Hay Bar type feeders recommendations

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Lucky788

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Recommendations please for hay feeders, currently feeding off the floor but most gets mixed into the bed
Elderly horse so can’t use haynets due to wobbly front teeth!
TIA :)
 
I'm using a haybar, installed with a gap at the bottom for easier cleaning out. Also if feeding soaked hay, the water can drain away through the gap. Older hay/stalky bits does gather at the very bottom and become like dry, old and horrible grass cuttings which you'll find in a lawnmower if you haven't cleaned it out the previous time you used it. So the haybar does need to be cleaned out regularly to keep the hay in there fresh.
Also, I think your elderly horse would appreciate steamed (softened) hay, or at least soaked for say 20 minutes, then it would be easier to chew.
 
Mine have Hay Bars in their current stables. I wasn't sure how it would work out but I actually quite them. They do stop the majority of the hay mixing with the bedding ( we tried feeding The Beast from the floor once at the last yarf and gave up after two nights! With the Hay Bar she's much better).
 
Haybar.

Used ours with all different neds. Some waste as they like to dive a snozzle in for the tastiest bits.

When you fit it, make sure the gap from the ground to the bottom of the Haybar is high enough to get your sweeping brush in.
 
vmac66 said:
Have you thought about haybags. I'm using them at the moment as my horse has to have her hay at a lower level due to an issue she has.
Click to expand...

Could you recommend a hay bag please? I have tried the Haygrazer Play but it is not enough to get my mare through the night and they're quite expensive.
 
we have home made haybars, a piece of old kitchen work top secured behind 2 batons in a corner of the stable. To clean you simply lift the worksurface out, sweep it clean and slide the work surface back in.
 
Thanks all :)

vmacc66 what hay bag would you recommend a lot I’ve seen don’t have a gap at the bottom and I worry about feeding soaked hay in them

Leaning towards the hay bar for ease do you all have the “official” hay bars? Or one of the other brands?
 
I’ve had 2 hay bars, I thought they were great, but pony thought they were a great seat and squashed them both 🤦🏼‍♀️
I then bought heavier duty ones (can’t remember brand) which were better but still were sat on.
So I invested in the flexible one, which was just perfect. I’d recommend those instead of the plastic ones, unless your horse isn’t destructive 🙄😆
 
I have pony sized haybar which fits lots of hay. My mare rummages in it and pulls onto floor but she eats every last shred so not problem but I know others that won’t eat once on the ground. I have a hay cube for my other horse but can’t fit as much in.
 
I had a hay bar for my TB mare and she was really good with it. I found she wasted more with haylage than hay, but on the whole it was great. Now I've put my friend's pony in my stable and she's good with it too.
 
I use haycubes. I find there's much less mess/waste with them than when I used haybars. They are also great for soaking hay as that's pretty much what they're designed for with the plug at the back and drainage holes at the top. It's a much easier way for moving wet hay too.

In saying that I also use them for the horses that get dry hay and again much less mess/waste then when I had haybars. Might just be my taste in horses but they'd all pull the hay out of the haybar and still mix it through their beds!
 
My two have hay bars. A wastes less from it that he does a hay net. He does everything with gusto so with the hay bar that means head down stuffing face, a hay net means throwing it around in a bid to get hay our and flinging the hay all over the shop. M is the opposite, will throw it everywhere from the hay bar as he takes huge mouthfuls and then can't chew t all so drops it. Small mouthfuls from a hay net suits him better.
 
Nativelover said:
I’ve had 2 hay bars, I thought they were great, but pony thought they were a great seat and squashed them both 🤦🏼‍♀️
I then bought heavier duty ones (can’t remember brand) which were better but still were sat on.
So I invested in the flexible one, which was just perfect. I’d recommend those instead of the plastic ones, unless your horse isn’t destructive 🙄😆
Click to expand...
Which one do you have?
 
Haycubes are excellent, more expensive but you can soak hay in them and they don't pull out quite so much hay as they do out of the hay bars
 
Jumping onto this as am thinking of using one as my boy is very rough with haynets and I don’t like the pulling action as a result. Do people find they hoover up the hay really quickly with a hay bar? He’s also a fast eater so i need something that will help slow him down.
 
I thought the proper hay bars were amazingly expensive and a bit small for my big lads 'ad lib' - also even with a gap they looked hard to keep properly clean

so I had OH screw two battons into each side of a corner and then I slot in the plastic planks that were spares from posh monarch internal partitions (second hand from e-bay for small £'s). I know they are very horse proof and I easily lift them out to clean / sweep behind
If you didn't have a stable wrecker you could easily do the same with wood for 1/3 cost of a branded product
 
sorry to jump on this thread, I have a pony hay bar and never thought about leaving a gap at the bottom, my problem is pony is a welsh setion A and if I raise it she cannot reach the bottom, and struggles a bit now if I raise it up she will struggle more. I thought about getting carpenter to make a shelf which sits on the bottom on bricks to raise the floor a bit inside the bar. Anyone tried that with success??
 
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