Haynets-yay or nay?

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Onyxia

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Have worked in two yards,the RS fed hay off the floor and the livery yard had very posh mangers
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New yard uses haynets,which to me seem to do nothing but make mroe work for yourself!
They *can* be dangerous,although most horses will never get hurt it's still a risk and personally,I cant see much point in spending all your ridden time building topline only to encourage the horse to build the wrong muscles when he is eating his hay(which will be a hell of a lot more time then he is working).
Discuss
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Having been very anti haynet I would be realy interisted to hear peoples views on them.and yes,I could have asked the YO but diddnt want to offend.
 
Interesting topic as I am paranoid about haynets. Stable has great manger for hay but as my girl is 11hh we cant use it as it is too high.
When she was at home I fed her hay out of a half oak barrel which was one of my brainwaves as she couldnt walk it about and coughs if it is on the stable floor.
Now she has a haynet at new place but I tie it twice so when its empty it cant drop too low for leg to go in.
Been eyeing the new Shires nets on Ebay which are like a duffel bag design with a small mesh front, look easy to fill and a good idea. Was going to ask what others thought.
 
Always feed from the floor except when travelling. Better for the horses musculature although no less work for us cos we soak hay in a net then tip it out on to the floor. Have fed from the floor ever since our physio told us to!
 
I feed off the floor, in a huge pile in the corner. My two are on mats and shavings and are pretty good about not standing in their hay so no problem. I really cannot be a*sed to fanny about with nets, neither of my two need their hay soaking or steaming and I suspect that FB has never seen a haynet in his life so why worry him now? I agree with you about the topline/muscle thing, in an ideal world I think a horse is better eating with its head down both for digestion and musculature.

I suppose a lot of people like nets because you can make them all all up in one go for a few days, they are easier if you have to soak or steam you hay, they contain the hay more in a stable (debatable!) and they are easier to weigh.
 
I feed off the floor in the stable and field. He has a haynet in the horse box and when tied up on the yard. I'd prob only use a haynet in the stable if i was trying to slow his eating down.
 
I don't see the point either really, would far rather the horse ate in a natural way, head down rather than up! Hvaing said that my horse is a very messy eater and likes to dig and paw his hay into his bed so a haynet would make my life a little easier in that I wouldnt have as muh to pick up/remove from bed. Having said that it's not often he leaves anything! Plus he is quite greedy so a haynet just slows him down a bit - but I still don't use them
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We only use haynets in the wagon when travelling or tied to the fences if a particularly windy day. Don't use them in the stables - don't see the point really. The hay just goes on the floor.

At college all horses had haynets in their stables - not really sure why but then again there were never any incidents with them either and can't say we've ever had any problems/accidents at home with them either. Still, generally just feed on the floor, the most natural way.
 
I'll use them whilst tied up in the barn, say grooming/clipping/standing for farrier, or to carry hay up the field, but that's about it.

On the very rare occasion that I have a horse in over night, then I used to feed most of the hay/the amount I expect them to eat, on the floor, and a couple of extra sections in the wooden, chest height manger that runs along the back of my stable. I now have hay hutches for both of mine though
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They have them in the field, but if they were to come in, then those are light and compact enough to put in the stable too
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feed off the floor too better for both muscles and especially respiratory system!!
However for the morning I do leave a net for my friend to tie up just outside his door so he can reach it but save her time going in etc
 
i really dislike haynets at the yard i used to work at we had to use them and like you say it creates an awfull lot of work filling nets for 30+ horses = lots of work also my old sec d mare used to put her leg thru them and then stand and wait for you to free her, i also know a stallion whos ridden carreer ended as a result of a nasty accident caused by a haynet. agree about building up the wrong muscles, now i have my horse i have bought him a munch station its great takes 2secs to fill and is far more of a natural position to feed from and he uses it easily.
 
Our yard feeds from the floor but there is the odd few that put it in hay nets, I used to have to use a hay net with Mr M because he just used to plough it all into his bedding and waste a lot of it but this winter he seems to be leaving it in the corner and eating it all so no hay net in use this time round thankfully, also some tend to rush the hay so bobbing it a big net with small holes does tend to work better with some horses. I do know somebody who horse got its teeth stuck in a hay net and panicked and ended up pulling its front teeth out!
Its not just the muscles that are effected, its also the teeth/jaw action and as well the respiratory system, the horses natural drainage system doesn't work where there heads are up.

A local hunt yard near us also use haynets....wouldn't like to be the person filling 20 haynets that's for sure.
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I think its all down to what works best for your horse, so long as your careful.
 
Never used haynets and really can't see the point - do they have any pros??

My vet is adamant all horses should be fed off the floor (better for respiratory system and for the muscles, as other people have said). I also believe haynets can be dangerous (after reading some horror stories on here!!) and there is no way I would take the extra risk for no gain whatsoever.

