I’ve got one – love it! Purchased at our local co-op for significantly less than TSC (under $300, if I recall).
I was concerned about my small horses being able to reach the bottom of the basket, so I called Tarter - someone there allayed my fears, by telling me the relative heights of equines shown eating from one on the website photos.
After several months of use, I finally got around to adding some hockey netting, which had been bound with rope along the edges (an option from the supplier), using outdoor quality large bungees - also from the same source (think ponytail hair elastic, with knob, on steroids) - to attach the net to the hay basket’s second horizontal metal pipe ring, which is a few inches below the uppermost pipe ring.
I purchased a large enough piece of netting to drape fully into the basket and lap several inches over the basket’s upper edge. In one quadrant, I left a gap between the bungees, and used a stainless steel quicklink to attach a snap to the rope binding. I wrapped a sturdy Hamilton nylon webbing dog collar that I had on hand around the second pipe; snapping/unsnapping from the collar’s tag ring makes an easy way to open/close the netting so that we can toss a few flakes into the basket (with only two horses, we don’t need to put out full bales).
Similar to some of the posts Brian has made about his home-made hay feeders constructed from water troughs, netting, and pvc pipe - but I didn’t need to construct a plastic pipe ring to support the net.
The horses have no problem eating out of the basket, there is very little waste, and my hands are so grateful to no longer have to fill multiple slow feed hay bags each day.
