Haynets on the floor?

[Melody Grey]

Just read some comments re: tr*ckle nets on Facebook (not sure if I can use their brand name here?!)and they are advocating their use on the floor for unshod horses.

Has anyone done this? I'm having to feed hay in the field this winter and looking for options to prevent waste and make it last them as long as possible through the day....would any of you consider this/ have you done it?

Both of mine are unshod but there's something screaming to me as fundamentally wrong with the potential safety implications of having nets on the floor.....discuss!

 

[FfionWinnie]

I have a giant net on the floor. There's no issue with that. I do have an issue with trickle nets tho!

 

[poiuytrewq]

I asked, maybe the same company about the safety of this and what you do with the cord that you pull to tighten the net. They said you tuck it in which i was unsure about as surely the chances of it working loose whilst being pulled round are pretty high. I like the idea but my horse wears shoes.

 

[Melody Grey]

I have a giant net on the floor. There's no issue with that. I do have an issue with trickle nets tho!

Is it the price per chance?! If I do try this out, it won't be with the branded option.....does anyone know of any strong alternatives?

 

[Melody Grey]

I asked, maybe the same company about the safety of this and what you do with the cord that you pull to tighten the net. They said you tuck it in which i was unsure about as surely the chances of it working loose whilst being pulled round are pretty high. I like the idea but my horse wears shoes.

I wonder if I could tuck it in and weave it through enough to prevent it coming out?

 

[BBP]

I did this, looped the tie rope through itself numerous times then tucked it inside. It worked well for our barefoot crowd...until the foxes thought they were excellent toys for a bedtime game and I had several chewed and shredded! So I don't tend to leave them in the field anymore.

 

[be positive]

The idea does not bother me too much in theory for older unshod sensible horses but I can still see them being trampled into the mud, caught up on fencing and however tough they may be I cannot see a hole or two being made which a foot could get stuck in, in a dry turnout or field without mud they may be ok for daytime use but at £33 per net I think I would prefer a bit of wastage, I don't think many will waste the equivalent over the winter.

 

[Mrs B]

Regardless of the safety issues (and the long piece of string which closes the net would always worry me) ... when a horse eats from a net, they pull against it and the tension created because the net is tied to something solid allows them to free some forage between the strings, especially with a trickle net.

If there is no tension to pull against and release the food, I predict they would simply drag the full net around with them as they tried to eat .... which would, I think, leave a frustrated horse and an even more trashed paddock!

 

[FfionWinnie]

Is it the price per chance?! If I do try this out, it won't be with the branded option.....does anyone know of any strong alternatives?

Oh no the, fact that I find limiting forage intake to be abhorrent really! I like mine to have adlib hay at all times. The net I use means they don't waste any but my mare eats it faster than when in a bale buddy which I was not expecting (but was happy about as I didn't get it to restrict her).

 

[be positive]

Oh no the, fact that I find limiting forage intake to be abhorrent really! I like mine to have adlib hay at all times. The net I use means they don't waste any but my mare eats it faster than when in a bale buddy which I was not expecting (but was happy about as I didn't get it to restrict her).

I just watched the video on the website and found it painful viewing, one poor horse had 3 full nets yet was struggling to even pull out one strand to eat, the other had her head up extremely high and again was failing to get more than a tiny amount for a lot of effort, they may be useful for those that really require limiting but for normal horses it seems like far too much work and little reward, it might even contribute to ulcers rather than helping prevent them by allowing constant access.
I feed adlib to mine and they self regulate once they realise they are not going to run out, my bigger horses would lose weight if fed out of one of these nets which I don't want them to do in the winter.

 

[Schollym]

I looked at these as I have a horse who rubs on haynet and then gets caught on it. Our horses chew holes in nets if the holes are small so they can access hay faster!

 

[Micropony]

I tried one last year to make my horse's haynet last longer overnight, as I wanted him to trickle feed rather than gorge himself and then stand for ages with nothing to eat. In fact he found it so frustrating - and this is a horse who is deeply committed to eating - that he still had a full haynet in the morning and was, understandably, extremely grumpy. Epic fail.

 

[VikingSong]

I agree with the OP who wondered if the nets could lead to ulcers. I wouldn't use them. I felt frustrated just watching the videos, I can only imagine how the horses must have felt.

 

[Milliechaz]

I don't use tr***le nets but I do use the very small holed nets loose on the stable floor. I take the long string out and tie the top of it together tight with a small length of baling twine. They are 6lb when stuffed full so I give each of mine a stuffed net loose and they also have loose hay from the floor. They eat the loose hay first then the net keeps them busy through the night. Every now and again one ends up in the water bucket but it's very rare. I have 2 that are barefoot and one that is shod. Never had a problem x

 

[ycbm]

Trickle net on the floor is just torturing a horse, I reckon.



I do use nets on the floor. The holes are smaller than hoof size, and I replace the rope with a thin chain and fasten it shut with a carabiner clip. The ends of the chain aren't fastened, so there is nothing for anyone to catch a leg in. Works well. 4mm chain and 30mm carabiners on eBay.

 

[xgemmax]

I've done this with a normal small holed haynet, I just tied the string to the net several times so it wasn't slapping about. It worked well but it was in summer when there was no mud so in winter you might have a problem with the hay getting muddy and horrible

 

[Amirah]

I buy my haynets from Germany http://www.loewers-heu.net/Heunetz/Grossraumnetz2.html

They are oblong with an envelope type flap that I fasten with a clip, absolute doddle to fill. They come in various sizes of net and hole, mine are 3mm, it slows them a bit (three hoovers) but they get it out easily. I've used them loose on the paddock in the summer.