I do use haynets when travelling and I have briefly considered using one for Frodo's HorseHage (purely to slow him down a little and make it last longer) but I don't want to take the risk, and definitely don't want to force him to eat for so long in such an innatural way.
 
I really don't like haynets. My physio could always tell if my last horse had eaten out of one because his neck and poll were out, that'll be £66 to put it back please! Dentists also advise against them because they cause unnatural wear on the tables. The last yard I worked on had 40 horses that each had 3 nets a day, 120 nets that all had to be weighed exactly and then soaked for 30miins was verging on a joke.
 
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My physio could always tell if my last horse had eaten out of one because his neck and poll were out, that'll be £66 to put it back please!

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Wow, that's quite impressive! Definitely something to think about
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Having found a horse in a pool of blood after catching a front tooth on a haylage net and ripping it out I wouldn't use haynets ever again.

My girl is feed from a huge tub trug on the floor, it's how nature intended after all.

ETS the rest of the yard is on haynets - that's 20 horse getting 2 (or 3 for the few big lads) a night...40 plus haynets every day, it's back breaking work filling them all and they are bloody big nets too!
 
agree, hate haynets-bad for backs, neck and teeth! (as well as dangerous and time consuming).

the shetland and mums horse just have piles on the floor, but they are pigs and not on ad-lib so hoover up every scrap.
my TB is on ad lib and can be messy, pulling it in to his bed etc, so i stuff it in a trug, and the excess down the back of the trug and that stops the leftovers ending up in his bed, and is still eating from the floor with the neck stretched down.

i only use nets in the lorry and when clipping.
 
Haybar. Had mine a year now as I never really liked using nets, especially as my girl just gets pee'd off with them so rips huge holes out of them.. Figured in the long run it would be cost saving , was buying a hay net every month. The hay bar is just fabulous, even my vet (who does my horses teeth) commented on how much better her teeth were when he did them in September. I was worried that my 15.2 hw cob would rip it off or poo in it, she doesn't. I have a tub trug in the bottom of it just so I have something to carry it across the yard in (and weigh in) and its also easier to clean the bar out...not that there's ever much TO clean out.

I also thought my girlie would be a glutton and pig it all down swiftly, bizzarrely, she doesn't.

Would wholly recommend hay bars
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Another one here who feeds hay from the floor and only ever uses a haynet for travelling.

As has been said above, it's better for their topline and musculature, better for their teeth and (selfishly) far, far easier for me!
 
Ok, so just to be controversial on the rare occasions that my horse is in she get it in a haylage net, and always has done. Yes I understand there are risks, but when she is a dirty little sh*t and trashes her bed, if you put the hay on the floor it just ends up mixed in with her bed and she eats very little of it, and tbh it's money I don't have to waste (I have tried feeding from the floor, but it failed miserably). She also definitely doesn't have any topline issues!
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On our yard it is up to the individual as to how they feed their horses. We feed off the floor & only use hay nets for soaking hay or when they are tied on the yard or in the lorry..... never when they are on their own as I've seen various injuried caused by nets.
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Ours just drag hay around the floor if it's left loose and they just left it when we had floor hay mangers.
But we use small hole haynets/haylage nets to minimise the risk of them getting a foot stuck or whatever, and tie & clip them up so they don't come down.
In an ideal world we'd feed off the floor but it's just not practical for us now.
 
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Ok, so just to be controversial on the rare occasions that my horse is in she get it in a haylage net, and always has done. Yes I understand there are risks, but when she is a dirty little sh*t and trashes her bed, if you put the hay on the floor it just ends up mixed in with her bed and she eats very little of it, and tbh it's money I don't have to waste (I have tried feeding from the floor, but it failed miserably). She also definitely doesn't have any topline issues!
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I can understand why you might choose to use a net for a certain horse(esp the messy beggers!) and that it is not always practical to feed form the floor(would be a nightmare when clipping for example,and a net is better if horse is left tied waiting for a late vet/farrier) but I dont inderstand why you would have a blanket policy of horses always have nets.
It was very quick and easy to chuck sections over the door at the RS and only took a few seconds more to pop it in the mangers at the livery yard.
I really dont see the point of paying staff to do a silly,fiddly annoying job when it is not a clear benifit to the horses.Most of them drag it out of nets then eat off floor anyway!
 
Ah but you see you're not really 'wasting' money are you as you're not feeding her any more than you would normally - if she doesn't eat it and it gets chucked out with the dirty bedding then that's her loss. It hasn't cost you any more - it'll either have been eaten or you chuck it away. At the end of the day it's gone either way!

I would be tempted to feed her less of it - then maybe she would eat it out of the bed!
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