Haybar, haynet or feeding from the floor?

[Roasted Chestnuts]

As in title just a question for members on what they prefer for their horses and ponies.

I have an older boy previously used Haynets as I would love to feed from the floor but he drags it into his bed and pees on it so not ideal My dad made me a haybar which is brilliant and ideal for him. I changed due to the Vet saying that Haynets can cause wear or loosening in the teeth in older horses. He lost his first two molars this year, he is 26.

So just a general consensus as to how you feed and why

 

[scats]

I prefer my horses to eat out of hay bars but with two fatties who are on strict, hay-weighed diets I have to compromise. So I have a tie ring level with the top of the hay bars and I fill and weigh small holes nets and hang in the hay bar. Still means they are eating in a more natural head down position (albeit with a bit of haynet tugging), but they can't gobble it all up as quickly, drag it into their beds or get caught on the nets.

 

[milliepops]

One has a fairly big holed haynet - I hang them quite low so have a good collection of very tired old haynets which will break if necessary
Newbie immediately started pawing at her net so she has a haycube. Not currently needing to soak the hay but it stays tidier than just leaving it loose on the floor. One day I'll buy another haycube but for now this is working well

 

[Sussexbythesea]

I use a haynet as mine is a greedy fatty who needs hay soaked and to slow his eating down. He’s a nosey parker and likes to look out of his stable whilst eating so it’s near his door otherwise he’ll keep turning around and churning everything up. I’d prefer in a perfect world to feed dry from the ground as it would be less hassle.

 

[Leo Walker]

I wont use haynets unless there is absolutely no other option. I tried a haybar and the idiot creature kept climbing in it and tipping himself up! I've now gone back to a wheelie bin with the lid folded back and a hole cut in the bottom. Its tied to the wall or he drags it about! I was using nets inside it but it was too much hassle and I find if I dont over feed then theres only a tiny handful of wastage.

 

[DoratheExplora]

I have recently swapped from using haynets to a Haygrazer, due to the claims it is kinder on teeth and muscles. So far my mare is loving it! I still fill a hay rack which is high in the corner of her stable for variety. I find more often that not she now chooses to finish the Haygrazer first, as opposed to before when she would finish the hay rack first and haynet last.

 

[Boysy]

If mine are in for any reason then they do have double netted haynets but they are tied on a tie ring at my waist level as opposed to their eye level and they have huge packing boxes underneath to catch the dregs and let them forage through afterwards so they don't miss any. They are barefoot so no worries about getting a shoe caught up in a net but to be honest as the boxes are underneath the net they can't get their feet near them anyway. My mare quite often gets in her box though to move it round so she can check down the back of it for crumbs.........

All 3 of mine are fatties if they are allowed so I can't feed adlib, when I start haying the field I still don't adlib but they do get enough to keep them going for a few hours before they wander off to forage in the hedgerows again.

 

[KittenInTheTree]

I much prefer to feed loose on the floor, however both my horses are of the opinion that if the hay/haylage touches the floor of a stable then it is no longer edible. This is a new development - they used to be fine about it, but I've had to add tie rings to their stables this winter in order to hang nets! Meanwhile, the two companion ponies have no such qualms and will happily scoff whatever is in front of them. Unfortunately, they're both on carefully weighed rations, so have nets in order to slow them down and ad lib straw (aka bedding) to pick at if need be. After all, that three minute window between nets is an awfully long time to have to wait when you're only 12hh!

 

[xgemmax]

Both, I soak his hay and put half in a hay bar and half in a low net. Would like to put all in a hay bar but he eats it too quickly, plus having it in 2 places slows him down a bit as he goes between the 2

 

[Sophire]

I previously fed on the floor but I've just purchased a Haybar.

 

[ester]

Frank's was in a floor net. As we have a query over whether it is just his teeth or some additional jaw arthritis causing him problems he has it loose on the floor, thankfully he is quite tidy so other than opting to dunk it the bedding situ isn't too bad. The dunking is the reason we haven't put a hay bar in.

 

[npage123]

Ad lib organic hay fed from a Haybar for my TB. For some reason he loves sticking his head right down into the bottom of it, as if the hay at the bottom is better than what's on top. He's big enough to allow for the Haybar to be fixed to the wall with a gap at the bottom, which makes cleaning the bottom out much easier. It does needs cleaning out regularly or else the bottom gets filled up with dusty, very short bits of hay which resembles dried grass.
(If I do ever feed haylage, then I would feed it from those massive Shires small holed haynets, as he's very greedy when it comes to haylage and would eat it too quickly.)

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I prefer haybars but the horses obviously prefer to eat from the floor. They all like to empty the haybar and pick out the tastiest bits first. When I needed my Draft mare to lose weight, she had a measured amount of hay in her haybar and then huge trugs of plain oat straw chaff, so that she had access to ad-lib forage but wasn't getting too many calories. We used 2 bags of Honeychop every week for a while.

