Would love to see how you set up your mangers. I just have this feeling that if I could really truly dumb it down like that, they might eat a bit on the trailer when rolling solo. They both eat from a net when they are together but neither will eat solo
I will take a picture tomorrow- I’m going to do a jump school off the farm so it will be an action shot!
@trubandloki - my ponies flip them over as well and can get quite violent about it! But on the back of my hay bag (looks like the one posted) has a nylon strap along the back. I use a nylon spur strap (no spur on it of course) or even some binder twine, and tie the back of the hay bag to a metal window bar or any metal bar of some type and it holds the bag in place (or even tie it to the post divider - any place really to keep the bag stable). Voila! No more turned hay bags.
My guys know that travel = super tasty fancy hay. I’ve never had one not eat hay on the trailer. Usually I mix a couple of flakes of western alfalfa and some 2nd or 3rd cut orchard. I do have horses that prefer hay bags over hay nets
When I used to haul professionally, horses always seemed to do a pretty good job on their hay. We usually hung water buckets with wet alfalfa mush too.
Ok, here is my jankety (but totally functional!) manger set up, starring Gogo (grey) and Steve (bay), who went on a fun jump school today. I usually load them from the back, and then unload off the side ramp, so all I do to unload is unclip the outside clips and just attach the one that is normally clipped to the breast bar to the front center holder- kind of pulling it to that diagonal corner to tuck the manger in out of the way. I should have taken a picture, but it works! I usually have rope hay nets in the mangers with most of the hay in them, so I just pull those out and hang them outside, and then the mangers are empty enough so they don’t stick out too much and the horses can walk past them into the +1 and down the side ramp.
Hope this helps! I can take more pictures if needed, but it’s pretty simple. I’ve been doing this since I had my old BP and it’s been great. You can also put a small bucket in there with mush, too, and just clip it to some part of the manger clip set up. Neither of my boys likes alfalfa mush, for reasons of their own, but the small buckets sit nicely inside the mangers (being ignored).
ETA: the fabric holders are a mix of nylon longeing straps (in the middle to attach both mangers, front and back), and those bucket hanger clip things (which are what I use on my window grills).
This looks great. Unfortunately I don’t have the divider at the head either to snap to, so I would need to set up some sort of triangular manger I actually went to a clinic yesterday about 2.5 hours away (thinking about it is what prompted this thread originally). I had a hay net with huge holes hanging and two kinds of hay in it, and a bucket on the outside wall stuffed with alfalfa. No luck with eating either way So probably not even worth trying to figure out how to rig a manger either.
Oh, that sucks! You have hard cases- I thought Steve was the worst! When I first got him, I did not know his rigid hay requirements. He once did an 11 hour trip and barely touched his hay because it was in a small hole hay net. :dizzy:
That was when I first tried the big rope nets, which worked but then I got sick of him throwing his hay everywhere, so I got the mangers. I’m sorry this won’t work for you!
The mention of alfalfa reminded me that the one time my current gelding actually ate en-route was the time that I picked up a friend’s horse to drive to a beach about an hour away. She had a hay bag with two flakes of gorgeous alfalfa. When we got there, Holden had eaten her horse’s entire hay-bag and left his untouched.
We knew it was him that ate it because all the alfalfa wisps were on his side. So maybe straight alfalfa is worth trying for those who don’t eat on the trailer?
When I have shipped only 1 horse I noticed neither of mine would eat from the hay net. Last time I shipped I had both horses on and they both were eating and mostly cleaned up the hay. FWIW, I have a 20’ stock trailer, generally ship in box stalls and it’s mostly under 2 hours to trailheads.
My mare will not eat anything on the trailer. I’ve even trailered her from Virginia to Florida and back (split into 2 days) and she still won’t eat or drink until she’s off the trailer. It totally freaked me out the first year, but she’s fine, eats and drinks a good amount overnight, and it hasn’t been an issue. This year, (our second trip to FL), she would nibble a tiny amount when we stopped, but that was it. I do make sure she drinks an extra amount before getting on the trailer by giving her Gallagher’s Water or Horse Quencher.
Don’t want to hijack here, but for those of you with horses that won’t drink while hauling: I ordered a few samples of https://gallagherswater.com/ to try a few weeks ago. My mare that won’t drink even after XC gulped down a gallon of water with this stuff, just standing in the barn aisle after a ride. I was shocked. The other horses went to town on the bucket I hung in a stall. Definitely worth a shot!
another one that has found all of our horses have found Gallagher’s Water to be irresistible
The feed store we get our TEFF hay from is a stocking store which makes it easy for us to get. We keep packets is the trailer and feed room for use.
as for horses eating in the trailer, we got a nice video of our weanling being shipped from North Dakota to Oklahoma City, he was in a rear box stall of the trailer. This little guy on his first trip was grabbing a mouth full of hay then walked back to look out at the passing country side enjoying the ride south
Divas Won’t even touch the straight alfalfa until the trailer is parked at our destination.
Ooh, I’ll have to try the Gallagher’s Water! My dingbat grey is afraid of…well, everything, including buckets, so he doesn’t like to drink out of them while we are on the road. He drinks out of buckets, large and small, all the time, but somehow when they are not in their natural environment (his stall) they are frightening. Steve will refuse to drink even on very long trips, because he’s Steve. Maybe the GW will help?
I haven’t tried it on a trip yet but when I tell you mine won’t drink - it’ll take a full day at the show before she has even 1/2 bucket. 🤦🏻 She’s retired from showing now but still hauls to school and trail ride so I’m going to try it next time we go somewhere!