I used a Freedom Feeder with a rope and 3 hole conway loop thingy from a giant Tough1 haynet to make a hay pillow. As long as the holes are small, the rope is secured well, shortened with a chain ‘stitch’ and then fed into the haynet, it’s a great, safe option. Ponypants is back in front shoes now so we’re using the same arrangement but hung against the wall, low enough to keep allergies happy, high enough that she can’t step on it and catch a shoe. Caveat, I am lucky to be able to hang it low. If she were the pawing or kicking type, it would be hung higher. Keep that in mind when choosing to hang a net 
Don’t use if your horse has shoes. I know horses (without shoes) that have them & do great. Advantage is they can move them around & they are eating with their heads & necks down instead of up like you’d need to safely use with something tied in place (like a small hole hay net). They have been sufficiently durable too.
Check out Nibble Nets, I have a few of them and they hold up really well. Just mount them low if you want to feed like they are grazing
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I had tons of hay nets in various sizes and mesh. I have been taking out the strings and using carabiners for over ten years. My horses are barefoot. They rarely get rolled into a pee puddle or poop pile, but if they do I just toss them in the washer. I like to fill from an intact bale – fit a net over each end like a pillow case and cut the twine in the middle.
I’d never heard of them, so had to Google as others have done. I use the Nibble Net picnic for some of my pony boarders. It’s similar but open all 'round. They can be tossed on the ground or hung.
Interesting discussion… the barn where my mare is boarded has been encouraging everyone to use hay nets of some sort, including hay pillows even for horses that are shod. It’s been a few months, and so far, there have been one or two with pulled shoes, but no injuries.
Knowing that my mare has torn off shoes from pawing at hay nets hung too low, I elected to use NibbleNets that are hung roughly at her chest level. She does sometimes pull hay out, drop it on the ground, and eat it from the ground. I suspect she’d play with a hay pillow if she had one.
I have visions of the TB’s using them for a football and the welsh mare pawing them apart. Mine are all barefoot so I would love to try them but can’t stomach the cost.
So, normal horse. My little nutjob got a special treat the other night - hay on the floor and half a haynet. All tolled about 20-25lbs for 24 hours. Plenty of hay. Should have had leftovers. Nope. She was so mad about having to clean up the (very neat, tidy, clean, SAME AS IN HER NET) hay on the floor that she completely trashed about 10lbs worth. It was flung and trampled, her net was totally empty and she was YELLING at me when I came in the barn door. YELLING, “I AM STARVING HERE I THOUGHT YOU HAD ABANDONED ME!!!” … and there was still a small untouched pile of clean hay under her feeder/net. Apparently, she was saving that for in case I really hadn’t shown up to tend to her every whim.
Update: the mare is now barefoot and I bought her a Hay Pillow, without checking back here for pros and cons. I am kind of regretting it now. It got used for the first time today in her paddock. It only has 1 inch holes because she is a hay hoover. She got a few mouthfuls of hay out, and then got frustrated. When I left the barn, it was about 25 feet from where it had been but I have no idea what she did to move it. She was wandering around her paddock looking for grass (there is almost none). But barn manager texted me to let me know that by the next hay feeding, she had eaten 90% of the hay in it.
I need a second ground hay feeder and am not sure what to use, It will go in her stall. The stall is 12 by 12 and she’s a small horse, and very neat, so I am not too worried about hay getting dirty. Just need something easy for the barn staff to use. We could try her old NibbleNet with enough clips to keep it closed, I guess.
The Portagrazer is pretty popular. I also see people use the Savvy feeder, I think that’s the name. There’s also the Kiwi Helix collapsible slow feeder, I have this one actually. I did stop using it since my horse would literally throw it at night and we were at a barn where the Dutch doors weren’t closed on the top half. However, there’s a horse at the barn where I board now who just bought one and seems to be having success with it from an outside perspective. The holes are adjustable so you can make them bigger to start to avoid frustration
Now that she’s barefoot, she doesn’t need anything as fancy as a Portagrazer. I want her feeder on the ground, because with hanging feeders, she kind of attacks them, yanks them violently, and hurts he neck and displaces her withers.