 

[mytwofriends]

I personally wouldn't put haynets on the floor of the stable or out in the field. My horse loves to play football with anything moveable, so they'd end up getting trashed and it would be a false economy.

Also, with my luck over the last two years, he'd find a way to string himself up from the nearest tall tree or something ........

 

[MotherOfChickens]

I buy my haynets from Germany http://www.loewers-heu.net/Heunetz/Grossraumnetz2.html

They are oblong with an envelope type flap that I fasten with a clip, absolute doddle to fill. They come in various sizes of net and hole, mine are 3mm, it slows them a bit (three hoovers) but they get it out easily. I've used them loose on the paddock in the summer.

I use nets like these-although dont use a clip to fasten. I find nets on the floor just get bogging outside-especially in the UK.

 

[meleeka]

I feed nets on the floor, but not in the field in winter. They invariably end up in a puddle somewhere and filling a wet net is horrible!

I have Tricklnets and use them as an 'extra' net when stabled. I much prefer my Martnets nets as although still small holes, they seem easier to eat from. Tricklenets arenalso quite small, certainly not big enough to put more than a couple of folds in. My cob
Has been known to eat a full bale of hay in a few hours so he needs something to slow him down. I always give a proper net and a small holed one in addition.

When feeding from the floor I tie the string in a series of quick release knots until there's none left, then tuck the end in to stop it coming undone. You can also cut the string so there's just single bits of string and no loop.

 

[Casey76]

I've used the Shires Greedy Feeder nets in the field. I tie the neck off and let the two strings dangle so there isn't anything to catch a leg it.

Both of my horses have no problems eating out of them like this, and they've always been able to empty the net

 

[ester]

I have a couple of nibbleze nets (they do envelopes and more standard ones) that I use on the floor (stable, hay in field is just loose) and love them, even mum is a convert. No knots against teeth either . Very occasionally a nearly empty one gets dumped in his water bucket but not the end of the world. I have all bigger hole ones as don't want to restrict just not end up with half a bale of hay mixed in with his straw

I have attempted to make my own based on their design but it isn't quite as good . They daisy chain as meleeka describes.

 

[Amirah]

I use nets like these-although dont use a clip to fasten. I find nets on the floor just get bogging outside-especially in the UK.

I only use the smallest ones on the floor in the summer and I'd not buy any more of the little ones as they're as hard to fill as normal nets, the big ones go between fence posts. If I don't clip the flap down they shove their heads in and hoover it up!

 

[Sparemare]

I bought a trickle net as a back up stable net for overnight. I use a large small holed net as the main night time net but always put a full trickle net in which sometimes gets half eaten, sometimes not. I wouldn't put a trickle net on the floor and certainly not in the field.

 

[windand rain]

Mine are fed in homemade hay boxes I use a haylage net inside the box then cover the box with a standard large hole net. It all needs to be loose enough for them to push the big net to the bottom of the box

this is an empty one the hay stays clean if not dry. The boxes are made of the same stuff as lego so dont break but you could use wooden ones

 

[meleeka]

I agree with the OP who wondered if the nets could lead to ulcers. I wouldn't use them. I felt frustrated just watching the videos, I can only imagine how the horses must have felt.

Certainly not as great a risk as standing with nothing to eat all night I'd have thought.

 

[be positive]

Certainly not as great a risk as standing with nothing to eat all night I'd have thought.

No but there are other options, no horse should be left all night with nothing to eat, soaking hay reduces the feed value so they can have more, mixing in some straw can work well, spending all night fighting to get the hay out will potentially be causing stress and the ulcer risk from being stressed is just as likely as from having an empty tummy for and hour or so.

Most horses would benefit from more hay and less hard feed and ideally would have access to freely available hay all the time, not many "normal" horses need restricting and I do know how hard it can be with those that do very well or have become overweight but I have found it relatively straightforward to get weight off by soaking hay, giving straw as an option and increasing the work.

 

[ester]

and it's not just the ulcers that bother me, the strain on the neck muscles and potential effects on teeth too.

 

[BBP]

I found it interesting with ours, we (before foxy interference), would put the nets on the floor (I dont know what type of nets, not sure on the difference between trickle nets and small hole nets?) as an extra, rather than the sole source of food just to make sure that some of the hay ration lasted into the night. they always had loose hay as well. One of the horses always chose to eat from the floor net in preference to the loose hay...no idea why! So we would have plentiful hay spread around the track system and then a couple of these nets. I think the type of hay does play a part on how easy the horse finds it to eat. We had one type of hay that was stalkier and strawier than the other hay and the horses found it much easier to eat from the net, whereas the softer stuff didn't poke out so much and was more frustrating. We stopped using the tricky hay in the nets.

I certainly wouldn't only use the nets for my horse, I use it as a source of variety and interest rather than to restrict his intake, so he gets some loose spread around, some piled in a trug and some in a net.

 

[Nugget La Poneh]

I use a haylage net, fill it then tie it up in a not at the neck of the net, then tread the spare rope through the netting, tie in a quick release and then use a small piece of twine to tie the 3" loop that's left to the netting.

Always done it, and not yet had a problem. Nugz has learnt he needs to push it in to get the hay out, he also throws it around a bit as a toy. If, on the rare occasion he's in, it's clipped to a string from the rafter and he has to chase it around like a punch ball

I think the trickle mets are a step too far for some horses. I have the greedy feeders for nugs, but they have to be tied up conventionally. Can't use them as a ball, or from the rafter as he gets too frustrated. One thing I did notice as well with the greedy feeders is the wear pattern on his front teeth where he's having to change his eating pattern to get the hay out. I don't really use them as the only source of feeding now, and as he didn't have any hay over the summer his teeth look to have improved.