Hay nets - a warning

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Flicker

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This morning, I had to cut a horse free from her haynet. I don't know how long she had been stood with one foot caught, but am guessing it was a long time. She is very sore and stressed and her owner has had to pay for an out of hours vet visit.

I am in no way apportioning blame to anyone involved in her care because she gets the very, very best and this was a very unfortunate accident. However, I just thought it would be helpful to post a warning to please make sure that your hay nets are tied high enough that your horse can't get its front foot tangled, and that you use small-holed nets if you think there is a risk of your horse trying to paw its net. There are also lots of alternatives to hay nets, like hay bars etc.

Thanks.
 
I do hope the mare is ok and gets over her ordeal.
The other morning I found my section A filly caught up on her haynet by the front fastening of her rug luckily she didnt panic.
 
If she was stood with her leg caught up in a haynet tied without a weak loop then I'd be apportioning blame.
 
I don't use haynets for this very reason, plus the fact it can't be good for horses muscles to be pulling at them in an unnatural eating position for them.

However, for some owners there is no alternative, so as said, please make sure they are tied to something that will break under stress. Also, small holed haynets will reduce the risk of getting feet caught up!
 
I need haynets because my two eat so quickly its like watching them drink it down. They both have very large haylage nets but they are attached to baling twine. Yard and I would prefer not to do this (virtually everything else has a hay bar) for all the very good reasons stated here... but if I did that, mine would have nothing while everything else was still eating!! the only time the yard feeds on the floor is to chuck a small amount if the horses are staying in a bit longer (waiting for me)
 
I have a haybar but wanted to slow down my boy's eating so have a small holed haynet tied up from of the bottom of the haybar - I had a tie ring put in the bottom of the haybar so he can eat from a more natural position and use a haynet more safely :-)
 
Poor mare, it must be terrifying for a horse to be trapped like that. :( Thank heavens she didn't panic.

I use haylage (small holed) nets at times but on the ground with the draw tied inside. None of my horses are shod but dieting is required sometimes, so hay goes in them to slow them down a bit.
 
For other animals too. I once found a ewe strangling herself on a haynet tied to a gate - the net had been attached direct to the gate so she couldn't break away . Mine have hay on the ground. Messy but safe.
 
I believe there is a time & place for haynets & in the stable is not the place. Horses should always be supervised with haynets for this very reason. Too many horses/ponies get injured using them, I always feed off the floor in the stable.
 
Ours always have hay on the ground unless they are for some reason having hay whilst tied up or in the lorry but then there are people about. We did however have to cut my sister's just purchased horse free from a haynet in the wagon when we picked him up (this was many years ago). Silly horse must have lifted his leg up very high or reared or something. We were in the house sorting out the payment etc and luckily before setting off we checked on him to see him with one leg held up. he wasn't panicked (I think he was still eating) but we did geta bit of a lecture off the dealer! Lol. Not our fault the horse was a fool! hehe

My horse actually intentionally ties his leg up - not so much these days but he was a pig for doing it as a youngster. Not in a haynet, just his rope if he was tied up. I think he did it for attention as he knew you'd have to come to his aid. he waould get his head down as low to the floor as he could the put one leg over the rope and then stand up with said leg suspended by the rope just and sort of looking around as if to say "ahem"! Honestly, a proper idiot!
 
Hay net in a hay bar I think is a very good 'compromise' position - they can still stretch down to eat but you are not giving much opportunity to strew hay through the bed.

Mind you, my chap has a net and I still spend ages picking hay out of his bed - but he's just messy :)
 
Our YO has a real issue with anyone NOT using a haynet; we're not allowed to put hay on the floor and they complain if we get hay from the store without it being in a haynet.

Our boy is 9 months old and I don't want him eating from a damn hayney, so I have to put the wedge into the haynet in the store, take it to our stable and then empty it onto the floor!

A little fustrating.
 
Our yard has the "must be in a haynet" rule to stop wastage. We tie ours very high off of baling twine but there have been a couple of times I have come to do our mare in the morning and she's pulled it off the twine and strewn it's contents across her box.
 
I feel fortunate all of a sudden for having a Haybar. We only use haynets when the horses are being groomed or tacked up and the tie rings are super high up.
Although if you don't have a Hay bar I dont see what's wrong with it being on the floor.
 
Flicker said:
This morning, I had to cut a horse free from her haynet. I don't know how long she had been stood with one foot caught, but am guessing it was a long time. She is very sore and stressed and her owner has had to pay for an out of hours vet visit.

I am in no way apportioning blame to anyone involved in her care because she gets the very, very best and this was a very unfortunate accident. However, I just thought it would be helpful to post a warning to please make sure that your hay nets are tied high enough that your horse can't get its front foot tangled, and that you use small-holed nets if you think there is a risk of your horse trying to paw its net. There are also lots of alternatives to hay nets, like hay bars etc.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Better still DON'T use haynets. 40 yrs ago my then RI told the story of how as a child she had watched a pony die of strangulation with a haynet, unable to do anything about it. She would never allow a haynet on the premises. This must have happened about 70 yrs ago and people are still using haynets. I cannot understand it, horses can damage themselves in all sorts of unimagined ways, so why do people use something which is known to be dangerous?
 
Put hay in haynets and soak hay in them, remove them from water and let them drain and then take in to stables remove hay and put hay on floor of the stable. That way no risk of accidents and healthier for horse as eating hay from ground level so sinuses will drain while eating the soaked hay.
 
I never get the theory of feeding from a haynet in a stable to save 'wastage'. How does that work? Surely you only ever feed them the same amount anyway - if they pull it into their bed then so be it, it's not like it then HAS to be thrown away, it can either remain in the bedding or you can sort it and out in back in the pile. Even if you did just throw it cos it was soiled it's still not wastage as such or is irrelevant anyway, you pay for what you use surely so what difference does it make. It's different I guess when putting it on the ground outside - when it's windy it is handier to put in haynets as this prevents loads of it getting blown away.

I don't think I'd ever use a haynet in a stable, I just plonk hay on the floor.
 
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