I have a pony who enjoys filling his mash up with shavings to torment my evening chore helper (I work second shift), and therefore I am being forced to re-think my shallow rubber pan he’s been fed in for years. This pan is approximately 4" deep and he quite easily flips it and/or adds in his own special “seasonings”. As I would prefer he not consume copious amounts of shavings in his evening mash (for obvious reasons) I am looking for new ground feeding options, other than having my chore helper sit on the ground and hold the dish so dear pony behaves himself. I’m not sure we have that sort of loyalty yet… Permanent fixtures are not an option for him, nor are wall-mounted feeders for various reason. I’ve been considering the deeper flexible tub-type feeders such as tubtrugs but have no experience with them personally. Anyone have experience with this type of feeder? Are they any more difficult to flip than a regular pan? TIA!
Can your chore helper dump the feeder before adding his food? Or he is adding the ‘extras’ after she has dumped his food?
I’ve fed on the ground with the deeper pan with the hooks so there is an option to feed off the ground with clips… 1 clip to an eye hook to it still sits on the ground to stop horses from flipping their dish.
I have fed Tubtrugs and I like them. They are light, so super easy to flip when empty. I haven’t had any trouble with a horse flipping it mid meal though.
We feed out of these and horses seem to eat without flipping them.
If left down, they will play with them later:
https://www.amazon.com/Fortex-Rubber-Utility-Horses-2-Inch/dp/B000HHFBHS
Some like these for horses that play with feeders while full:
Both are heavy and bulky, the one feeding may rather have the lighter buckets to carry around.
I clip my feed tubs to the fence with swivel snaps at ground level. These are not low sided tubs, just the regular hard plastic ones that normally snap up in the corner of a stall. It’s not impossible for a horse to flip them around, especially once they are empty (it doesn’t take long to empty them), but it seems that since they are not available to be flung around or carried around the paddock, they tend to be left alone once empty, and the sides are tall enough to stop much in the way of dirt or anything contaminating the feed. Because they are affixed to the fenceline, it’s not like they are too available to be walked over or kicked around. If it rains, the rain water has to be dumped before the next meal is put in. Snap the swivel snap onto the base of a fence post a few inches above the rim of the tub. You can also use the lowest rail of a post and rail fence, or a tree trunk if that is available. You need to use a swivel snap just in case the horse does fool around with it and rotate it- a regular double ended snap will break if rotated, the swivel snap just rotates. You can use a screw eye at the correct low level on the post, or some twine tied around the post to snap onto.
I use the High Country Plastics tub that Bluey referenced. Works great in our drylot.
Tubtrug in a tire so it doesn’t get flipped over. There’s a bunch of different sizes
You can dump the feed out onto a flake of hay. The horse will be less likely to toss things around if everything is edible.
