Tractor tyres

Sooty

Sooty

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Does anyone use a tractor tyre to feed hay in the field? We are trying to get one but have been told horses can injure themselves on them. Well Beano could injure himself in a padded cell, so not too worried abojut him! Just wondered if it would indeed save some hay from blowing away.
 
I suspect when we are having 'normal' weather they would work to a degree but at the moment in these gales i cant see it happening!

Ive always just put the hay piles as far upwind as I can and watched ponys chase it across the field!
 
Thanks for the replies. I am wary of the horses getting their heads stuck in any sort of feeder, then panicking. Beano is daft enough to put his head in, turn it and be unable to get out. We only put out hay for two horses, and can exepriment with a tyre for virtually nothing, so I am more concerned about whether horses can injure themselves on them. I don't see how they could, but I never saw the danger of haynets and tying with baler twine before I joined this forum!
 
To be honest, I think the worst that could happen would be that he would climb into it - and if he can get in then he can get out again. I can't see them being dangerous.
 
Yes, I use them and they are useless TBTH, waste of time. Good idea, shame they don't actually work. I've just found that most of the horses pull the hay out and goes everywhere anyway
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I should add that they do work if you push the hay right into them and then you don't have a horse that likes to pull all the hay out.

Here's Super_Kat's 2 girls showing how it's done
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No, we don't want the hay in a tractor tyre....
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Hmm that's not a tractor tyre - well not a back one!

If you used a huge one it would stop the hay from blowing away, but the horses would probably climb in to reach

I have spare big ones if anyone wants one!!!
 
If you have a handy Handy Man perhaps they could make a hay box for you.

This is a square, high enough so the horse can't fall into it, with either narrow slats or even wire mesh on the 4 sides, so you put the hay in the top and the horses eat it out of the top and out of the sides.
 
My cousin gave me a selection from small ones (like the ones I use) to ones that are huge, probably 7ft across, but never used the big ones as I thought if they put their front feet in to reach the hay and then suddenly pull back....well it could cause a lot of damage
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Thank you all so much. We were planning on one of the larger tyres, and I think the only danger could be if it got wet and slippery, and one of them climbed in or out and slipped, but even then I can’t see them doing a lot of damage. The trouble with soaking the hay is it can freeze quite quickly in the really bad weather. The main problem is not the hay blowing away, but getting spread around and trodden into the ground. We need to try and keep it more in one place, and a tyre is a cheap way to start. I do have a handyman, but he is overloaded as it is, and the chances of a horse restaurant appearing near the top of the priority list are slim.
 
LOL - we're going to France in April...our friends have a towbar...I wonder! I was worried about it being a bit flimsy though for our gales; we are very exposed and have a lof of mud. Was relieved to read the drawbar came off as I was worried about that, but like I say, Beano could injure himself on a marshmallow anyway!
 
I go on another bulletin board (mostly American) and there was someone a couple of years ago whose horse died when it climbed into the tyre and got stuck. She had pretty graphic pictures of the horse trapped and dead that she posted to show the dangers. I should imagine it was a pretty freak accident, but it did happen. She was advocating turning the tyre 'inside out' to prevent similar. The horse got stuck inside the rims of the tyre and then couldn't get out. Just something to think about.
 
I'm not sure, I can't remember all the details - I just tried searching the archives but couldn't find the post. I have a feeling that it may have suffocated.
 
Bizarre.
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I have had a horse climb into one of my tombstone feeders before; stupid thing, just stood there looking up at the house, so out I went and detached the tombstone and let her out. Quirky thing is, it was my crippled mare who can't even walk.....but she can manage to climb into a feeder.
 
It was really strange - if I hadn't seen the shocking picture, I don't think that I would have believed that it could have happened.
 
I have two tractor tyres to feed from and have been very happy with them. I got them to feed big bale hayledge - OH used a jigsaw to cut away the wall of the tyres and cut one of the tyres in half. He then drilled a hole in each of the cut ends so that I could put rope through them and tie them together. We cut it in half so that they are movable. We did the same with the other one but cut them in quarters as I wanted to put a big bale of hayledge in the field with the half tyre round the bottom and then lift the quarter tyres on top of this and tie them togehter so that the horese can't pull loads of hayldege out but a half tyres is too heavy to lift.

It really worked well and I was happy with it, unfortunatly the YO where I am now doesn't like the idea of them (not sure why - said it was because they waste hay to me and because they make the ground poached to someone else!) but I have kept them as they are difficult to make up but ideal once they are done!

Edited to add that the tyres we used were great big big rear tractor wheel (possibly even the sprayer type tractor) not small tyres)

Heres a picture!
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I've used them very successfully, but they were really big ones (loads bigger than the pictures of the one that clare put up). Only thing is you will need some means of actually getting them in position as they are way too heavy to move by hand, we used a disco and a tow rope.
 
Parsley - what a super pic! Thank you and B&J for your replies - it is interesting to know that people have used them successfully. Bizarrely our neighbour said before Christmas that he would probably have some knocking about and would drop them down, then time passed and we heard no more so I thought I'd do this research before nagging him, in case we changed our minds. Anyhoo, who should turn up this morning with a telehoist and two huge tyres?! They are great, and I really can't see how even Beano can damage himself on them. Watch this space...
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Great! The tyre place where we got ours from couldn't wait to get rid of them quick enough - I think they have to pay to have the disposed of
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Ha Ha! Tractor tyres take me back! I tried that and many more methods of feeding Prince in the field, nothing stopped him getting hay all over the show.
Until this...





Its called a 'Hayledge' and I sumbled across an advert for it in a local paper and thought I'd investigate further. It was completely worth it. I bought one and so have a couple of the other people on my yard. Here's the website if you're interested www.hayledge.co.uk <font color="green"> </font>
 
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