My horse loves his slow feed nets. Will always go for netted hay, over loose hay on ground.
I have three horses and have used the slow feed hay nets for almost two years now. And all three have different patterns. The hay nets have made my life and my horses lives so much better. I put up a full days (20-30 lbs depending on horse) ration once every 22-24 hours. I try to do this when they are out. My horses no longer have a “feed time”. They always have hay in front of them. I am no longer worried about work, an appointment or errands running late and missing “feed” times. Working with the horses is no longer around any set feeding time either. Horses seem to be less food obsessed.
Horse #1- 26 yr old. Hay net as 1" holes to make 20-25lbs of hay last 24 hours. Will pull small amount of hay out of net, but won’t eat it. Seems to like to eat for extended periods of time and take longer breaks away from hay.
Horse #2- 19 yr old (who had a baby in 2015). Hay net has 1" holes. 20 lbs hay per day. Always starving, even when eating I’m sure she thinks she is wasting away. Never pulls hay out of nets. She is my clean up gal, she will hoover up the loose hay I take from the other two. Rarely stops eating, so she is restricted to 20# maximum per day. This will last 24 hours if they are turned out for 4 or more hours. She hates being rained on, so turnout varies depending on weather. She’s my Prima Dona.
Horse #3- 30 month old baby. Two hay nets both with 2" holes. 30 lbs of hay put up but varies on amount eaten. Only horse who has always had food available (either when nursing or when weaned). Has the best attitude and relationship with food. Will pull some hay out, but only ever interested in eating it if I am scooping it up to give to her mom.
None of the horses make a mess with their hay. It’s nice not wasting it.
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:lol: My pony has figured out this trick too! He’ll chew a muzzle sized opening in each net which is super annoying when I JUST bought them! Little piggy!
If I fill a hay net and put it in the stall, and also throw a loose flake, they will eat the loose flake first.
However, if I’ve had just a hay net in the stall, and it is empty, and I refill it immediately while there is still a large pile of fallen hay underneath it on the ground, they will ignore what is on the ground. I have to leave the hay net empty for a bit for them to eat the fallen pile underneath of it.
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You are supposed to transition them slowly onto the nets.
Unfortunately a slow transition wouldn’t make a difference to him. He’s done it to a hay bag with the hole at the front. It flipped round while he was tied to the float, I heard tearing and he had ripped a hole in the back of it, also has done it to normal hay nets as well. He’s impatient and has no time for them :lol:
If I were to guess :lol: I’d say it’s because horses aren’t really “designed” to just stuff their faces. When they graze, they walk around taking bites here and there, not just slurping up the grass like a bowl of spaghetti. Nets let them graze a flake of hay more in that way.
No surprise to me that the one I have that prefers loose hay is the greedy, fat one. Who always tells me I’m STARVING HER and can ALWAYS be found eating, even in turnout when the others are playing or doing other horsie thing.
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I had to give up on hay nets with my mare. I wanted to slow her down, but she attacks them. In the process she’d yank the net so hard that she’d give herself a sore neck. Her thing was to yank as big a bit of hay as she could, drop most of it on the ground, chew whatever was left in her mouth, and then eat the stuff from the ground. Lather rinse repeat, and she really wasn’t slowed down much. This was true for any size openings; the smaller openings were actually worse because she had to yank harder.
I see all those lovely videos of horses taking a little bite of hay, comtemplatively chewing it, and then, perhaps after a pause, taking another little bite. Not her. If she eats hay like a “normal” horse, it’s a sign she’s not feeling well.
She has always been super anxious/protective about her food. She is not dangerous to humans, but other horses had better not be anywhere near her hind end when she is eating. She will kick, hard enough to injure, or break the fence if there is a fence between them. Unfortunately, she is an easy enough keeper that free choice hay is just not an option.
The time we put two netted round bales out, and one not netted, most of the horses ate the netted bales first with the odd visit to the other one.
They do seem to enjoy the netted bales, perhaps because it does mimic grazing more than one without the net. Certainly in this group there was far less jockeying for position at the bales. My low status horse actually gained weight because he got more time at the hay with less harassment from the higher status horses.
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I have horse that loves eating from the net. I think it simulates the action of grazing more closely than a flake sitting on the ground. It’s the action of pulling it out of the net or hay bag. He’s a good eater. He knows how to empty any “slow” net and will vacuum the ground, too.
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I have hay nets in the stalls. from my experience when the horses leave hay on the ground and seem to prefer to eat from the nets, its because they just don’t like that hay. I assume for whatever reason its just doesn’t taste good. Usually i scoop it up and throw it outside. depending on whose paddock it goes in will usually determine who eats it or leaves it. Just figure its either a spot that has been peed on by cats or dogs, or just isn’t flavorful.
Two of my mares have the 1" hole slow feed nets. I was prepared for graduation introduction, but they each had their own technique down within an hour. 
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I notice the same thing. They also like to grab bites of hay from a bale before I cut the strings. My theory on both is that they can tear off a mouthful if there is resistance while, as one poster put it, they are left to slurp it up like a bowl of spaghetti when it is on the ground.
Further to what Snowdenfarm posted, I think that when horses graze, they tear the grass off – grab stalks in the front teeth and then rip it – vs. bite through it. So, the pulling of bits of hay through (esp. the small holes) might feel more ‘natural’ to them.
So my mare has been at my trainers on full board over Christmas.
Today we were watching her eat her hay out of a net. My trainer mentioned maresy hated the net when she arrived and attacked it. But now she has gotten used to it and eats more leisurely over the night. Good to know!
No, you can just net the hay and let them have at it.
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I’ve purchased (slow feed) nets from 3 different companies and they all recommend introducing the net slowly by feeding half the hay loose and half in the net, to give them some time to figure it out without them getting really anxious/aggressive about it. This also helps prevent damage to the net in the beginning.
Yep, my horses will eat hay out of the net rather then loose hay off the ground. I found that surprising considering they chewed through the plastic garden netting and put a hole through the plastic lattice that we made. But then I made a slow feeder net out of baseball cage netting and they LOVE IT… and they haven’t been able to chew through it… 
