Reason not to use a haynet?!

E

em1

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YO has a house sitter this week who went in to feed them all first thing - she wondered why my youngster didn't have his head over the door as usual - goes in to find he has managed to hook himself onto his haynet by the clip on the front of his rug! Poor boy could have been standing there all night - hadn't even thought to pull back though - not sure if that means he is well trained or a bit dim!
Tonight I have made sure the clips are facing inwards so hopefully it won't happen again! He makes a real mess with his hay if he doesn't have a haynet but that might be safer than having this happen again - dread to think of the mess he could have got into as he does tend to be accident prone!
 
l never use haynets in stables l have seen horses upside down with hind legs wrapped up in one!
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A friend at Pony Club went down to the yard one morning to find his beloved pony dead, with a twisted gut and two shattered hind legs where he had got caught in the haynet.
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Its also more natural for horses to eat from the ground. especially if they've got respiratory or had wind problems. one of our horses has just had a tieback op back in oct, and has to have all his feed fed on the ground from now on.
Mine tend to eat most of their hay by morning....maybe a bit of waste but not much!
 
we also dont use haynets in stables. all youngsters have it on the floor, i personally think it is better for them anyway, than reaching up for it. how about putting it in a large tub to stop him spreading it in his bed.
 
Wont use them for the same reason i wont hang rugs over stable walls or in stables. Horses are accident prone enough without giving them more hanging things in their reach.

Its healthier and more natural for them to feed from the floor so thats what mine gets
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I always make sure my rugclips are facing inwards for this precise reason
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I would feed my hay from the gorund but every time I've tried I've turned up in the morning to find everything churned up in their beds, tried hay in a big tub but it didn't stay in there very long! I'm gunning for a couple of hay bars at the moment
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I don't use haynets however one of my liveries did. I went up one morning and found the horse with a snapped lower mandible because it's bottom front teeth had become caught in the haynet. Horse had to be taken to hospital as an emergency and had the snapped off half of it's jaw cut out; leaving it with only half a bottom jaw.

I just don't understand people who continue to use them when we all know how dreadful they are. If you really have to use one, make sure it is made of jute/coir and not nylon.
 
I don't use them either because a) my horse would be sure to get caught up in them and b) it is more natural to feed from ground level. Sure the bed can get a bit messy sometimes but so what. I also don't leave rugs over my stable door or groomimg kit in the stable as my horse likes to play with things and would trash anything left within reach!
 
OMG I've never heard horror stories like these before & never had a problem before today. But after hearing all these tales I think you've convinced me to take it down straightaway!
 
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Sure the bed can get a bit messy sometimes but so what.

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When you've got big horses in small stables 22 hours a day last thing you really want is them standing on a shitty, skanky, manky bed thats full of hay and impossible to muck out as a result.
If you have a straw bed then fine but on anything else it's a nightmare.
 
I can certainly see why people use them and fair enough, it does keep some horses much cleaner. I'm lucky though as my horse is really quite clean with her hay in a huge TubTrug. She has respiratory problems and so has to be fed from the floor at all times, which was why I started using my haynets for soaking hay only and tipping the hay in the trug instead. My friend saw a horse hanged in a haynet once and won't let one anywhere near her horse any more. I wouldn't use one unless I absolutely had to now (well I do use them for travelling for obvious reasons).
I also do as Super_kat does and clip my rug clips inwards! I'm a bit anal about clips having to face "the right way" though...!
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I use haynet when travelling but use a cattle hay rack in the stable atfer finding a friends pony hanging from a haynet was lucky to be able to get her down in time and she was fine, but horses are accident prone
 
i dont use haynets for several reasons.
ive seen a horse nearly hang itself, seen legs stuck in them etc

i also believe that it is more natural for horses to eat from the floor as it is unnatural for them to use their necks in that way and it also causes problems with teeth developing front hooks and lower ramps.
 
My donkey once clipped his rug to the haynet as the OP. The hunt were passing and the mare went flying into the passage in front of the stable and did not reappear so after the excitement had passed we went to check. She had her fore legs one side of the donk and hind legs the other
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both were just stood there and waited for us to sort them out. Talk about disasters that didnt happen.
 
I use haynets, but after reading your horror stories i'm gonna stop! Morris gets haynets and a pile on the floor, but i'll just give him a bigger pile now! He's quite tidy anyway
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I remember a frantic call from my OH one morning to tell me that my TB had got a haynet caught in his hind shoes.... He had colicked overnight and obviously got caught in it.... However I still use them as I need to trickle feed him hay throughout the day and night..... I jsut ensure they are not tied to the haynet ring but a piece of string instead....
I've also heard a few horror stories about horses hanging themselves in lorries with haynets... mine dont get hay whilst travelling unless its a very long journey...
 
Horses naturally eat from the ground. they are not giraffes. Constantly pulling from a net is exceedingly bad for their necks and backs, and it is alot more natural for them to eat with their head low to allow their airways to drain. If your horse mashes it into their bed, you are feeding too much.
 
I ONLY use haynets in a supervised setting on rare occasion.I do like them for that purpose though

My aunt had a foal caught up in one once.They are so obviously a hazzard in an unsupervised setting
 
I prefer to feed from the ground, but atm I am using haynets as my horse is a good doer and without them he hoovers up his hay far too quickly. I want him on ad lib hay, so have compromised by using haynets.

Are there any ways that I can make using haynets safer? Would it be possible to fix them to something like an Equitie so that if something went wrong they would come away from the wall?

Isabelle
 
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l never use haynets in stables l have seen horses upside down with hind legs wrapped up in one!
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Same here, would not use one!
 
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