I have an 18 month-old QH gelding and he is a very easy keeper - with a large appetite. He’s probably a 6-6.5 on the body scale at the moment. He is always hungry and scarfs his hay. My barn owner and I are trying to brainstorm a solution. I would like to try a slow feeder net to prolong his eating time and hopefully help him feel more satisfied. The barn feeds 2x daily (owners work fulltime jobs and are not there during the day), so sadly smaller more frequent meals are out of the question. Does anyone here feed a yearling or young horse from a slow feeder? I’m a little apprehensive, because baby brain haha. They like to get themselves into trouble.
I’d like to mention that worms can be ruled out - We did a fecal test (no worms or eggs detected) about a month ago and dewormed him with Equimax 3 weeks ago after our first hard freeze. I also try and turn him out and take him on hand walks as much as possible. Thanks in advance!
If he’s a yearling he should probably be living with other horses, preferably other babies, and he should be in more of a 24/7 turnout situation especially at that age. Also he should probably be getting as much hay as he wants and not a breakfast and a dinner. That’s probably why he’s scarfing it down. IMO it sounds like this boarding arrangement is not right.
I know nothing about young horses, but there are some concerns that eating from a hanging hay net can cause neck problems and I would probably be even more concerned about that in a young horse. There are slow feeders that they can eat from in a more natural position. I got my horse the helix feeder (https://kiwifeeder.com/) about a year ago and have been happy with it. I know others on this board have used the Portagrazers.
I recommend a slow feeder that doesn’t have a drawstring for him to get tangled in. Slow bale buddy has a good system without a drawstring. I bolted a ring to a big rock with no sharp edges and clip my net to that so it doesn’t end up in the fence.
If the paddock allows for it, you could also set up a Batt-Latch gate kit to automatically open up a portion of the paddock at lunchtime. I bought one of these several months ago and it has made a huge difference in terms of being able to put out lunch and midnight hay rather than having my easy keepers on a round bale.
Thanks for the great suggestions! I am going to look into all of them. To clarify, he is not in a stall. He’s in a pretty big sized paddock with a run-in shed. Of course, I wish I could have him on pasture 24/7, but that is not an option here. Good boarding is hard to come by in my area. This place is 5 minutes away from me and has caring owners. They also have turnout pastures for the boarders, which I try to utilize as much as possible. I kept him as long as possible at his breeder’s, where he was in a large pasture with varying terrain and another younger horse to goof around with. But she gave him the boot once she had to bring her own horses up to the barn, haha. Most places that pasture board in this area are bringing their horses in to their sacrifice areas for winter anyways. Overall, he seems happy and well-adjusted here, besides the hay situation. I talked with my barn owners yesterday and they said on the days they are home, they will feed him a 3rd meal in the middle of the day and are willing to do anything else for him. A step in the right direction!
I highly recommend looking into getting a Porta Grazer. We have one for every single horse on our farm regardless of if they live in or out. They have helped save a ton of hay while also providing continuous hay throughout the day.
I’m sorry but a lack of boarding options is not an excuse. If that was really the case, then why would you even buy a baby? Babies need other horses to grow up with, they need turnout, and they need access to forage. It’s absolutely unfair to a yearling to keep it alone in a paddock for 99% of its life. If I were you I would either sell the horse to someone that can provide adequate living arrangements, or board the horse somewhere further away so he can be somewhere that meets his needs.
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Wow, that’s a bit harsh don’t you think? Just because someone can’t have a horse in an ideal situation doesn’t mean that they should sell. If you read what she wrote you would know that a lot of places are bringing horse into sacrifice area anyway so even if she did find some place with pasture board it sounds like they would be in a dirt lot anyway. It sounds like the OP is doing the best she can with the options available to her.
This is ridiculous.
There is very nearly no such thing as an ideal situation, all of us make the best of the situations we’re in.
