Boarding question: Providing own Hay

[Texarkana]

@Warmblood1

IME, some barn owners wouldn’t budge on custom requests.

So true. I remember visiting a potential boarding barn once and asking them if it would be a problem to add water to my horse’s feed. He had a history of choke and needed to eat everything wet; nothing fancy, no special diet or complicated soaking, just needed to add water right before feeding.

The barn owner said absolutely not, she would not do that.

I actually appreciate the honesty, it made saying “thanks for your time but this won’t work out” a lot easier.

But still… refusing to add water to feed? What would she do if one of her current residents choked and needed wet food even just temporarily?

[FjordBCRF]

As both an owner whose horse gets soaked “feed” (beet pulp with supplements) and one that has been on staff with horses that had soaked feeds a couple thoughts.

Beet pulp shreds only need about 5 minutes; even less if you use hot water so that isn’t a huge time sink to do at time of feeding. My first matter of business when I would feed would be to soak anything that needed soaked for that feeding, then go do water and hay etc then feed. That was more than enough time for beet pulp to soak even in the cold and didn’t add more than a minute or two total.

For the horses that had either hay cubes or pellets where soaking took longer, their meals were always prepped ahead of time; so dinner hay cubes would be soaked at breakfast time. We didn’t have a climate controlled feed room and didn’t have any freezing issues in the winter, but the summer I always thought it was a long time for stuff to sit and soak in the heat and humidity.

I prep my geldings meals for the barn in glad containers. I also have a pitcher with a line for how much water he needs with it. His feed and water go directly into his ground pan to soak and eat. I keep an eye on when that needs a good cleaning so the barn staff doesn’t have to do that either. I wasn’t sure how this would all be received at our new barn but they actually seemed happy with the approach so maybe something like that could help anyone in a soaking situation.

As far as asking for a reduction; until you know for certain that you would have to provide your own forage for the foreseeable future, I wouldn’t even bring it up. If thats where things end up, then maybe a carefully considered conversation depending on the complexity of what the new feed routine would be.

When it’s one person asking, it often doesn’t seem like it should be an issue. If you have 5 or 10 people all starting to want different plans…that is when the time can add up quickly and it can become a big PITA for a BO and staff. And an opening for others to try and work out other cost cutting scenarios which is why I imagine places can be less accommodating about these things. For example, I have never used whatever concentrates my barn offers and have never asked for a cut on that even though it would be nice. And I supplement my own additional hay pellets for our auto feeder. Nessecary evils I suppose.

[trubandloki]

@FjordBCRF

Beet pulp only needs about 5 minutes; even less if you use hot water so that isn’t a huge time sink to do at time of feeding.

I assume you are talking shreds, not pellets.

[FjordBCRF]

Yes shreds! Ill add clarification there.

[trubandloki]

@FjordBCRF

Yes shreds! Ill add clarification there.

I just wanted to know what beet pulp pellets you found that soaked that quickly. I was jealous and wanting you to share the information.
Those suckers are stubborn.

[FjordBCRF]

The beet pulp pellets seem even tougher than hay pellets!! The ones I have seen are tough!

[TheHotSensitiveType]

I would say any hay discount would be completely replaced by an extra work fee, and apart from discussing the necessary feed changes, I wouldn’t expect anything else.

When it is my turn to feed evenings at my barn, I can get at least 4 other flakes of hay with a bag of grain horses fed in the time it takes for the one horse that gets fed x lbs of chopped hay which then must be wetted and stirred thoroughly and fed with the evening slop. Then we have to soak the pellets in water for the morning feed. Have you had to break up chopped hay bales to get the right weight to feed? I HATE doing it. It is so dusty, and it makes me hack even with a mask on. Then the adding water and stirring kicks up even more dust.

Without experiencing chopped hay and making a soaked mash every feed, I would not have realized how much extra work it is and how much it sucks. It sucks.

[LCDR]

Since you are moving the horse to a retirement barn in just a few months, just do your best and continue to pay your regular board in the interim.

