Horse slow forager / haycube/ eazigraze/ haylo/ haygain

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Horsekaren

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Has anyone had any success using a horse slow forager? i am really liking the look of the below but price isnt appealing to me -
http://www.eazigrazer.co.uk/

https://haylohorsefeeder.com/


I am having to feed soaked or steamed hay off the floor due to respiratory issues which is fine apart from he is gobbling his hay to quickly and trying to soak hay in a barrow and a net when i have to soak quarters of a bale is just taking to long, i'm wetter than the hay by the end of it. .

I am really tempted to splash out on one of the above or maybe try and build one,
would somthing like the below be suitbale to leave in a horses stable if tied to the wall?
any ideas what i could use to slow him down,
i dont like the idea of metal mesh as this damages teeth,
hay nets will just get baggy,
idealy somthing plastic but not sure what :/ http://www.argos.co.uk/product/4138727
 
Wow they're expensive :O

Would a hay bar be a suitable alternative, with nets tied to the bottom to slow him down?
 
AFB said:
Wow they're expensive :O

Would a hay bar be a suitable alternative, with nets tied to the bottom to slow him down?
Click to expand...

he has a hay bar at the moment and its not slowing him down, im trying to avoid nets because of the aggressive tugging which is needed. i could be wrong but i feel a 10cm plastic hole would be easier, i suppose like grazing around a stone in a field. The hay bar doesnt make it any easier for me to soak hay either, at the minute it is just taking to long i did 4 sections this morning and that took 40 mins :( i really like the idea of just filling one of these thinks up with hay, sticking the hose in, mucking out and then drain and go.
 
it's not a slow feeder as such but getting a haycube changed my life :o no more lugging soaking nets around, so easy. Mine don't tend to scoff their hay too quickly anyway, I tend to feed ad lib so they eat as much as they want fairly steadily.
 
milliepops said:
it's not a slow feeder as such but getting a haycube changed my life :o no more lugging soaking nets around, so easy. Mine don't tend to scoff their hay too quickly anyway, I tend to feed ad lib so they eat as much as they want fairly steadily.
Click to expand...

i wish the Haycube did a option to add a slow feeder on the top. I try and feed adlib but he is greedy so adlib is at least a bale a day unless i can slow him down.
How much hay can you fit in the Haycube? im looking for something that would take between half and 3 quarters of a bale
 
Yeah I could get that much in if I packed it well - when I had small bales I got a load in stacked one way, and then 2 more slices tucked down the sides. I feed big rounds now though.
 
I have haycube that I put a haynet inside (originally bought to soak hay to reduce weight). She could eat the whole cube of loose hay inside of an hour but with the haynet it lasts maybe 4 hours as she nibbles through the net. I have used a spare rug leg strap to tie around the handle to clip onto the net to prevent her dragging it out & getting tangle. It is a bit of a squash to get full sized net in but happy with the arrangement
 
Horsekaren said:
i wish the Haycube did a option to add a slow feeder on the top. I try and feed adlib but he is greedy so adlib is at least a bale a day unless i can slow him down.
How much hay can you fit in the Haycube? im looking for something that would take between half and 3 quarters of a bale
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Mne is a hand smaller than yours and a good doer. I work on him getting half a bale a day, more if hes in for any reason or I put hay out in the field because its wet or frosty. Horses need lots and lots of forage. Are you sure you need to feed him less?
 
Loved my hay cube! it can fit a fair amount in and it saved my back from lugging heavy wet nets around.

You can try a net inside a haycube, fix a tie ring on the wall low to the floor, then drain the haycube, do not screw the plug back in and instead pull the haynet string through the whole and fix to the tie ring.
 
Leo Walker said:
Mne is a hand smaller than yours and a good doer. I work on him getting half a bale a day, more if hes in for any reason or I put hay out in the field because its wet or frosty. Horses need lots and lots of forage. Are you sure you need to feed him less?
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its not so much about feeding him less, its not a diet. He is coming in from 4pm until 7.30am so that is 15 and a half hours of prime hay munch time. I have turned up to find no hay left in his stable which i hate, this would be 3/4 of a bale which he had eaten, when i up it to a bale he often has some left but i think this is because its been sat on the floor of the stable for 15 hours and got too wet.
My horse needs to graze constantly and not be left without hay, having said that he inst a nibbler he just eats so quickly.
 
