Hay Bars

[Jill Crewe]

Very excited at having my new hay bar installed over the weekend. Reason for buying was for more natural eating position for horsey and no building up of lower neck muscle. Also helps that filling haynets is one of my less enjoyable jobs.

But a few people have commented that they can eat too fast as apposed to having to pull it from a net. One person on yard said their pony even got choke so they resorted back to nets! So hoping mine doesn't gorge himself silly then having nothing to eat for the rest of the night. Will have to set up CCTV.

So what are your experiences with hay bars?

 

[TwoStroke]

I've been on yards with them in the past - no problems with them eating all the haylage, as I rammed them full! Never heard of any choke issues either - I always try to allow free access to forage (no nets) and never had any choke because of it. I have had horses pull all their forage out of the haybar and trample it, though, which was a little annoying.

 

[Asha]

My mare has a history of choke.

I was worried when i moved to haybars, however weirdly enough shes never had choke since we made the change

As Twostroke mentioned, i do stuff the haybar full, and ensure all big chunks are pulled /loosend

Love the haybars, made my life sooooooooooo much easier

 

[miss_wilson]

I have one! Most of the hay gets pulled out onto the floor! Much easier than haynets and better for the horse!!

 

[Serephin]

I have one. I wasn't sure at first as my cob loves his food and I was worried he would pig it all in one go, but apart from his love of stuffing his face right down the bottom and turfing a lot of it out, he makes it until morning fine!

 

[mon]

Gave up with mine as Walls were old unlevel stone and she pulled it of wall, now use hay balls or manger.

 

[fluffpuff]

we have them in our stables and i find they are great, a few of the horses pull it all out around the stables but the majority of them are happy with eating it from them.

 

[HOWEN]

I have them in my stables, so much easier than Haynets! Because both ponies are on diets for the spring, my dad has put a Haynet type thing over the top that slows them down. Will get a photo tonight if I think on

 

[Jill Crewe]

Thanks for all the replies - it's all sounding positive for the hay bars then

His next door neighbour does tend to pull a lot of it out but much more natural from them to be eating off the floor anyway...get the saliva and digestive juices flowing and all that

Wondering if greedy cob will end up inside it though by morning looking for scraps :O

 

[Jill Crewe]

Oh also - what do people use to get hay from barn to stable? Usually mine is carried down in the net. My hay is in giant bales so not easy to pull a wedge off - and don't like the idea of using a wheelbarrow as will fly everywhere and our yard is immaculately swept

Thinking of investing in some kind of big strong sack that's easy to manage, any ideas?

 

[smellsofhorse]

I love my hay bars.
Hate haynets but horses mix their hay into shavings if its on the floor.

If your horse is not a gorger (sp?!)
then he is no more likely to get choke from a haybar than from a large holed net.

 

[fluffpuff]

In response to how to transport it, we use a large wheelbarrow and just cover it with an old rug tucked into the sides so then the stray bits don,t fall over the yard
or if you are only givng a snack/small feed the large bags from ikea are very useful

 

[Annagain]

My horse and my share horse both have haybars. They don't eat any more than they would in a hay net, but neither of them are particularly greedy. Mine is a very neat eater (I don't think anything distracts him when he's got his head in there so he doesn't move!) and barely even gets a blade on the floor, but my share horse seems to pull it out of the haybar, throw it on the floor and then eat it off the floor. It's a bit more messy than a haynet but to honest, he wasn't much better with that!

We use a wheelbarrow to carry the hay, but our yard isn't immaculate -clean enough but not spotless - so we don't have to worry about dropping the odd bit. Does your council provide garden waste bags (like the 1ton dumpy bags but much smaller) for putting garden waste out for recycling? They're great for hay and very cheap (my council charges £1 for them.)
Another option - although the handles do tend to go after a while are the IKEA big blue bags if you have a shop near you. You could put the IKEA bag in a wheelbarrow to save the handles!