Hopefully the current barn manager will work with you on the feeding situation until you move. I would not stir the pot by asking for a lower board rate because you are buying Safe Starch for your dentally compromised horse. And make it as easy on the current place as possible; certainly don’t expect them to chop up hay for you.

[fordtraktor]

To stand up for the OP, I don’t think she ever intended to ask the barn to chop the hay! I got the impression she was doing that part herself.

[LCDR]

A neighbor uses a Sun Joe $125 electric leaf shredder for chopping alfalfa bales, and it seems to do a good job. I have watched and it does take her a fair amount of time to break up the compressed bale and slowly feed handfuls into the hopper. I get pretty good results myself using a 20V cordless hedge trimmer and making slices through bales. The results are coarser than the leaf shredder, though.

I am now feeding Safe Starch which at $25 per bale already chopped is a real time saver for me. And in my area a bale of standard unchopped alfalfa is now over $20 anyway…

[TheHotSensitiveType]

I didn’t assume the OP was asking the barn to chop the hay for her! I was trying to point out for people that have never fed the bagged/bale shaped chopped hay how time consuming it is as well as dusty which is why I wouldn’t expect a discount.

[enjoytheride]

I had a horse I needed to do that for in case of choke. I had him free leased out to two barns previously. Both barns sent him back despite him being a unicorn because he required special feeding.

I have to say if a boarder wanted to move a horse in requiring that there would absolutely be an extra charge unless I said no as my barn is designed around my work schedule. Soaking food is a pain. In the winter I’d have to bring it up to the house and start it soaking before heading down to the barn because there wasn’t time in the morning and if we left it overnight it turned to mush or froze solid.

[Christa_P]

This just popped up on my FB feed and I thought about this thread

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0tkqHAaPmtaJtrhbBg1DXUjEmbKUV7T1k9W6gSRYKXAuVRgiRZMoyM3ETF63Stqnxl&id=100063604568966&mibextid=Nif5oz

[pn]

I agree with THIS, EXACTLY!!!

[pn]

Perhaps not paid more for the actual work, however I’m pretty certain you would want to be paid for the additional time rather than work extra time to do this for free

[candyappy]

@pn

Perhaps not paid more for the actual work, however I’m pretty certain you would want to be paid for the additional time rather than work extra time to do this for free

I don’t remember what I said that you are referring to? Feeding soaked feed maybe?? I have no clue as it has been too long.

[trubandloki]

@candyappy, if you hit your name in the upper right corner of the post that is responding to you, it will expand and show you what post they are responding to. No need to try to remember.

[sascha]

@trubandloki

I just wanted to know what beet pulp pellets you found that soaked that quickly. I was jealous and wanting you to share the information.
Those suckers are stubborn.

I like pellets for storage and for not having to swirl my hand around in a bucket of shreds to find the occasional giant piece that somehow ran a successful gauntlet through the shredding machinery.

Anyway, my “secret” is walk in barn, fill and turn on kettle, go do whatever needs to be done (feed prep, quick stall pick, etc.), dump entire kettle of boiling water on pellets, put lid on bucket (only needs a minute or two), do some small task, fill feed bucket with hot tap water.

Using this method, I can get safe feed in about 20 minutes but I can also leave it for a few hours while I ride, do stall, groom, etc.

It does need boiling water though, mere hot tap water is not going to get you safe beet pulp pellets in 20 minutes.

[beowulf]

Speedi-Beet is pretty quick too. It’s been a while since I’ve fed Beep but once had a whole barn on Speedi-Beet. It was expensive but lived up to the name and fluffed up fast!

[Pico_Banana]

I love Speedi-Beet! Although I find even with hot water, I like to let it soak for at least ten minutes. I also use about half of the water that they suggest. I have to add psyllium powder to mine for my mare with FWS and if I use more water it turns into a disgusting gooey mix. With half the water and more time, they fluff up just fine.