feeding with a 1" hay net, continuously, without the horse getting fat?

[aliceo]

Hi all,
I have an easy-keeper/air fern who gets fat on more than 12# of grass hay a day. (She also gets 1# of ration balancer most days.)

She’s dry lotted on about two acres. She gets restless and bored, and for gut health I would like her to have continuous access to hay. She’s been eating from a 2" hay net for the past six months, and has gotten very efficient at cleaning it up.

I just switched her to a 1" hay net, called the “Greedy Feeder” by Shires. I was hoping that if I put 13# of hay in there (as much as it can hold) that it would last her 24 hours. But nope. In 12 hours (when we checked) it was all gone. Don’t know how long it took her to eat it all.

I would like to feed her once a day and have the hay be continuously there. How can I do this without her turning into a blimp?

[trubandloki]

You can’t.

Small hole hay nets are great but they are not miracles.

Even if you double layer them it might slow her down a little more but it is not going to make her whole days hay ration last her the whole day.

Is dividing her ration into two feedings really not an option?

[aliceo]

i can definitely feed her twice a day, but she is boarded and i wanted to make this as easy as possible on the barn owners. (and also myself, since I will have to go out there twice a day when they have taken their own horses with them out of town.)

some people i have talked to have said that if the horse has hay in front of them all the time, they start to moderate their intake and end up at their optimal weight. opinions on this?

[quyllur]

I would suggest filling a second net with a coarser, lower nutrition hay. Something that she’ll eat if she’s hungry, but not for the sake of flavor.

I find that if you want to have the horse self regulate, you need to feed a hay that the horse does not find particularly appealing, but still edible. Still clean and digestible, just not green and soft and sweet.

[Pennywell_Bay]

[QUOTE=aliceo;8276336]

some people i have talked to have said that if the horse has hay in front of them all the time, they start to moderate their intake and end up at their optimal weight. opinions on this?[/QUOTE]

My pony laughs at this and begs me to let him moderate his intake. I predict a tick with a mane, tail and ears.

To make it easier on the feeders, fill 2 hay nets up. Then they can change it out without the hassle of refilling it. She gets one at AM feed, one at PM or ngiht check. Seriously, she won’t die or get raging ulcers if she goes an hour or 2 without. [enter the ulcer police to tell me I’m wrong]

[trubandloki]

I have three easy keepers.
I promise you that they agree with Pennywell’s pony.
They have free choice hay (all fed in a small hole hay net) all winter. Round bale (with a small hole net) all day, individual small hole nets in their stalls at night.
All three come out of winter looking like blimps and have to go on a diet in the spring.
It is a great theory but it just does not work on the real easy keepers.

I feed only grass hay, nothing really fancy. Still blimps.

I will second (third?) the thought of getting more than one hay bag. Fill them all at once and that way the feeders just have to hang the next bag at the next feeding.

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

[QUOTE=Pennywell Bay;8276353]
Seriously, she won’t die or get raging ulcers if she goes an hour or 2 without. [enter the ulcer police to tell me I’m wrong][/QUOTE]

I believe it is more than 4 hours of stomach acid without food.

You may call me ma’am.

Where is the cheapest place for the 1" Shires?? I have a 1.5" (I think) from them that has been great, but now that I will have the horse boarded and just donkeys at home, it is worth looking into something even smaller. Donkeys hoover hay.

[normandy_shores]

OP - I have an air fern who is also on roughly the same amount of hay as you. I split his feed into 4 small flakes, and he gets fed 3x per day (every 8 hours, with the overnight feeding getting 2 flakes). In the winter he is on a netted round bale with hay in front of him, and no, they do not moderate their intake. Maybe some do, but mine literally only steps away from the bale to poop or sleep, and he’s a blimp in the spring.

I have 1" nets, and a flake lasts him 30 mins, TOPS. I bet your full days worth of hay keeps him busy for 2 hours, maybe 3. I think you’ll definitely need to split your feedings into twice a day, and even doubling up on the nets might not help as much as you hope.

