to use haynets or to use nothing but the floor that is the question

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Abracadabjar

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My mare has started wanting to eat her hay off the floor and leaves her haynet to the last knockings....

What do you guys prefer to use haynets or natural way of them eating on the floor????

My only though of it being on floor is it mixes in to the bed and can get contaminated and wasted by there poop and wee.

would love to hear what peoples opinions are.
 
what about a haybar instead then, that encourages natural eating but contains the hay in a corner bar! Saying that my two used to pull it all out and eat off the floor anyway!
 
I used to feed mine with haynets but she is having loads now, and we only have the very large square bales at our farm. I find it so much easier to put it on the floor than do battle wit the hay nets, I'm also allergic to hay, so the less I have to touch it the better
 
I hate hay nets, feed from the floor or haybars, one of ours also empties her haybar onto the floor
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Used to be floor only, then for various reasons had to use haynets (or rather, hay in haylage nets), now back to floor.

Use nets only for travelling, or when tied up. Loads of people don't tie up with nets, and don't have them for travelling.

Someone recently suggested using the 75L tub trugs in the stable.
 
haynets all the way..... even tho i HATE filling them!
if i leave ANY hay on the floor it ALWAYS ends up in alfies water bucket! when i did leave it on the floor it looked like he just picked it up and put it in his water bucket! just fills it to the top with hay, what a waste!
with the hay net he just eats is all so im happy and so is he x
 
I prefer haynets as they are less mess but my boy needs to eat from the floor as in drains hs nose, it is not natural for horses to eat from haynet level, so I put up with the mess.
 
I prefer the floor, as I have always been taught that this is more natural, encourages a more correct muscle development through the neck, and also can aid respiratory issues, as any dust/strands etc are not falling into the horses nostrils. It also removes any chance of a horse getting caught up in an empty/loose net. Having said that, I do understand that nets are better for some horses, like those who eat very quickly/are on limited rations! Or like you said Boomer...those messy chaps who manage to spread it all over the stable!!
 
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Someone recently suggested using the 75L tub trugs in the stable.

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Which I saw in Tescos sale for £2!!

Be careful to check your horse doesn't eat too much bedding, my vet warned me that she's seen lots of colic cases with the 'easibed' type of bedding and food on the floor.
 
QR- any horse dentist/ vet will tell you that haynets are bad for teeth, as well as encouraging an unnatural feeding position, therefore encouraging the wrong muscles to develop in the neck. However if your horse is a real messy pup then haynets are a must, even with haybars i've found they still drag it through the bed. My EDT says keeping the net below head height makes a big difference
 
Maizy - I don't like Tesco, but for £2...

A word of warning regardin using haynets it you have a likit type thing in the stable as well. My mare's haynet is covered in the smearings of the Likit, we put a two year old in there (without the Likit), but she obviously liked the taste of it - she was trying to eat the haynet!
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My EDT says keeping the net below head height makes a big difference

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Which potentially brings other problems.

Mine always get fed off the floor, but they tend to pee/poo away from their hay.
 
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Maizy - I don't like Tesco, but for £2...


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Totally agree but then I was dragged in...and smetimes needs must!
 
well, i find they seem to think the point of a haynet is to see how fast they can pull the hay out, taking a few bites , as they do it then leave it or use as bedding
i have a shetland and was a pony on his own, for some time, i liked to put a few haynets around his pen so it gave him something to do.
i think it depends on the quality of the hay.
for my other 2 , to stop the problem i feed them from the cattle feed rail ,where the hay is out side the pen, stops them from treading on it or mixing it with the bedding.
 
I just don't like them at all tbh, never used them myself, as back in the dark ages when I learnt to ride, my instrctors had had a pony throttle itself overnight with one, I decided to learn from their experience
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I much prefer to feed off the ground because it's more natural for muscle development, teeth, breathing etc. I knew a horse that cracked it's pelvis and had to be put to sleep because it got it's leg caught in a haynet. I also hate to see little ponies having to stretch upwards and pull at their haynets, developing muscles in all the wrong places!
 
Until earlier this week, I was a haynet addict.
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Then my 4 yr old got stuck in them whilst rolling and had to be cut free. I now feed her from the floor (she has a weird alcove kind of bit in her stable as it's a converted barn and it goes in there
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), everything else gets it on the floor now too.

It helps immensely that I see to my horses at least 4 times a day cos they're very close to home and they don't have to have ginormous piles that they can drag all over the place.
 
75L Tubtrugs all the way for me, keeps floor tidier and lets them eat in a more natural manner. For those that need wetting just drill holes in the bottom and let water drain out. Each horse has different colour trugs. Fantastic!
(have just reread that - God I sound so sad)
 
The tubtrug idea sounds fab i hadnt thought of that!
Surely that way they are eating more naturally, building the right sort of muscle and are less likely to caught in it

although maybe not great if they crib and may take up quite a bit of room in the stable- depends how messy they are i guess
 
i feed from the floor and in a haynet- probs 75% of hay on floor and remainder in a net.
wierdly my horses all prefer to eat the hay in the net first and then move onto the stuff on the floor. like some of the previous posters- my nets are not too high up so no strained neck muscles.
 
I have used hay nets for 20 years UNTIL when I stopped away at a show and my 4 year old got caught his back leg in it, could of been like it all night! I was horrified, and will never use one again over night. I only use one when I am with him. The net was hung really high up and I couldn't beleive he could ever get his leg up that high! Just go's to show! I am god dam lucky he didn't break his leg and after a few hours he was sound.
 
mine goes in a hay net or he scoffs it down if its on the floor and he poohs init to. so wastes alot of it lol. but hes a dirty bugger.
 
Always feed from the floor, tried a tub trug but both my lads kicked it over to get the hay out even more easily, so gave up with that! My EDT told me that a horse jaw is designed to grind it's food levelly when the horse head is grazing from the ground.
 
From the floor. Both of my 2 do tend to waste some, but it is better for them so I put up with it. Off the floor is the natural postion for horses, and when the head is down is also the only time the guttural pouch drains properly. My mare has got herself caught when we used to use them - she is only small, so there is a limit to how high you can tie it for her, and so the correct height for her is low enough that her (frequently flying) limbs can get caught.
 
I feed hay from the floor, if a bit mixes in with his bedding then so be it!

I don't like haynets, there's a danger of them getting their feet caught, and it's more natural to feed at ground level.
 
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