This may be silly but is there any reason to NOT put corner feed tubs at ground level? Am I missing something? This seems like a bit of a no brainer but if so, why haven’t I ever seen it done? I want my horses to eat off the ground but they toss and tip the loose flat tubs. I’m thinking of just installing regular corner tubs but at ground level. Why are they hung high anyway?
To avoid horses filling them with bedding, or worse poop and/or urine. If installed at ground level, id make sure they are easy for a human to remove to clean.
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I have a ground tub with a meta lope on the rim. Then I have an eyehook screwed into the wall and use a clip to snap it onto the wall. She can’t toss it around the stall and I can still take it out to clean. I see no reason not to use a corner feeder as long as you attach it in a way that you can clean it when needed.
My horse treated his corner feeder as a toy. He destroyed two of them! :uhoh: Tubs on the floor were also treated badly - thrown around and squashed. (BTW he has ignored all toys I have tried in his stall or paddock!) His stall is matted, so finally we just swept out the area under where the feeder used to be and his grain is simply poured on this spot. So far this is working well.
I feed the little grain they get to get the thyroid supplement in one right on the flake of hay on clean rubber mats, no tub needed.
I have tubs for the rare time I think they need one.
They have learned to eat the grain carefully first, then the hay.
I think Jawa nailed it. It would quickly get filled with bedding and manure which is not a big deal if it is easily removed for cleaning.
Another problem might be getting a hoof stuck on/in it. Since it will be attached to the wall it will not move when the horse steps into it. If you have the type of horse who freaks out easily this might not be a good thing.
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Fastening to a wall at hoof-level is probably only going to result in broken feeders at worst & feeders filled with manure/bedding at best.
I feed from pans on the ground in the stalls & on the rare occasion have to dump & wash out a urine-filled pan :disgust:
Also pans have been known to migrate from various locations in a stall to outdoors.
No Biggie & the hard rubber pans I use are immune to being stepped on.
My TWH is Pan Destroyer Extraordinaire - in the 3yrs I’ve had him he’s gone through 3 pans - 1st one was almost 15yrs old!
He picks his pan up to shake the grain to the center as he eats & will toss an empty at me if I leave the stall door ajar.
“ROOM SERVICE!” :rolleyes:
In Winter I will remove them once emptied so I don’t have to go on a treasure hunt in the deep snow.
I keep on hand two choices, those black all rubber pans.
One is the standard horse one with those three metal eyelets.
The other the large dog feed pan, which for a bit of grain is perfect for horses.
It is easy to pick up again once they are thru eating.
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You might go to feed bags/nosebag instead of using any pans. Horses lower heads to eat, get every oat out. Then you take off the noseband and have it ready for the next feeding. I only feed from dishes at a competition, no hunting for the dish. I have used the nosebag while camping or if a horse starts slinging feed out of his corner feeder. They work well at feed containment, ensuring horse gets everything he is supposed to.
I would not put corner feed tubs on the ground to use. They have sharp edges, would collect nasty stuff, with other undreamed of bad results “just happening”.
This is a bad idea.
when outside in the paddocks the real horses are feed in the rubber tubs on the ground… one likes to pick his up and throw about, I just bolted his to a large piece of treated plywood, large enough that he is standing on the plywood when eating, since he is unable to pick himself up the tub stays in place
The natural way for a horse to eat is in the forage position. Feeders on the ground makes sense … except for all of the above comments. Our feeders are up on the wall. Some will pull their hay out anyway. Therefore, the area under and around the feeder is raked clean so they’re not ingesting shavings. One day… we discovered that one of the mares had pooped in her feeder… up there on the corner wall. Quite how she did that we could never figure out. She was a small Arab. We have no problem cleaning the feeders … even after bran mash is served as an appetizer.
Thanks for the input. I suppose having it spilled on the floor isn’t the worst thing.
