Ideas for wasting less hay when feeding in the field?

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Lucky788

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As title, ideas please of ways to feed horses in the field but minimising the waste in the ground once the mud kicks in :) TIA
 
We feed outs from a hay rack and a hay box.

The box is good as it is just a wooden box size of 1/2 pallet approx. It can be moved about so that the field does not suffer where they eat. It keeps the hay off the ground thus not being wasted in the mud.
 
Im chucking a small holed (and small) haynet out at night currently but thats just my boy and he is barefoot and our ground is rock hard still but going forward either the 240 litre recycling bins with the bottom cut out one side so i can fill it up and he is naturally eating from the floor or a pallet box. Both will be movable to avoid mud tramps.
 
I looked at hay hutches but as my ponies don't share food I'd need at least 3 so at around £600 in total that's a good few bales of hay so they can just waste it!

I did have some success feeding in large plastic water tubs when they were younger so would will probably try that again this year. Bonus being that the tubs can be used as water troughs in summer so don't mind of I have to spend money on them 😊
 
I have just got some posts concreted on to my hardstanding area so i can tie haynets up. Last year had a lot of waste hay that got trampled in to the ground feeding from the floor. year before even more waste putting whole bales in, this way if they aren't eating it i can put less in. Cost £75 for the three to be put in
 
I have a sheep ring feeder and I have made a net cover for it out of two old haynets - the cover is attached with threaded bungee ropes so that it slides down as the bale of haylage (in my case) gets eaten. I have also had to make covers for the fronts of their Horseware rugs after experience showed they can get them caught, but now I have done that the system works well!
 
I have knocked 3 tree stakes in to the ground tight together fir support. I tie a haynet on to them. Only problem is if your land does get wet then they will poach it round the net. Luckily our land is great draining.
 
We use a selection of posts driven in the ground to hang nets off,old lorry tyres (free from your local tyre fitter,they have to pay to get them taken away),and compost bins on pallets with the sliding door removed.Added bonus of a lid to keep hay dry. (Though one of ours v quickly learnt to take the lid off and throw it to one slide lol).
 
Hay Hutches are great as long as you don't have Shetlands, I bought a mini hutch and my two literally chucked it over a wall on a regular basis, unscrewed the lid by rolling the hutch, sat on it, kicked it, climbed on it and generally used it as an adventure playground! It has amazingly survived totally undamaged in spite of their best efforts and is now used for better behaved big horses!
 
Can you put hardcore down? I have a hardcored yard in my field with a traditional round hay bale feeder. I just roll a bale in and flip up onto a pallet to keep it off the ground then pull a big haynet over it, then pull the feeder round it (it splits in half). The net definately helps minimise waste although one of my horses has learnt to chew through some of the haynet to create big holes to get hay out of! In my other field (rented so I cant put hardcore down) its muddy, I have one of those metal feeders which are up off the floor (so a tractor has to lift bale onto it) - again I put it in a net before the tractor put it down. This feeders good for keeping it way out of the mud.
 
I used to use tyres when we only had big horses. Now we have two 12h ish ponies and don't use them anymore as I worry about them getting stuck.

Thinking of making a box out of pallets this year. Although we have no mud yet, odd for November but I'm not complaining!
 
We use plastic dolav bins (used for bulk movement of vegetables so I get them from my work when they get a bit too bashed up to use!). They are a great size, very sturdy and durable but easy enough to move around. There are places that sell them online.
 
We have two plastic hay feeders - they're basically large black troughs with a removable plastic grill that stops the hay blowing away. I think they cost around £100 each but well worth it - they paid for themselves within the first winter as we now waste almost no hay.
 
I used to use old fish boxes - probably similar to the Dolav boxes. Moveable by two 'normal' folk or one super strong person. Really hefty - could cope with being stood in by a percheron!! Might need to be near the docks though to get them but well worth it if you can. Just had a quick squint on Google - the BONAR ID2400 looks similar to what we had. Used to get them for £25
 
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Hello
I got two truck tyres (larger than car tyres but smaller than tractor tyres) and my partner bolted on on top of the other. They are heavy so horses tend not to move them but equally they are moveable if i need to move them. Really fabulous things and i spent many year looking into how to feed hay from the field !
 
Thanks all, it's just to feed one
Some great ideas, like the idea of the wheelie bin as can move around and keeps hay dry, hay hutches look good too! :)
 
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