I've recently bought a Haygrazer and Haygrazer Play for mine - really easy to fill, soak, carry, and hang, and they claim to trickle feed without frustrating the horse too much, or causing them to rip at the hay violently (which is not how they naturally eat). They have bigger holes at the top, and smaller at the bottom - so the horse can eat easily when hungry, but once they have eaten some, it slow them down. I really rate them.

However, I've now changed to haylage - and it takes a lot more effort for my horse to get haylage out of them, to the point I'm considering just feeding from the floor of his stable as I think he's jerking his neck around too much!

I bought mine on sale at 30% off, they're now selling them at 25% off I think.

I'm going to hang on to mine for a bit in case I have to change back to hay for any reason (e.g. horse goes loopy on haylage - so far so good though!).
 
I bought an eazigrazer which I like but I have found a couple of problems with it, my horse has manged to get the grill off a few times. It looks huge but as you have to pull apart the slices to make it possible to get the hay out I can only get 3 slices in it. Which isn't enough to last the whole night.
I'm still pleased with it though
 
I have a very greedy very strong horse who puts on weight easily so I have to restrict the amount of hay/haylage. I have tried the eazigrazer in the field jammed into a large very heavy bus tyre but he managed to pull the whole thing out of the tyre so I felt it was too dangerous to use with the 'lid'. I have also tried the haygrazer play but he is became way too efficient at removing the haylage from this so I'm back to double netted Martsnets (but he still empties them way too easily).

So I now feed him oat straw as well as his haylage - which he doesn't gobble as much but which seems to keep him happy overnight.
 
ponyparty said:
I've recently bought a Haygrazer and Haygrazer Play for mine - really easy to fill, soak, carry, and hang, and they claim to trickle feed without frustrating the horse too much, or causing them to rip at the hay violently (which is not how they naturally eat). They have bigger holes at the top, and smaller at the bottom - so the horse can eat easily when hungry, but once they have eaten some, it slow them down. I really rate them.

However, I've now changed to haylage - and it takes a lot more effort for my horse to get haylage out of them, to the point I'm considering just feeding from the floor of his stable as I think he's jerking his neck around too much!

I bought mine on sale at 30% off, they're now selling them at 25% off I think.

I'm going to hang on to mine for a bit in case I have to change back to hay for any reason (e.g. horse goes loopy on haylage - so far so good though!).
Click to expand...

I also bought the Haygrazer Play when they were on sale. Really like it. Can't fit as much hay inside as I would like, so I hang it along with a standard haynet (normal sized holes) to make sure he has enough to last the night.

He goes for the Haygrazer first, every time. Says it all, for me!

I'd love one of these slow feeders, but they are expensive and I reckon B would enjoy putting their durability to the test... :D
 
I have a similar problem with a greedy horse with respiratory issues. I steam his hay, put a couple of slices in a large bucket/trug and the rest in a haynet with small holes (a haylage net though not one designed to slow eating down). I find that it slows him down having a choice for some reason!!
 
Embo said:
I'd love one of these slow feeders, but they are expensive and I reckon B would enjoy putting their durability to the test... :D
Click to expand...

I bought the haycube for Millie because she needed her hay soaking... I would have loved one with a grill on but she is a persistent climber and I just knew I'd come in and find her stuck in it at some point :o at least with the haycube she could get herself out again quite easily!
 
ponyparty said:
I've recently bought a Haygrazer and Haygrazer Play for mine - really easy to fill, soak, carry, and hang, and they claim to trickle feed without frustrating the horse too much, or causing them to rip at the hay violently (which is not how they naturally eat). They have bigger holes at the top, and smaller at the bottom - so the horse can eat easily when hungry, but once they have eaten some, it slow them down. I really rate them.

However, I've now changed to haylage - and it takes a lot more effort for my horse to get haylage out of them, to the point I'm considering just feeding from the floor of his stable as I think he's jerking his neck around too much!

I bought mine on sale at 30% off, they're now selling them at 25% off I think.

I'm going to hang on to mine for a bit in case I have to change back to hay for any reason (e.g. horse goes loopy on haylage - so far so good though!).
Click to expand...

Do you have to hang these up or can you leave them on the ground?
 
Reacher said:
Do you have to hang these up or can you leave them on the ground?
Click to expand...

You have to hang them up, i think... Certainly the Play, anyway, as the whole point is that it moves. Ideally it should be hung from a beam in the centre of the stable - not really possible in my stable though so I've got just it hung from a normal ring with a bit of baling twine.
 
Have you tried a couple of heavy logs on top of his hay in the haybar. We do that with one of ours to stop him throwing his hay all over his table but I imagine it would slow the eating down too. It wouldn't help much with the soaking though.
 
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