 

[hopscotch bandit]

I bought a haybar for a few quid from someone who was giving up their yard , it was damaged but we've fixed it and its perfectly serviceable.Trouble is my horse just pulls all the hay out of the top and drops it on the floor. Think this is due to her sorting out the 'wheat from the chaff' or so to speak. I end up piling it all back in. I use an upturned trug tub in the base as its a bit too deep for her to get her head down the bottom.I prefer this, tugging on a hay net (and they will do this quite violently at times) encourages abnormal muscles on the neck and also jars the neck. Feeding from the floor is just messy and you end up wasting a lot. So of the three I would go haybar everytime.

If I had the money I would buy what a friend has which is a big square plastic box with a grill on top, the type that the horse eats the hay through.This mimicks trickle feeding and is cost effective as it doesn't get wasted. You can also leave quite a lot in there in one go so you are actually feeding 'ad-lib' as nature intended. I think she said it was about £250! The grill gradually falls down as the hay is eaten.

 

[[131452]]

I feed from floor level as it’s better for backs , necks and breathing . My clever OH made a big box from basically plywood , it’s big enough to hold a small bale of hay - my boy likes to rummage to the bottom too so with this he can do that without throwing all the hay on the floor - hay on the floor couldn’t possibly eaten !

 

[Sprout]

2 of mine have haybars, 2 ponies have hay in a big bucket to contain and reduce wastage, one old boy prefers his loose on the floor but does drop quite a bit in his bed.

 

[WandaMare]

I feed one hay loose on the floor, she has a big stable so I can keep the pile of hay sufficiently far away from the bed. My other mare has a hay rack because she is very active & playful in her stable and I don't trust her legs around any type of haynets or haybars, she would end up wrapped up in them.

 

[BenvardenRach2]

I use small hole haynets and hang them low - at about my thigh height. My gelding is barefoot so no risk of catching a shoe.
I did want to feel him off the floor but he was dragging the hay into his bed - lots of wasteage!! I then put it in a big plastic bucket...he ate half then did a big poo inside the bucket ontop of the left over hay

 

[PapaverFollis]

Ideally I would feed from the floor but not possible in my current place. I'd also love a couple of haybars but can't afford them right now. I splashed out on a haygrazer play at the start of winter for the fat lass as she was tugging at small holed nets and breaking the strings and I was worried about her neck. She trashed the Haygrazer Play in 2.5 months, and was tugging it about as much as she did the small holed nets anyway - so that was a waste of money! She's back on a small holed net and has stopped tugging it about for some reason, so we'll stick with that for now. Roll on summer and 24/7 turnout! Although the way the ground is it might never happen!

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

As in title just a question for members on what they prefer for their horses and ponies.

I have an older boy previously used Haynets as I would love to feed from the floor but he drags it into his bed and pees on it so not ideal My dad made me a haybar which is brilliant and ideal for him. I changed due to the Vet saying that Haynets can cause wear or loosening in the teeth in older horses. He lost his first two molars this year, he is 26.

So just a general consensus as to how you feed and why

I use various for certain reasons. Generally I prefer nets then baths then racks last of all


haynets for my greedy mare - I also use hayracks for others and some have in the plasters bath on the floor. I don't use haybars at all.

 

[FDLady]

FDL gets it both in a haynet and on the floor. Usually i put less than i know she'll eat on the floor as she'll always approach this first & it saves the leftovers (if there was any) getting trashed once she's had enough. The haynet is there for her to pick at when shes finished/wants it, usually i only have to fill it a couple times a week though which is less work. Cob-alob had a hayrack which just got topped up as and when as he dragged it into his bed if on the floor - he wasnt particularly greedy so it didnt matter how much i would leave out for him, i never worried about him over eating. All the others have had haynets

 

[JillA]

I have a couple of boards fixed across the corner, they were intended to contain the hay but as above, horses pull it out and redistribute it. A weight like a heavy log on top worked okay, these days I tie a filled haynet inside them and that works well. My poor doer TB won't eat his like that so he has to have a haynet tied to quite a high ring (well, he is 17.1hh ) - he seems to like pulling level rather than up

 

[nikkimariet]

Feed from the floor. Better for their bodies and their respiratory system.

 

[HashRouge]

We've fed on the floor for years. The gelding crib bites and will crib on hay nets, which was not good for his teeth or our pockets as he kept wrecking them! They both live out now so easier to feed off the floor anyway. They never waste it, but they don't have ad lib as they don't need it - we still have a good amount of grass.

 

[SpringArising]

Feed from the floor. Better for their bodies and their respiratory system.

This, and for these reasons. I always feed from the floor. I just don't see how constantly eating from a haynet or any other raised platform wouldn't cause stiffness and soreness in the neck and back after a while.

 

[SEL]

I do both. If all the mare's hay was on the floor she'd be through it in no time - bit of a pig. So she has a floor pile and a small hole net.

Gelding just bites through haynets so he gets his on the floor and mashes it in to his bed.

 

[CocoFabs]

Has to be a HayGrazer Play my horse has great fun and he really does do similar stretches the chiropractor tells you to do www.haygrazer.co.uk