 

[Asha]

I use a wheelbarrow, havent had a problem with mess, as it only takes 2 mins to sweep up after.

My gelding loves to burrow his head in his, its as if hes looking for the best bits. The mares are far more intelligent, and just graze. 1 does have a tendency to pull it out an put it on the floor.

 

[Jill Crewe]

hay bar installed and I love it! very smart and neat. left the boy with his head stuffed in blissfully munching. according to yo he is being nice and tidy too. OH is going to get me a big sack from builders yard for carrying hay down in. no more filling hay nets - hooray!!

 

[zaminda]

I just use an old Alfa bag for moving hay around!

 

[jellyshark]

Not filling haynets is bliss - we use the large Gorilla size buckets to transport hay no mess no bother!! Would never go back to haynets! One horse on hay bar and pony has a gorilla bucket clipped to the wall both work brilliantly no mess as horse tidy and pony hoovers up!!

 

[scots]

And just a tip for all the bits and seed heads that accumulate at the bottom and you end up lying in it to clean it out (I do as I am short!) - use a rubber feed bucket the ones made from recycled tyres - put that in the bottom and its easy to pull out!

 

[Persephone]

Mine was a complete waste of money, first night horse pulled it off the wall and bit a chunk out of it, thereafter she dragged all her haylage out of it and trampled it into her bed.

I was storing rugs in it, now it's just in my trailer going mouldy. I'm back to haynets.

 

[Inchy]

I weigh out my hay/haylage into empty feed bags then carry them from barn to stables in that - if I know I'm going to be in a rush I make up all my weeks 'hay bags' at the weekend.

 

[rema]

I use one of these for moving hay/straw around..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Horse-Pon...oods_StableAccessories_SM&hash=item4d072552b0

 

[Littlelegs]

No haybar, but have used the floor without issue for my mare for 21 winters. First winter she was too small to reach the hay rack properly, but showed amazing skill for undoing &/or untying nets, so I gave in & fed from the floor, not because I knew of the pro's. She's a good doer who loves her grub & I've never had any problems. And since then worked on different yards & owned other horses & not had any problems using either the floor or something else floor level. I usually just barrow it as its small bales. But in the past used builders bags, plastic feed bin or more recently giant trugs.

 

[Highlands]

Need to build my stables first but have two waiting to go in and need another three!

 

[juliette]

My cob definitely ate the hay more quickly than when it was in a hay net and he is not a greedy horse at all. Also, if bored, he used to empty the hay bar and often chucked a lot of it over the stable door which was a real nuisance as he'd then stand there hungry! I have gone back to using hay nets and just use the hay bar to store his stable rug on when he is turned out, ready to put back on when he come in!

 

[piebaldsparkle]

Mine lasted about 3yrs, till my mare sat on it! Ungrateful horse now has a gorilla trug on the floor instead.

 

[MrsMozart]

I like mine.

Just don't put a pony in with a full size Haybar unless it's full to the top - otherwise the bobbing pony will pull the blasted thing off the wall

 

[smellsofhorse]

I too use a wheelbarrow to more the hay.
We have large bales. I take s slice and don't fluff it up. That way I don't loose any!
Or put bag or something over it.

 

[Merlin11]

I also have the hay bars and found them very useful and no probs with them. You can get hay bags from rideaway etc that are handy for carrying hay.

 

[indie999]

I am sure they are brilliant for all the dusty stuff coming out the bottom and I longed for one of these but I had a bottom rubber and always had visions of him rubbing his whole self all over it. But in the winter to stop him trashing or soiling the hay which I would put on the field I can see how it would have been a good investment to stop him standing on hay. Perhaps next time. I think they are a good invention. I even toyed with a metal one but again he would have had that off the wall rubbing. But I think its more a natural position head downwards.

 

[eggs]

Put hay into an empty plastic shavings bag and tip onto front of rubber mats stable floor (stables 20' deep with bedding to half way).

Much cheaper than a haybar and easier to sweep clean.