Won't eat from haynet?

[KEK]

Hi All
1st post but have spent a lot of time reading posts here, lots of extremely knowledgeable people!
We have just leased a 15yo standardbred mare , who is very sweet and a very good girl. She has been getting ad lib oaten hay, and on the ground in the paddock (we live in Perth on 7acres) , and some chaff and a few cubes at night. No stables. She has made an almighty mess with the hay - it's gone everywhere and we are having to clear it out of her water multiple times a day. It's also pretty wastful as she is going through and picking out the good bits and leaving the rest. So last night I put it in a net , around 1/2 a bale and hung it fairly low, where the hay normally is. She hasn't eaten much at all out of it overnight. It's not particularly small holed net. How do I get her to eat out of it? Put some hay back on the ground this morning as don't want her to not eat. Teeth done yesterday, vet said they were great, but she is 40-50kg overweight.
Thanks in advance!!

 

[meleeka]

You could put a couple of carrots in it, sliced lengthways to encourage her to forage. One of mine just didn’t know what to do with a haynet and that’s how i tempted him. I’d still put some on the ground for now.

 

[KEK]

Photos to show set up and cause she's a sweetie, nickers whenever she sees you

 

[Pinkvboots]

When they have there teeth rasped they often struggle to eat hay for a few days, I would put it on the floor for now and just keep an eye on how much she is eating, then if she seems to be coping with it start putting it in a net, if she still struggles I would get the dentist or vet back to check everything is ok.

 

[Pinkvboots]

Soaking it can make it easier to chew after teeth rasping.

 

[Bob notacob]

Horses are better judges of hay quality than humans . When I used to deal in hay I would test samples on Bob. Biggest mistake I ever made was ignoring his opinion on what looked a lovely sample. He gets his hay loose and takes endless enjoyment from shuffling it about .If it is good all is eaten ,if not ,the carefully sifted rubbish is left with a stern note to the management !I hate haynets ,a good horse will clear every strand of good hay (but nothing in the world will get them to eat crap.)

 

[Flamenco]

I had this issue, I was buying hay from a distributor, so it came from a different farm each time. Turned out he didn't like some of the bales, so I ended up giving them to a friend.

He did exactly the same thing as yours. I didn't realise it was the hay until I borrowed a handful from a friend and he snatched it out of my hand. Some are either fussier or better at testing quality depending on how you look at it. Tried giving some to other friends but only one out of six horses would happily eat it. I found a local farmer so now it all comes from one farm and they all love it.

You may also want to try soaking some hay for an hour, as this stops mine dunking his. If you give him a choice he prefers soaked hay to dry hay, so this saves a lot of mess. I soak it all now - much less wasteful than him doing it.

 

[Midlifecrisis]

Make sure you haven’t packed the hay in so tightly that she can’t get her lips and teeth in to pull it out.

 

[Leo Walker]

can you use a hay feeder? I've made a couple from pallets and they are really easy and straightforward to do.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Hi All
1st post but have spent a lot of time reading posts here, lots of extremely knowledgeable people!
We have just leased a 15yo standardbred mare , who is very sweet and a very good girl. She has been getting ad lib oaten hay, and on the ground in the paddock (we live in Perth on 7acres) , and some chaff and a few cubes at night. No stables. She has made an almighty mess with the hay - it's gone everywhere and we are having to clear it out of her water multiple times a day. It's also pretty wastful as she is going through and picking out the good bits and leaving the rest. So last night I put it in a net , around 1/2 a bale and hung it fairly low, where the hay normally is. She hasn't eaten much at all out of it overnight. It's not particularly small holed net. How do I get her to eat out of it? Put some hay back on the ground this morning as don't want her to not eat. Teeth done yesterday, vet said they were great, but she is 40-50kg overweight.
Thanks in advance!!

It sounds as if she has been getting too much hay. If she is overweight, she needs to eat less. I would continue to give her hay on the ground, move the water away from the hay station, so that she gets more exercise as a matter of course and the hay doesn't land in the water so easily. Hay nets can be damaging to horses' neck muscles. As well as less hay, I would give her hay at more times during the day, so that she can have access to trickle fed hay throughout the day but is less wasteful of her hay.

 

[windand rain]

She doesnt look overweight in the photo but second the ida of a hay box preferably with a large holed net over the top to stop her lifting it out. Soaking it for 20 minutes or so might make it a bit more palatable too as Oaten hay is quite coarse

 

[KEK]

Thanks very much for all the replies!
She didn't eat out of the net before her teeth being done either, so less inclined to think its that.
I wondered about the quality of the hay- its supposed to be top quality from the same supplier my RI uses, but I might try from the stock feeders/somewhere else.
She doesn't look much overweight to me, either, but she does have a little bit of a belly. She gets a reasonable amount of exercise walking round our paddocks, as they are hilly, and she is hacked out maybe 3-4 times/week. Short with my husband, longer with faster work with me.
Is a hay box a box on the ground, like a manger type thing? If so I like the sound of that, can give it a try. We have a hay bag I could also try her on. I do trickle feed her when I am home, but work 3 full days/week so she is fed 2-3x daily on those days. I have not tried soaking it but definitely can- she isnt dunking the way in the water, its just blowing in there (Perth is very windy), even though its fed 10m away.
Thanks again, everyone!

 

[KEK]

Just googled hay box- just got my husbands project for the weekend! Would you still put the net over the top if she's not big on nets- could just leave it open, and see how we go with the wind?

 

[windand rain]

Would still put the biggest hole net over it to stop it being lifted out by the mare and being blown around by the wind you could frame a large holed metal mesh/grid a tiny bit smaller than the box as it will fall as the hay is eaten. which if OH is good at DIY is the best way to get the best of both worlds hay is accessible to the horse but weighed down from the wind