As we begin to house/ farm shop, I am debating the need for a barn (at least immediately). My biggest uses are for vet/ farrier visits out of the weather, lay up, and daily grain. Currently we have 2, but anticipate growing to roughly 6 or so (all our own, NO boarding). I like them to be out 24/7 but have to separate the two for grain 2x a day as one is a chunky WB and the other is a TB who needs slightly more cals (and gets drugs the other doesn’t need). I’m trying to brainstorm ways to grain that doesn’t involve a barn or standing there watching for the 30-45 min it takes the TB to finish (slow eater). I’ve done feed bags before but with everything being soaked (beet pulp and Coolstance) it gets very heavy, very fast. Any other ideas?
Build a quick n easy round pen with portable panels for feeding time. Will do the job of a stall for that
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If your horses tie, and you have a safe fence for that, you can tie them to eat. Teaches patience too. It’s what an old barn did for all 30 horses, when we showed up to after school (right around feeding time) we’d see a bunch of horses tied and asleep in front of their now-empty buckets. They were pretty reliable to tie to the trailer at shows too 
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I had three that got different meds in their senior feed. I would pull two out and tie them and feed the third in the corral, but always stayed out there with the tied horses in case they hungs themselves up on their lead ropes. I always wanted a couple of separate fenced areas within my corral, but my husband didn’t think it was necessary. He did most of the feeding, so I couldn’t argue a whole lot.
Rebecca
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No need for such complications! Just use feedbags. Easy peasy. Feed in descending pecking order: alpha first, no one bothers him, then the next etc. All the horses lower in pecking order wait their turn. That way everyone gets what they need (medication, calories) and no one is stealing anyone else’s feed. They are $20 on Amazon. Much cheaper than building anything. You can soak feed in them too.
ETA I see you already tried feedbags. How much are they eating? I soak all 11 horses’ feed (I board retirees) and most get a scoop, some get a cup or two of Empower too. That isn’t too heavy. More than that wouldn’t allow a normal size horse head to fit with such a full bag. There are huge draft size bags that could fit 3 scoops of feed easily. Also, most of the horses here put their heads down to eat, so for them the weight wouldn’t be an issue. Though not 100% do.
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Maybe I just have dumb dumbs but they will eat, walk to a new spot, eat, walk to a new spot (repeat until finished). The TB gets 4 measuring cups Coolstance and 3qts beet pulp (one scoop and I know, I know it should be weighed but I’m not worried about her weight/ nutrition). Once soaked, it’s quite heavy and fills up a 2 gal bucket. Dry weight it isn’t very much but both the Coolstance and the beet pulp take on quite a bit of water. The feed bags I got were mesh which was also problematic as: they let out water/ leaked excess water (along with the expensive supplements I’m sure) everywhere and they then had to be cleaned after (or else they get disgusting and moldy in our climate) each feeding which honestly wasn’t much less work. They probably work great for dry concentrates but I can’t see a way to make them worthwhile for soaked feed.
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Why not just feed in your pasture shelters? Put a divider in each to make 2 separate " stalls" and feed in there. My 3 have a lean -to off the barn and one long rectangle shaped stall they all use as they choose .
I feed my gelding in the stall and my 2 mares in pans under the lean- to. I don’t have to lock anyone in and they all know where their feed is fed.
I assume you get rain, maybe snow and horrible wind and cold weather at least on occasion? My horses are out all the time but they do not like to eat hay or grain in bad weather and I don’t want them to be forced to do so. All hay is fed under the lean- to.
The way my barn is set up ( an old granary) I have a large isle where my vet and farrier can do their work in cover and comfort. Much appreciated.
I run into this same issue, and it’s a huge pain. I have between three and four horses that live out together 24/7. They eat at various paces, and the leader is a bit of a thug who will merrily kick everyone off their buckets just for fun. His lieutenant will also decide someone else’s bucket is tastier, etc. I don’t like feed bags because I also feed soaked grain with $$ supplements and I wanted to make it as easy as possible to dump the feed/supps into the bucket, add water, mix, feed.
I’ve jerry-rigged a solution that I actually rather like, but it’s admittedly of somewhat questionable safety. However, it’s been working a treat and allows me to get other tasks done (like cleaning the field) while they eat. I do have one issue with the herd leader trying to stick his head in his best friend’s bucket and said best friend not walking away because he’s happy to share, but…sigh.
What I used:
- Breakaway halter – I bought some biothane ones from Two Horse Tack for ease of cleaning
- 2 gallon buckets – color coordinated with the biothane halters because why not
- A strap, snap, or other attachment tool, such as baling twine if you’re so inclined – I bought thin leather chin straps from TSC (two per bucket) because I wanted them to be breakable as well
Use the straps to attach the halter to the bucket. Ideally, cut the bucket handle off to reduce risk of entanglement, but I’ve also used this without doing so and just making sure that the bucket handle is pointed AWAY from the horse when it’s on. Then just soak and mix grain/supplements as usual in the buckets, put them on like a halter, voila. I do worry about how heavy the buckets get, but the horses don’t seem to mind and don’t spend much time holding their heads up with them on. I don’t leave them unattended for more than a couple minutes while doing this, but I no longer have to sit there and do nothing but police them the entire 30 - 60 minutes it sometimes takes them to eat. It’s not a particularly elegant solution, but it works well. Here’s a picture of one of my contraptions in action.
