I am absolutely not disagreeing with anyone who has had personal negative experience chopping hay. I ja number of older equines and currently 2 need chopped hay due to teeth issues. We chop our hay, We use a pair of garden shears and just cut it up. It does not take long. We do it on a tarp so it is easy to scoop up. And it saves a ton of money over the bagged stuff. I would certainly try the manual chopping method. A residual effect is that it helps tone you arms.
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In my area, decent hay costs just as much as the chopped stuff. I did try garden sheers once, but they must have been too dull.
Not an ideal solution, but have you discussed transitioning him to a complete feed with your vet? That may be a simpler and possibly more economical solution than bagged chopped forage. You could still supplement soaked cubes or chopped hay during the stalled hours for some long stem fiber, but the bulk of his calories would come from the complete feed and whatever grass he can eat. Of course, it may require him to get 3+ meals a day which could be a different headache of its own if he’s out 12+ hours, but feed bags are wonderful for herd feeding.
I have a semi-toothless wonder that can’t even eat chopped hay, so I feed him a complete feed 4x a day. Perhaps I should open a retirement boarding facility 
As far as the BO, you won’t know if you don’t ask. I have definitely had some BO’s who would internally be offended and then probably gossip to others about it, but I’ve also had others who did their best to accommodate within reason.
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And then offer to pay extra for the extra work associated with being the one horse in the barn getting something different and for having to soak cubes too. So really it is likely a wash. That is the point everyone is trying to make.
Sure the OP can ask, and then offer. But, it is really a break even thing so…
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Use a blower mulcher combo, I have a workx one, metal impeller, nothing to break off and end up in the hay 
Option 2
I know it sucks to be paying for something you’re not using, but supplying your own chopped hay is actually more work for the BO, not less.
Your chopped hay has to live somewhere. Most feed-rooms, including mine, are fairly full of things already and carving out a place for a special feed is annoying.
More importantly, instead of just wheeling the hay cart down the aisle, tossing out flakes as required, BO now has to put the right amount of chopped hay into a container, carry that container to your horse, ensure no one else eats the chopped hay, and makes sure the container is cleaned and ready for the next meal. While paying full board should easily compensate for that inconvenience, I’d be affronted if a HO wanted to pay less.
You can try to find ways to make the barn’s hay suitable, whether that’s DIY chopping (I wouldn’t bother unless I really had to financially), or soaking, or maybe taking a shredder or chainsaw to barn bales.
I have a lovely mare (worth her weight in vet bills) who’s had two very extensive / complicated dental surgeries. My dentist/vet didn’t even want her eating chopped hay. You might want to switch over to alfalfa pellets or increased grain now, so she’ll be used to it before the post-op care. If a boarder needed to significantly increase their horse’s grain rations while also not needing any hay, I would not feel taken advantage of nor should the horse owner.
You can definitely talk to the BO about creative solutions, but maybe start the conversation with “how can I make Sparky’s new feed requirements easier for you?” and not “how can I pay less money since Sparky isn’t eating your hay?”
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The soaked hay pellets are only temporary( until surgery) and TBH even if it is a permanent thing running some water and letting the cubes/ pellets soak before feeding are not very time consuming to where it evens out for the cost of feeding the barns hay.
Measure the pellets, add water, let them soak while the rest of the horses are fed/ watered ?
OP is feeding a forage already chopped, so dumping that in a feeder is equal to stuffing a hay net or throwing some flakes in a stall.
It is not equal in time when taking care of a whole boarding barn. Heck, it was not equal in time when I was feeding my old man soaked stuff. I only had three to take care of and it was a nuisance feeding soaked feeds. Constantly cleaning buckets so there is no residue to soak the next batch, etc. (A nuisance worth when taking care of my very own old man, but not something a boarding barn should have to do without being compensated for it.)
Read the post above, they describe the processes well. Feeding a whole barn equals a cart and a bale of hay, tossing as you go. One horse getting something different means a trip back to wherever that is stored, carrying that item back to Dobbin.
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I know you are really opposed to BOs charging for their or staff time….
But it really isn’t the same. When I do hay, I load 2 bales in my cart and walk down the aisle dispensing it. That’s efficient.
Pellets require me heating water (because cold water will freeze quickly). Another trip to the feed room to get it. Another trip to the stall to deliver individually. Also horse doesnt eat hay outside so needs extra time. Everything I do assembly line doesn’t happen. Everything is special.
If it is chopped, I take time to move, likely weigh, and then deliver at a specific time, then leave in longer, then turnout last and come back last to do the stall cleaning/reset of water and hay for night. Usually I go stall to stall on each task and yes, every trip to the manure pile or the other barn to get the manure cart and hay takes time. Time is money. It’s fair to charge boarders for special needs.
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And that does not even include your time to clean that bucket for the next time.
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For sure, and that is messy! Also I need twice the amount of buckets, because the dirty one needs to thaw in the feed room, then be hand washed, then set out to dry while I second bucket does the next feed….I could go on and on.
It’s similar to what parents call the “mental load.” So much that seems little but adds up.
