The ways to feed forage - how do you do it?

When will Hannah Foal

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viola

viola

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I discussed this this morning with someone and just wonder WHY so many people like to use haynets despite there being more and more research indicating detrimental influence of them??

So what do you think, why do you prefer using haynets and not, for example, haybars which seem ideal???

Some of what Internet says:
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- The natural posture helps the back muscles and helps youngstock to develop correctly.
- In my experience horses that are not fed from nets or racks maintain a far more balanced wear pattern to their teeth enabling them to grind properly and in turn gaining the full value of their food.” (EDT B.E.V.A./B.V.D.A)
- A horse should eat the way the body was designed, with the neck and back stretched through its top line to a low level and the teeth and jaw working in a natural position.” (Physio)
- The excessive use of hay nets, restricted turn out, and limited access to traditional pastures and/or hay can have an extremely detrimental effect on the teeth due to inhibited use of incisors, uneven wear of the molars and the overall impact a managed environment has upon the posture of the horse. (Tellington TTouch UK)
- Feeding hay from haynets or hayracks has been suggested to increase the risk of developing cranial and caudal hooks on the dental arcade.( Equine Veterinary Journal)
- Also heard (on video on here:Equine Mandible Movements and Ridden Work Video ) that, while pulling hay through the holes, horses use their neck muscle in a way which often causes tension later when ridden .

I understand that feeding from the ground has lots of disadvantages but why not haybars/mangers sort of thing? Why so many haynets everywhere?

What do you use?
 
Mine is out from start of May to end of October 24 x 7 and has four days a week out during the winter with grass and later hay on the ground.

When in I use haybags for Chancer, and hang them reasonably low as they are safer than haynets.

Cairo prefers a big holed haynet and again not too high up.

Cairo refuses to eat hay from the floor and Chancer drags it everywhere and pees on it. I can't use haybars as Cairo has very poor eyesight and Chancer would probably wreck it at the moment.
 
all of mine eat forage from ground level apart from one who makes such a bloody mess that his is fed in a haynet.Hate the things but sometimes is a nec evil! mairi.
 
Haynets - my lad will not touch anything that has touched the ground and is stupid enough to get into a haybar and injure himself (has done it)

OH's mare will eat off the ground but drags it all into bed and then wees on it and won't touch it - haybar - same problem
 
Haynes! smalled holed, one inside the other, don't care what anyone else says; there's less waste and it takes him longer to eat. For those with very good-doers and laminitics or those that have to be stabled for various reasons.

Out 24/7 from April till November,out during the day in winter in at night

Never had a problem with teeth, has a big neck so what?
don't show, don't do dressage, don't jump. I hack.

I have put the odd slice on the floor, if we're waiting for the farrier etc, it lasts him about 10 minutes!
 
I feed mine their haylage in large rubbery/plasticy sort of tank/tub things from a plumbing shop, its the same as them eating it off the floor except they cant spill all their haylage over their beds!, I just fill a load of alfa a bags and weigh them and then tip into their tubs.

I think its more natural and better for their teeth grinding/topline not to eat out of a haynet!
 
I use low hung haynet, hung in the corner over a HayBar.

Installed the HayBar but the horse just pulled the hay out all over the floor and made a horendous mess of his shavings bed; So went back to using a net again. At least the hay droppings from the net fall into the HayBar instead of the floor now. Blinking expensive way to keep a bed clean though
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Haynet always have done, my horse beleive it or not no matterr how hungry she is will not eat from the floor or drink but she will in the field, and no I didnt make her like this she has always been like it, I've now got her eating breakfast in a bowl on the floor but she has a corner manger and bucket holders and wont eat any hay she drops unless it has no bedding in, very fussy!
 
i am a firm beleiver that haynets are EVIL.

horses get tangled in them..

Horses get frustrated with them...

Horse get ewe necks with them.

lou x
 
Mine are out 24/7 all year round. During the winter their hay is loose on the ground, but for next winter I have invested in a Hay Hutch which I'm hoping will reduce waste and poaching.

When they're in a stable at all - waiting for farrier, vet etc - they get a slice in a small-holed haynet. I don't like haynets for prolonged use for all the reasons mentioned already.
 
Neither of mine will eat hay pulled from the hay net and trampled on the floor. It would lead to horrendous waste if fed directly from the floor. My Section D has only 1 eye and, after investigating HayBar, I reluctantly came to the conclusion that he could injure himself on it as he thinks that if he can't see anything on his blind side, then there actually is nothing there. This is NEVER true! Also, both my neds are fat pigs and would scoff too much hay too fast and then (a) risk digestive problems and (b) have nothing left for later. I know all the arguments about feeding from haynets and I appreciate they don't in any way replicate a horse's natural feeding movements. But then, being in a stable doesn't either. Sadly, until something exists that addresses ALL the issues that people have mentioned above, then I have to stick with haynets. I hope there's a lateral thinking manufacturer reading this thread!!!
 
re: horses get tangled in them.. mines has never been tangled in a haynet but has in a haybar (very nasty experience) and won't eat off the floor - suggestions??

Horses get frustrated with them... he's never been frustrated by food in his life - sometimes wish he would as it could then be a bribe
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Horse get ewe necks with them. - definitely got no ewe neck, if anything the opposite and his topline is often commented about

To be fair he does spend min 12 hrs a day out at grass (which he will eat off the floor, strange creature
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) and is ridden 'round'

Oh and he's 19yo (owned for 15yrs) and BEVA dentist has never found a problem with teeth griding incorrectly
 
My friend runs a livery yard and always feeds hay from the floor, one owner insisted that her horses had haynets, and always tied them up herself.

One morning the grooms arrived to find that the horse had her back leg caught in the haynet (tied up high) - had hit her head and was all but dead, did not even last long enough for the vet to arrive!!

I had already stopped using haynets by then due to all the benefits to teeth etc but since then am even more against them, I will not use them on my yard except under supervision, ie when tied up for bathing, and travelling.
 
I hate haynets and prefer to feed from the ground (I'm the only one on the yard that does this) however sometimes we have to feed really rich haylege, so I feed it in a haynet so I can feed less, but so that he doesn't eat it in about 5 mins.
 
I do not particularly like haynets, but my horse is a greedy lump and just hoovers everything up of the floor.

He tends to untie his HN and I find it dragged across the stable. Luckily he has not got his feet caught in them, but its worrying.

Have tried a hay bar and he just threw all the haylage onto the floor and ate it that way.

I will just continue putting the haylage in loose, better that than the horrific accident somebody else mentioned.
 
From the floor. I have a big TubTrug bucket that has my hayledge in, although before foalie arrived it was loose on the floor, but shes a menance for playing in it, and laying in it, so I got the bucket.

It makes life sooooooo much quicker, I just chuck a few sections of hayledge in the bucket and thats them sorted, OH's horse has huge hay/hayledge nets at night which are a pain in the backside to fill and tie up. Trying to persuade him towards a bucket...
 
Strange how the highest vote was from the floor but the highest number of posts are from haynet users!!
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Has anybody seen/tried the new make of haybar? www.eezhay.co.uk Comes in all sorts of colours
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I fully understand why people use haynets for good-doers - it does slow them down.

When someone designs something where you can feed from the floor but it restricts the horses intake they will make a fortune.
 
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