So, the “feral” goats have decided that being fed twice a day isn’t too bad after all. The problem is that they’ve moved on to bigger and better things; the horse’s food. It started out as cleaning up the pellets that my mare spilled. A blade or two of her peanut hay. But now they’ve spoiled themselves; they refuse to eat their food, and have become pushy about Piper’s food. They’ll get down on their little knees and eat out of her ground feeder. They will also knock out a decent chunk of peanut hay before Piper gets around to eating it. She’s just not very food-dominant.
So, I switched to feeding the horse in a fence feeder that the goaties cannot reach. They are Not Very Happy About This. I’ve also started feeding the peanut in a hay net. The problem is, with my current set up the goats can still reach the hay net if they stand on their hind legs. I’ve got it hung about as high as possible without rigging a new (and inconvenient) system in the stall. As in, it’s about as high as I can reach to hang it without involving a step stool.
I’m sure there’s a pretty simple solution that I’m not thinking of…I’m just stumped at the moment. Any ideas?
Oh, I should also add that the “stall” is an open (no gate) run-in that is backed up to the pasture fence. The goal was to be able to do feed/hay/water without having to enter the pasture, in case we ever have pet-sitters feeding. So the goats can also access this shelter from the inside, as well as access the hay net from the outside (opposite side of the fence).