Trust me, I wish I could have hay in front of mine for longer throughout the day as well, but it just doesn’t happen. He’s figured out getting aggressive with the nets, shaking all the hay loose, flipping feeders, etc.

[bdj]

What Pennywell Bay and a few others have said - buy a couple of extra nets/bags and prefill them for the barn staff, so all they have to do is take down an empty and hang up a full one. That’s what I do when I travel. (I think I have 6 hay bags for one pony(!) but my mom never has to refill a hay bag.)

I also have a few different ones - including (I think) the Shires Greedy Feeder and a mesh one from Dover that the pony finds much more challenging than her regular hay bags, so I stuff those full and hang one so she has something to keep her busy when she empties her “easy” bags. That said, she doesn’t burn through those very quickly at all, but I don’t think she’s self-moderating, I just think she’s lazy.

For what it’s worth - my girl gets hay 3 times a day - first thing in the morning, mid-day (most days) and at bedtime (after her 3 hours of turnout). If something happens that keeps her from getting that mid-day snack, I try to give her a flake before I turn her out, so that she doesn’t feel like she has to try to speed-eat grass.

[aliceo]

“Where is the cheapest place for the 1” Shires?? "

i found them on Amazon.com. they are called “greedy feeders”.

thanks for the input, everyone. since the BO thinks she should be fed 2x a day, i won’t worry too much about putting anyone out.

i guess i’ll go now and buy a second Greedy Feeder net. at least it will keep her busy longer than the 2" Shire’s she’s been using. I’ll keep those for use in the trailer.

i have friends who put out 25# per horse every 24 hours, but they have their horses in a 20 acre “paddock paradise.” their horses look great! fit and trim. but they don’t take boarders!!!

[Jarpur]

I had to go to the 1/2 inch hole hay nets for my Hoover-type horse: http://www.purelyponies.com/slow-feed-hay-nets/day-size-slow-feed-hay-net. Reasonably quick service and the net itself has held up pretty well (repaired the first hole in one today after a couple years of constant use), although I’ve had to replace the drawstring with something much stouter - a shame, really, as the original worked so smoothly.

And no, the really professional eaters never slow down.

[neversaynever]

I have one that can go through hay in a 1" hole hay net in no time. I’ve found that if I hang the net so it freely swings, like from a tree branch or away from the stall wall where she can’t push it against something, it takes a bit longer for her to empty the net.

[aliceo]

i did hang it from a rope tied to a barn rafter this afternoon. it swings like a tetherball now. just got a text from the BO that after 5 hours she still has some hay left out of the 6# I gave her.

not too bad.

now if i could just ride her harder and more consistently this might become a non- issue.

[M_al]

Have you checked into Paddock Paradise? Maybe you could set up her paddock so that at least she has to walk a few feet … can’t just stand and eat?

[aliceo]

[QUOTE=M’al;8277550]
Have you checked into Paddock Paradise? Maybe you could set up her paddock so that at least she has to walk a few feet … can’t just stand and eat?[/QUOTE]

i would love to set up a paddock paradise for her, but she is boarded at a private home and their two horses have different needs than mine (they are very high strung paso finos who have to have loose hay in front of them 24/7 and they still lose weight–and they wear shoes, so don’t need the benefits of movement that my barefoot/airfern horse needs.)

it’s possible that at some point in future they would let me commandeer one of their pastures to create a PP, but that would be a significant investment I’d make on someone else’s property. probably ain’t gonna happen.

she’s in a very large dry lot now–i estimate about two acres. and i could possibly put a post into the paddock some distance from the barn and hang hay on it, just to get her away from just one station. it would work better if she were in a herd, but the BO is uncomfortable with having the horses feeding together.

[fanfayre]

What about a grazing muzzle?
Then she could go out and move around more trying to get food.

[aliceo]

she has a grazing muzzle and used it all spring at a previous barn. it worked just great. new BO doesn’t like to let horses be out on pasture all night (she’s worried about old fences failing) so that isn’t a current good option.