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Nope. Barn owner here.
Special hay has to be stored in a special place, all staff has to be on board to feed special hay. Special hay gets transported with regular hay but must be kept separate. Owner has to be trusted to keep stocked correctly.
No discount.
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I never said anything of the sort. The OP is paying for full board and having to provide her own feed because her horse cannot eat what the barn provides. I see 2 fair choices here.
- The barn credits her for the feed her horse is not getting.
- The barn provides the feed her horse can eat and she can pay a small fee for the time it takes to soak and wash 1 bucket .
In a boarding barn you will always have horses with special needs eventually ( we did) and if you continue to offer full board to that horse then you need to be fair to both the owner and the business and do an adjustment in the rate you charge.
I don’t see that happening here.
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Or the barn can say ‘no thanks, we are not doing all this extra work and paying all this extra for your horse so you can leave and find a barn that will’.
There are lots of barns that will not allow other feeds, owner provided or not. Period.
BTW, you have never said those words (that the BO should not be charging for their time or their staff’s time) but your posts say that.
You are more efficient than I am. I always had to have four buckets to have enough to always have a clean one ready for soaking.
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Once again you take what you read and imply what I said. If I meant to say it I would.
I don’t know what OP is paying for board but I can guarantee the money they save on hay does not equal the time it takes to feed her horse soaked feed. OP should be credited something on the board bill.
I’m with Heinz_57. Consider feeding a complete senior feed (one which contains forage), and then do what fordtraktor recommends as far as perhaps splitting the size of meals so that more is given in the evening, when the horse has private time to eat.
Keeping in mind that an individual meal shouldn’t be enormous, of course.
I bought a couple bags of the TC Safe Starch last week, to try it out, and I can already see how it’s somewhat of a pain to feed bagged chopped hay – and I’m not trying to run a boarding barn.
Back when I had a 30 something horse who outlived his teeth, I fed him five meals per day of a complete feed, and a little alfalfa on the side that he could pretend he was eating. Obviously, this was at home, not in a boarding situation. Prior to that, when he was boarded (before we purchased our farm), I made it out to the barn twice daily, plus worked something out with another boarder, so that he could get extra meals other than the two provided by management. It was my responsibility.
I got along fine with the BO, boarded there for years with up to five horses (and the Old Man had boarded there for several years before the dental issues), so no hard feelings, it’s just that barns are set up with a certain business model. Sometimes, a boarder can pay for extra services, sometimes those extra services simply aren’t available. In my case, the standard deal included breakfast and dinner, with turnout either all day or all night. There was no extra staff that could bring in my horse to feed elevenses, lunch, high tea, and a late night snack.
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What? So your 2 options have NO credit for the work done that is outside normal routine. None. Your option 1 has no payment for any time spent at all! That is great — for the boarder and if you don’t value your time.
I notice you said “did.” Not that you “do.” Guessing you don’t board horses any more. Not worth it?
I have plenty of horses with special needs in my care. I work it out on a case by case basis, depending on that need. But I run a business, not a charity. Though it’s mostly a charity.
This discussion is particularly annoying to me as I spent the last 2 days working myself to the bone getting ready for -30 degree windchills while I have the flu. Every bone in my body aches, who knows from which. Horse owners don’t get how much work this can be…running all the extra water in case power goes out, I just dump when the storm is over. All the effort I make to ensure that no matter what happens, the horses are comfortable, fed and watered. The field boarders that get brought in, the extra layers that I put on horses from my stash because we aren’t sure of the waterproofing of a boarder blanket….the generator started, the gas cans filled, the extra trip to the feed store to make sure it’s fine if my delivery is delayed…. A couple waterers acting up, there goes $1,000….
I don’t want to hear about refunding hay cost for a special needs horse right now.
I didn’t get any sleep last night because I kept going through burning hot sweats and the shakes from chills, so forgive me if I am not that patient. Horses got their breakfast on time.
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This. Right here.
And as someone who kept a geriatric toothless pony in good weight until he was 35, the huge bucket of soaked beet pulp/senior feed/alfalfa cubes twice a day was significant work. NOT something I would have ever considered including in standard full board.
I did once have a boarder who wanted to feed her own special mixed feed, recommended by a nutritionist. She provided the various ingredients; I provided storage and mixed the feed daily. I did not offer her a discount, and she did not ask for one. She knew full well the extra work completely cancelled out the small savings in grain.
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I feed a small mash once a day to two horses. Beet pulp and alfalfa cubes and supplements. They take 45 minutes minimum to soak with hot tap water and resting in a heated bathroom. Probably about 1 and a half pounds dry which floofs up to a generous and filling evening meal.
I can not imagine doing soaked cubes at the volume needed to provide most of the calories to a horse. I can not imagine doing this multiple times a day. Compared to throwing a flake of hay, soaking 3 lbs of alfalfa cubes into a what? Ten pound mash? Would be insane amount of extra work 4 or 5 times a day. And it might freeze before being eaten too.
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To keep my pony’s mash from freezing in the winter, I put it in a cooler on a heating pad in the feed room.
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