but it might work....
 
Thanks for the replies.

TwoBays, I had exactly the the same thought about how he'd get the hay out. I've done some hunting around on the web and found a couple of websites where people have made their own which look quite good, but a lot of them still involve them having to twist thier heads round which looks awkward. The best ones are similar in concept to the haybar, but are the same size all the way down with a net top that has a weighted frame to let it go down as the hay is eaten. Be nice if there was one like this that was made by a professional manufacturer rather than my bodged job!
 
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