If OP lives in CA, for example, there is very nearly no such thing as pasture turnout on grass. If the horse were a racing QH, instead of a pleasure horse, he would be broke and jogging around the track already, not to mention spending a ton of time in a stall and being fed a lot of grain.
This isn’t a 12 year old this is a yearling. I’m somewhat sympathetic to having an older horse in a less that ideal situation but a yearling needs correct management. They’re growing, mentally and physically. You only have a few years to not screw that up. Research shows that horses should not live alone and should have as much turnout/ forage access as possible.
They need to be out and moving not in a glorified hamster cage. The “pasture” part doesn’t matter as much if you have access to hay but turnout should be non negotiable for babies or you shouldn’t buy a baby. Give the horse at least another year and a half to grow up, it’s unethical to steal this time from him so he can be 5 minutes away.
Just because something is common, doesn’t mean it’s ethical. And I didn’t mean pasture as in green grass. I really just mean turnout in general with forage access. In some stated (mine included) that could mean a dry lot with hay access.
If he is bordering on the heavy side you definitely don’t need free choice hay. Is there a way you can throw him some hay mid day ( like on your lunch hour) if you are close enough to do so?
If not I wouldn’t do anything unless he has a growth spurt and needs to gain. I have a youngster who terrifies me at the thought of having something at his disposal to either destroy or get into trouble with and a hay net or feeder absolutely fits the bill for that.
Did you read where the OP said that he is in a big paddock with a run in shed? It’s not like the horse is locked in a stall, and like someone said below it’s does not sound like the horse needs a lot of grass. My goodness if it was up to you we would all have to wait till conditions are perfect till we get young horses. It sounds like the Op is in a good situation with Barn owners who are will to work with them. So why try to find else that might or might not work our as well?
And that’s exactly what she’s stated he’s in. So, I’m not understanding the issue:
and
So clearly she didn’t choose to have him moved from his previous situation to this one.
And yes, tothe others who are saying if he’s too heavy and staying there, not slimming down with a growth spurt, he needs some restriction on his calories, but he really MUST keep his nutrition high to meet the large demands of his age.
I just highly doubt “pretty big” is actually that. Also there’s no excuse for keeping him by himself. That also probably why he’s overweight, since he’s not running around and playing.
You seem to be making some major assumptions about how this horse is being kept with little to no first hand knowledge. I am going to tag out on this one because you have already made up your mind that the way this horse is being kept is not the “right” way and nothing I say will change that .
To the OP I am sorry that this got dragged a bit away from the information you needEd and I hope you find a solution that works well for you and your horse .
Maybe instead of making assumptions about how this horse is or isn’t kept, and taking a clear stance on how nobody should have a young horse in that assumed situation, you could offer up some suggestions on how to make the best of the situation and actually offer some advice on that?
I get it you feel Western Skies should have just sold the horse when he got “kicked out” of his previous situation. To go where - another home in the area with the exact same boarding constraints going into Winter?
Not your horse, not your decision. She has him. She’s making the best of what’s available to her.
I literally gave my suggestions for what I would do. Sell or move. I get everyone thinks that’s a harsh but that’s my honest take. They only have a short amount of time to grow up. Why sacrifice that just so they can be 5 minutes from you? You don’t need to be 5 minutes away. It’s not like you should even be doing that much training anyway. Also since this is a boarding barn and the horse has the paddock all to himself it’s probably not that big otherwise the BO would probably put other horses in there.
ANYWAY…To answer the OP’s actual question, yes, I have used slow-feed hay nets with baby horses. I take the drawstring off of all my haynets and use a carabiner clip to close them instead. It’s easier/faster, and eliminates one way for horses to get themselves in trouble. Yeah, in theory, a horse could hook its nostril with the clip, but so far, so good. I throw my nets directly on the ground for my (barefoot) pastured horses. My current filly (now 2.5 years old) spent a lot of time last year carrying hers around the pasture after emptying it, which meant the net didn’t last more than one winter, but otherwise they’ve worked out just fine.
