Mare eating straw bedding

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Any ideas on how to get my mare to stop eating her straw bedding?
She gets a large small holed haynet each night and after she’s ate that moves onto her bed! I’m reluctant to put more hay in for her as the net she has is simply huge and she’s incredibly gutsy so will each all day. She also a very colicy mare so the straw does not do her good at all!

I’m 90% sure that she’s not eating it because she’s hungry as even if she’s just been brought in from 12 hrs grazing her head will go straight down to the straw as soon as she’s inside!
I might also add that she’s only had a straw bed for around 6 months and has been on shaving for the previous 7 years
 
I had to take mine off straw. She had 2 soaked haynets at night and then would eat most of her bed - and gained weight she really didn't need!!
 
I had a lovely irish big horse who would eat straw in the field rather than grass - he just liked it.

Unless it's causing a real problem with colic or weight gain I would leave her to it - ulcers from stressing about not enough food overnight would be worse

If you really don't want her eating it - swap to shavings. Or get some oat straw (much softer and easier to digest so far less colicy issues) and put a net of that in as well as the day
 
One of mine would eat his whole bed so I always had him on shavings, but my other horse was on straw for a while and my muck heap is in one of my fields and he would eat it off the muck heap! I have both on shavings now and it didn't matter how much hay he got he just loved straw.
 
Ive put mine on a mix of straw and shavings this year, I hate shavings beds but if I give him all straw he will eat it, hes just greedy! I put straw down first, chuck a load of shavings over it, toss it together and then spray it with a weak dettol solution. He still eats a bit but Ive watched him sniff it once sprayed and turn his nose up
 
IME, horses which eat all night are NOT being greedy, they are just doing what comes naturally. If you don't want her to have more hay and don't want her to risk colic by eating long, not very clean straw, give her a big trug of plain oat straw chaff. She will eat it if she feels the need to do so. Horses are trickle feeders, research shows that horses eat 16 hours per day but not in a block. What do you expect your horse to do when she has finished her haynet? She isn't going to sleep all night, or read a book, like humans do.

Horses who have their access to forage restricted will eat all before them whenever they get the chance but if they have continuous access, they will learn to self-regulate
 
Pearlsasinger said:
IME, horses which eat all night are NOT being greedy, they are just doing what comes naturally. If you don't want her to have more hay and don't want her to risk colic by eating long, not very clean straw, give her a big trug of plain oat straw chaff. She will eat it if she feels the need to do so. Horses are trickle feeders, research shows that horses eat 16 hours per day but not in a block. What do you expect your horse to do when she has finished her haynet? She isn't going to sleep all night, or read a book, like humans do.

Horses who have their access to forage restricted will eat all before them whenever they get the chance but if they have continuous access, they will learn to self-regulate
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No, not all (or even many) horses "self-regulate". Horses which are fat and eat all before them ARE greedy and must be restricted before they risk all the myriad of problems that come with obesity. What I expect my horse to do when it has finished it's carefully measured rations is NOT STUFF ITSELF. I have stable cameras and can see exactly what they do, which is doze, observe the world and contemplate life.
 
I’m going to put my horse on straw this winter so he can eat it!
I far prefer shavings but he’s had ulcers and is a funny one with hay, some days he eats loads and some days he picks and wastes loads so it’s hard to work out ad lib without massive wastage.
So I plan to give a good amount of hay but have peace of mind that if he runs out he can nibble his bed.
 
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