Thoughts on haynets and how much hay?

[Amymeemoo]

What’s peoples thoughts on haynets? Iv always given mine haylage nets and fill them to make sure they have enough to last them till the morning so they have something to nibble through the night but recently someone commented saying I should be ground feeding and that they get a lot of hay, None of my horses are over weight and they are out all day on grass. They are all yearlings. What does everyone else do?

 

[TheMule]

I would not feed a yearling from a haynet personally- I don’t think the constant twisting of the neck and the wear it puts on young teeth is good for them. I agree that feeding from the ground at such a crucial stage of development would be preferable- there are lots of options such as haybars and hay cubes if you worry about it getting dragged into the bed. I always feed ad-lib, especially to youngsters

 

[gallopingby]

I wouldn’t use a haynet with a yearling unless travelling and tied up. My horses have hay on the ground or in a hay cube. I’ve seen potentially fatal accidents when horses have become entangled in a hay net. It’s just not worth the risk unless you have 24 hour cameras in the stables.

 

[L&M]

Our mature horses have hay nets but hung at at a low enough height so that they are not reaching and pulling to get at it. One of them has had some physio work for a back issue and when I asked the physio her view on hay nets, she was fine with them as not hung up to high. Without nets we get a lot of wastage.....

However with youngstock I would ground feed as a precaution, or maybe from a hay feeder or bar if they are messy.

In terms of quantity, if they are not underweight or overweight, then you must be feeding the right amount - ignore anyone else as every horse needs are different, and yours are growing so will warrant the extra calories.

 

[milliepops]

Our mature horses have hay nets but hung at at a low enough height so that they are not reaching and pulling to get at it. One of them has had some physio work for a back issue and when I asked the physio her view on hay nets, she was fine with them as not hung up to high. Without nets we get a lot of wastage.....

However with youngstock I would ground feed as a precaution, or maybe from a hay feeder or bar if they are messy.

In terms of quantity, if they are not underweight or overweight, then you must be feeding the right amount - ignore anyone else as every horse needs are different, and yours are growing so will warrant the extra calories.

this is my general feeling. however there has been some research that suggests having forage available at varying heights is beneficial to replicate the actions of browing, so I often have some tied higher than others. other than that, for me it partly depends on the horse, i have one that paws at hay unless it's above foot-range height but i mitigate that by only using large holed nets to reduce effort to a minimum. another won't eat unless his hay is at nose-height (can't be bothered to actually look for his hay), so he also has to have them fairly high. the ones that don't paw have them fairly low.

My youngsters have ad lib hay on the ground though. they are pretty good at clearing it up.

 

[Elno]

1-2 kg dry substance of total forage per 100 kg horse is what usually is adviced. If you go lower you risk damage to the horses digestion and even 1.0 kg dry substance per 100 kg horse is not adviced to feed for long periods of time and not without a vet consult.

I try to stick to around 1.5 ish. That means a horse with a weight of 500 kgs should have around 7.5 kgs of dry substance, re-calculated to hay (dry substance around 84 %) it equals to around 9 kg hay. Haylage is wetter and varies more, so then ideally you need to know the dry substance in it to recalculate correctly ?

I currently feed analysed haylage in slow feeding nets to make my horse slow down eating a bit since I can't feed her more haylage (she gains weight). They are hung so low so she doesn't have to reach up for them, but high enough so she doesn't catch a hoof. She is also unshood at the moment and doesn't wear a halter unless she is led somewhere. She actually managed one time to get herself caught in the net by the front of her rug, which was very scary for me but luckely she didn't panic at all ?

I wouldn't feed from haynets though, unless I really had to. It's better for their necks I gather to eat naturally from the ground, and I also read somewhere that more saliva is produced when they have their heads down to eat (I'll try to find the article, but not entirely sure so don't take it as any form of truth ?). Although I tried to find scientific studies about damage to the neck and haynets I had trouble finding any (except a pilot study if I remember correctly), though a lot of equitherapeuts advising against them, but again - without citing reliable sources.

If anyone can find some papers on the subject I would love to read it ?

 

[My equine life]

I would say always feed hay from the ground or a hay bar type thing. Just give them plenty to last the night if they aren’t overweight. You can always soak the sugars out if they get a bit porky but I like to do ad lib hay but decrease the hard feed if they are overweight. Much more important that they are munching on hay. Can you do two hay feeds. One at say 5 and one at say 9 so they are less likely to run out?