I think Hay Chin hay nets can be used on the ground & the Hay Pillow website also has info on their website saying which products can be used on the ground.
Reviving this thread instead of starting a new one.
I’d like to try some sort of hay net / bag that can be tossed on the ground in my dry lot. Both of my horses are barefoot, both know how to eat hay out of a slow feed net that’s hung up.
Mostly looking to contain hay; slowing consumption is great but not a primary goal. While I can hang nets / bags in the dry lot, I’m looking for something I can toss on the ground.
I have a Porta Grazer, it’s awesome, but I’m not looking to buy two more for the dry lot at this time.
I see the hay pillows and I see the some what pricier hay play bags. Both look nifty. Any recent experience with one or the other?
Also, I have some OG nibble nets. I’m curious if anyone has tried snapping or strapping the top of one of those shut and using it as a hay pillow? My concern with that is that even closing that bag at the two attachment points on the opening leaves “gaps” in the top about 6” and a horse might get a hoof stuck in it
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What about a trough type feeder? I bought a trough conversion kits from Gut Bustas (sp?) on Etsy for about $80 and really like it. A smaller trough fits a whole 2 string bale (50lbs ish), a bigger trough would likely fit two bales stacked on top of each other.
I’ve considered a trough type feeder. Snap a net or bag into a trough or something with a top similar to the Porta grazer. I don’t need to feed a bunch of hay at once (it would get rained on before the horses ate it most likely) and I don’t want to hassle with snapping a net into the trough or taking a top on and off to load and emptying out rain water.
I want to fill two bags, toss them into the dry lot and then pick up empty bags at turn in. Anything harder than that and I’ll keep feeding hay on the ground lol
I made my own slow feeder for my piggy (barefoot) mare by using a small hole hay net, taking out string and using carabiner to close, I took a clean sturdy muck tub and drilled small holes n the bottom, tied a 1” diameter metal ring to the bottom with baling twine threaded through holes and clip carabiner to ring.
She is dust sensitive and needs her hay wet so I adjusted the set up by drilling more holes into bottom and low on the sides of muck tub for drainage. I either use hose to spray net of hay while in muck tub or subbmerge net of hay into water before I clip net into muck tub. It has worked great. She knocks it over and it rolls around the paddock but she still can eat out of it.
If I want it to last longer I double net the hay.
I call it my poor man’s slow feeder
Edited to say I have also just tossed the closed hay net into her paddock but find it is frustrating for her to eat out of it as there is noting to”pull against” to get the hay but more significantly the net (and the hay) got really muddy and gross from being dragged around the paddock (this was wet hay though, dry hay would probably stay much cleaner). I also got worried the stray net would “migrate” to a neighboring paddock where a shod horse might get tangled in it.
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I have a very determined hay eater, and I toss her 1 inch hole hay chix nets on the ground for her to eat. Works great. She can eat the hay no problemo.
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I have done something very similar (with 1” ultra slow nets), but instead of removing the line I just untied the ends so there is no loop to get caught in. I got some large double toggle latches and ran the cord ends through them. I do find I still need to tie a knot to keep my mare from forcing it open.
They don’t seem to get too frustrated, though they do fling the nets around as they pull hay from them. My husband’s new mule appears to have very quickly realized that a hoof firmly planted on the net makes things a lot easier.
Winter quarters (when they’re getting hay) are on a wooded hillside so between the slope and the sand/gravel beneath the thin soil, mud is not a problem. The nets do get a bit disgusting during rain or when things are melting but it’s more wet than mud.
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My two would not eat from the Hay Pillows and I couldn’t make sense of it. I have two of them just sitting in a box. I have Savvy feeders but what my horses use most is the square holed bags from Smart Pak and Hay Burner bags - soft and knotless. My bags all sit low - nearly to the ground since they are barefoot.
Their posture when eating looks good. I’m picky about that.
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I just tie up regular hay nets real tight, do like 9 slipknots to gather the extra string, shove it into the net, and throw them on the ground!
