Ideas for feeding greedy good-doer hay from floor?

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As title. Have recently acquired a slightly plump, greedy, good-doer, connie x who inhales hay.

My horses are all fed from haybars but it's not really an option for this one for the reasons listed above. However he's very sore in his neck, tight over his back and appears to have some sort of mouth issues. Confident that they are all relatively easy fixes and have my EDT & physio lined up BUT I believe that haynets are/ will make the issues worse and undo any work put in.

So in short any suggestions how to feed hay from floor/ haybar so that it lasts through the night. He's currently inhaling more hay in 1.5hrs through double nets than my 16.3 TB goes through a night. I don't want connie X ever standing with nothing but equally don't want to be putting more condition on him ( and bankrupting me! Lol)

Thank you in advance :)
 
My mare is a very good doer too. At the moment, as there is zero grass out in the field, I give her as much hay as she will eat while stabled over night, but long soak it during the day.

I also feed her cinnamon which is supposed to help them burn calories, and I have to say she's never looked so well as when she's having cinnamon :)
 
Oh and also, I feed the long soaked hay in big tub trugs, with them secured to the wall. Stops the tub trugs wondering around the stable, and stops them tipping the whole thing upside down (mostly!!). If you have some big haynets, I have used one put over the top of the tub trug in the past, which does slow them down a bit :)
 
I found double netting for a while 'trained' mine to want less but given what you've said, i'd say soaking hay is your only option... this tends to slow them down a bit too as they don't like it as much ;)
 
Thanks :) Was hoping to avoid soaking for the purely selfish reason that's it's too freaking cold to be dealing with wet hay!

Tonight's net is wrapped in 4 nets and 2 "eliminet" nets on order.

Only had him since last Saturday and he's getting fed at least 3x more hay with us as I don't believe in them ever having nothing. There was hope that he'd settle and realise he now had more than enough but the pony in him has to eat it all now in case it's his last meal ever <roll eyes> Wasn't expecting overnight changes but didn't fully realise the extent of the pain under his neck until I went over him tonight ( he's really my mum's horse, I've done the EBW training and had a poke before she bought him but some gentle palpations tonight revealed a bit more-all fixable but nets won't help)

Thanks again
 
Our connie is the same and eats his hay like spaghetti, I'm going to try the elmanets as well. I would also like to feed from the floor ideally but it's just not going to work for him as it just won't last and he is such a good doer. The only thing I've tried to do is lower the ring so he isn't stretching up to the Haynet he's always the first on the yard to finish his hay :rolleyes:
 
elimanet didnt work for my lad they have huge holes at the top where the rings are so he beelined that he has an elimanet inside 3 shires small holed nets and still inhales it all in an hour and its tied top and bottom in his hay bar and the way he pulls at it is awful
 
I actually found that my mare eats slower from the floor than with nets. I had a trickle net but she strained her neck constantly attacking it. She will get through about 16lbs from 4pm til 8am with nibbles left. I have started soaking it now in anticipation of spring. She seems to eat it is a much calmer way, going into grazing mode rather than the constant snatching and shaking of the nets.
 
My pony has trained himself to eat slower.

When he came to me he was massively obese so has been on a diet all winter with minimal hay and a feed of fast fibre for variety. He gets hay AM and PM and his feed pm. To start with he'd gobble the lot in minutes and I worried he'd be without, but as time went on he kind of realised he only got what he got so now eats much slower. With his feed, he will eat a bit, back to hay, eat a bit more etc.

I also give him oat straw which he tends not to eat much of but I know its there and he'll nibble it if he feels desperate!

I know its hard and you dont want your new pony with nothing to eat, but if he needs to lose weight he needs to lose weight. What bedding is he on? x
 
I have also found that mine eats slower from the floor compared to using nets, she's much calmer about the whole thing. All the double netting etc. just wound her up and made her anxious.

I have tried mine on various types of hay and found she is not as keen on coarse, stemmy hay so now I buy this and meadow hay, and give her a mixture. She picks out the meadow hay first which takes time, then the coarser stuff lasts her through the night. I give her approx. 5-6 kg in total overnight.
 
How much cinnamon do you feed ?

Thanks




Abbeygale said:
My mare is a very good doer too. At the moment, as there is zero grass out in the field, I give her as much hay as she will eat while stabled over night, but long soak it during the day.

I also feed her cinnamon which is supposed to help them burn calories, and I have to say she's never looked so well as when she's having cinnamon :)
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