How do you feed your hay?

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Both of mine have haybars.

Expensive to buy, but worth every penny. Reduces wastage and so much better for the horse. Very easy to fill and keep clean.

If I am going to be late up for any reason, I will give them a hay net each as well, but I hang it outside the door, so they have to lean over the door to eat it. That way there is little chance of them getting caught up in it. I hate hay nets with a passion!
 
Mine always has had and always will have it off the floor. Have a huge dislike for haynets, and plus he likes to drag it into a suitable place so he can eat whilst lying down
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yup under the neck and yup thats more like it mayflower! im being mentally retarded tonight as got horrible cold, cant breathe and stupidly just started brushing my teeth with the dogs toothbrush
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PMSL! Yuck!
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yup under the neck and yup thats more like it mayflower! im being mentally retarded tonight as got horrible cold, cant breathe and stupidly just started brushing my teeth with the dogs toothbrush
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Bleugh!!
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I feed off the floor but they just eat it so fast i need to try and slow them down. Do you think this would work??

If i made a little mini haybar with plywood, then fastened a tie ring low inside and tied a haylege net inside the bar ( so it was really on the floor but couldnt be pulled up and the bar prevents little feet getting stuck). DO you think this would be safe?? Both my horses are not violent with their hay!!
 
one has her hay in a huge water tank as i pre soak it so technically she is still eating it off the floor.The tank eliminates the river which would be left each morning. the pony has just been given haynets again as she is on wood pellets and most of her hay ends up in the bed if fed from the floor, daughters mucking out skills leave a lot to be desired without trying to separate hay from wood pellets!
 
Usually off the floor, ad lib, though he tramples and poos on most of it
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ATM in a haynet, soaked, because there's no hay left so we're on haylage.
 
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Usually off the floor, ad lib, though he tramples and poos on most of it
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ATM in a haynet, soaked, because there's no hay left so we're on haylage.

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can i ask why you are soaking haylage??
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ATM I feed from a haynet although am planning on getting a haybar.
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Ive tried feeding it off the floor and from a big bucket but the hay just ends up all over her stable.
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not having a go at anybody
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just asking a question???We know what our horses will eat to a t on the yard...if we go over it ends up in their beds...surely if peoples horses are wasting hay and trampling in beds and pooing/peeing all over it (my lad will do this if he has had enough)they have eaten their fill and you can reduce the amount they get???only asking as i increase and reduce the amount my lad gets depending on weather temp..if bloody cold he eats loads,if mild alot less..but as he on haylage he eats pretty much everything barring a few mouthfuls
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belly full!!am happy,no waste!
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Horse don't always eat off floor in wild as they are browsers, though poss not as high up as we hang hay.


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Think it depends how much there is to forage! We always admired our old ornamental cherry tree when we moved in - lovely shape and perfectly flat on the bottom. Following years it never looked quite as good, and in the end it looked positively ragged underneath. Was speaking to our neigbour and she said the previous owner used to let her 3 rescue ponies graze the (large) garden to save mowing, and the tree was definitely pruned at full stretch by the 3 ponies.
 
For my guys;

those in stables - from the floor
those in fields - out of huge metal tombstone hay feeders
those travelling - from the floor (our horses are travelled loose in looseboxes within trailer)

For those who think the only way a horse can injure itself with a haynet is by getting their legs caught in it, think again! A horse liverying on my yard (the only one who had hay in haynets) snapped its lower jaw in half as teeth became caught in nylon haynet. Half of the whole lower jaw had to be surgically removed and horse lost half of it's teeth obviously. I can't believe people still use haynets to be honest; I stopped using them much longer than 20 years ago.

If you really have to use haynets, please don't use nylon ones! They are very very dangerous.
 
Reading some of the horror stories that go with haynets is enough to put anyone off using them. know I'm starting to think twice. The ones that mess it up in there bed do so not because they have too much but because they paw at the hay as they eat it. We also feed using the big round bales of hay so filling a net is easier for me as it's easier to carry once drained. (I use an old cattle water trough that's huge to soak the hay in). Those haybar things look like a great idea but are so expencive and I just couldn't afford to kit out 14 stables.
 
Most are fed from the floor, we do have one who has 50% on the floor and 50% from a small holed net to slow him down a bit through the night.
 
my mare and gelding who are 13yrs old get it in small holed haylage nets and my youngster on the floor as she eats the net after that hay!
it is easier on the floor i must say.
 
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I feed off the floor but they just eat it so fast i need to try and slow them down. Do you think this would work??

If i made a little mini haybar with plywood, then fastened a tie ring low inside and tied a haylege net inside the bar ( so it was really on the floor but couldnt be pulled up and the bar prevents little feet getting stuck). DO you think this would be safe?? Both my horses are not violent with their hay!!

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If it works patent it! Lots of people feed in haynets to slow their good-doers down and I think if someone could come up with an idea of feeding off the floor but slowing them down, they would make a fortune.

My ponies are out 24/7 - if bigger pony has to come in I usually feed 50/50 - he just wolfes if down if not in a net but he has had back problems in the past so prefer to feed off floor. However, my mini Shetlands are not quite as greedy so I feed them off the floor, plus one of them has got a foot stuck in a haynet before.
 
Off the floor, although Jethro does annoy me as he mashes it all in his bed. Mind you if I put Amber in the stable afterwards she will pick out all the haylage from the bed for me (unless he poo's on it of course).

When I've tried using a haynet (with tiny holes), he will not eat from it. Fussy pony!
 
On the floor in the field. Only use haynets if weather is REALLY dire and then I hang them in the shelter. Can't put on floor in shelter as they trample it in and believe me, it's not because Henry has had his fill - he's bottomless!
 
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