How much hay in nets for long trailer ride........

[lovemyanimals3]

This may sound like a goofy question for those of you who trailer long distances frequently.

BACKGROUND: This fall I’m trailering from NY to FL and I’m doing lots of planning as this is BY FAR the furthest I’ve ever driven (with or without a trailer LOL). It’s going to be a 2-day trip. Each day, I’ll be traveling about 8-10 hours. I have a 2-horse slant-load bumper pull trailer; it’s also a forward or reverse slant load. The first day I’m going to travel with them in one direction and the next day in the other direction.

QUESTION: I believe my hay nets will only hold about a half a bale of hay (the bales i get are about 25-30lbs). At home my horses generally eat about 1 1/2-2 bales/day EACH. I was hoping to get a whole bale in a net, but no way will that fit. There’s no way to get into the trailer sections to add more hay. Maybe while traveling they won’t eat as much? Any suggestions or thoughts? Would corner feeders be better? But i would think with corner feeders that a lot of hay would be lost on the floor as their heads would be moving back and forth since it’s a slant and they’re tied on one side and the hay’s on the other…their heads are not just hanging over the feeder.

[Highflyer]

Get bigger nets-- the rope ones i have will hold a 60 pound bale of alfalfa easily. Far better to have too much than too little, since you can’t get in to add more.

[Equisis]

Bigger nets, or hang two nets for each horse. Get small-hole nets so they can’t wolf it all down.

[Pocket_Pony]

Why can’t you just put a couple bales in the back of your truck and then when you stop to fuel up and offer water, reload the hay nets if needed?

[AKB]

Mine consume about a bale of hay per horse on the 14-15 hour drive from Virginia to Florida. I also feed about 1/2 bale of wet Standlee compressed alfalfa in a corner feeder, since mine won’t drink while on the trailer.

[demidq]

Wet the hay, replenish when you stop, offer ‘soupy’ beet pulp en route. Stop every 2-3 hrs for 15 minutes.

[Mango20]

I just traveled 9 hours, and both horses only ate about 2-3 flakes of hay while traveling. Most of that was done during our two rest stops.