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I had a situation like this once and feedbags were out of the question because of soaked feed and also concerns about inhaling wet feed in a feedbag. I ended up taking three round pen panels and attaching them to one corner of the fence to make three standing stall “slots”. I then took extra electric tape and cordoned off each end with the tape. Luckily I had horses that were very respectful. It worked great and when I was done I could just unhook and hook back up. Added bonus was the buckets stayed exactly where I left them too.
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I once boarded at a barn that solved this by using round pen panels to build feeding stalls along the fence line. Each horse went into their own stall for grain, they did not need to be monitored while they ate, and they were let out after they finished.
@barnesthenoble I’m sure you’re aware, but for anyone who isn’t, if a horse goes to drink while being tied to a bucket like you’ve done there: they’ll drown when that bucket fills with water. It’s why most feed bags have a mesh portion. I’d never leave a horse set up like that with access to a trough, even for a moment.
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@Simkie The buckets hang low enough that if the horse were to go to drink, their noses would be above the water–they are not tied down into the bucket, they need to rest the bucket on something solid and reach down into it. There’s probably 5" of space between bucket top and horse mouth when they have their head fully lifted. This is also why I chose a leather strap vs a snap–I wanted enough length to avoid just that issue. I am much more concerned about them getting caught on something or putting a foot in it due to the gap than I am of the drowning, but recognize that wasn’t clear from the picture I posted!
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When you find a place, I would make sure you set up your shelter so it can be divided into “stalls” if you decide not to build a barn.
You can do this with gates or corral panels.
In addition to solving your feeding dilemmas, you never know when you will need a stall for injury or illness.
I shockingly have no slow eaters for the first time in over a decade. But when I did, I either used the time to get other barn chores done, or, I just went back inside and did something else for a bit.
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I agree with the other suggestions that whatever shelter you end up building, have something that you can isolate just the TB so he can slowly eat his extra calories freely and then let him back out when he’s done.
I have 3 horses and no barn. Mine are out 24/7. This is our 3rd year out here and I finally got a small run-in shelter for the first time. I thankfully don’t have to do too much for mine. Just some easy pellet supplements and a small amount of grain. Either they graze in the summer of 24/7 hay in the winter.
During the winter and/or if I am too lazy to actually catch everyone, I just go out with their buckets, and stand there (to make sure “the boss” doesn’t steal anyone else’s) but mine eat in about 5 minutes so it’s not bad at all.
When I am actively riding most days, everyone is tied at the trailer anyway. When I’m done, I tie their feed buckets to the trailer (they can’t reach each other) to feed them their grain.
There’s ways to figure out how to do things if you don’t have a barn.
I do haul to my farrier and to my vet, so they do not come to me. My chiro sometimes does but luckily, the weather has always been okay except some windy days.
I have not tried one of these bucket holders yet, but they look nice and I might this year!
I just use these buckets when they are at the trailer with a standard bucket nylon strap. And a normal round bucket when I feed in the pasture - I just set the bucket on the ground.
I have several times had two horses in a field where they were fed together. Luckily, the horse that got the most feed was higher in the pecking order and the more beta horse would finish and then stand and watch the other one eat. My mare loves her pasture mate but has made it very clear she doesn’t share.
My gelding would sometimes share with the mare in his field. That could be a problem because he got stuffed with calories and she was an easy keeper.
Currently, I feed one in the run in shed and one behind the barn. They know the drill.
If I had more, I’d tie them.
I’ve seen “catch pens” used with great success. Build stall sized boxes out of your choice of fence material.
I have a stall outside set up with round pen panels. Works fine.
But honestly as long as I stand out there and use my Mom voice, they behave and eat fine without taking each others food.
One boarding barn we were at had round pen panel box stalls along a fence line for the far pasture so we didn’t have to haul ten horses out of the field.
I’ve also seen where you can just make walk in tie stalls (almost like a starting gate set up) with a butt rope to separate them. That’s what I’m fixing to do in two of our pastures
Catch pens (feed pens) are VERY common in central FL. We have them along the fenceline and it works very well. Basically we build 2-board fence “stalls” (10x10) in a row, with 4ft gates hung on the inside (horse side) of the field. We dump feed into each stall’s feeder, the mares come up and line up pretty close to their own stall. Go inside field, open each gate and let the mare in to her own stall. Then go feed the rest of the farm, and when chores are done, or the slowest mare is done eating, let everyone back out and (this is important!) latch the gates closed so no sneaky horses can get into an empty pen and get trapped by a dominant mare. The 10x10 size is big enough for a large mare to turn around comfortably (even lay down, if one is colicing…) and if the feeders are centered on the fence, greedy mares can’t reach over and bully the timid ones. We are careful to arrange horses in an order that makes sense (usually high pecking order to low) so a timid mare isn’t caught between two bullies.
In FL, we have no mud, just sand, so the pens are always suitable for use-- never mucky or nasty. We do pick them out as needed, but most of the mares are potty trained and prefer not to poop where they eat. It’s pretty easy to see when they are all finished eating, instead of heads facing their buckets they will turn around and look over the gates, ready to go back out. It’s SO much faster using the pens than bringing everybody inside to eat, and turning them back out. We can also easily separate foals from their dams at feed time, so the babies aren’t consuming high-calorie rations that would be bad for their joints. Foals learn to wait outside, can see and touch mom but not get to her food (they get their own snacks down the fenceline).
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