Attached is a story about a horse that got partially into the feeder and got stuck.
I have wondered about this possibility with these feeders, especially with smaller horses when the hay is eaten down.
I was going to get some sort of round bale feeder for next winter but after all of these stories I think I’ll just keep feeding without one and dealing with the waste. There doesn’t seem to be anything a horse can’t figure out how to kill himself with.
There have been some horrific accidents in our area over the years caused by various kinds of hay feeders; most commonly, the standard welded-steel bale-racks if they are poorly maintained. Pieces of steel stick out or trap a leg, and . . . I’ll leave the details to your imagination. This is the first I’d seen of this particular kind of plastic feeder, but my first impression was that it would wind up being stuck on someone’s neck and precipitate a violent freak-out.
Truly, Nature intended horses to eat off the ground. Try and find a well-drained area of the paddock, put down some rubber mats to keep it so if need be, and feed your hay in amounts that will be cleaned up completely before the next feeding. If the hay is of sufficient quality, there should be very little waste. This prevents not only the danger of entrapment etc., but also dust up the nose, seeds in eyes, fighting in the presence of a solid object, inverting the neck as they do eating in stall hay racks, etc. Sometimes less is more!
One of my neighbours made their own “hay hut” It has two openings opposite each other. I’m guessing they made the holes small enough that their 2 big TBs couldn’t get inside.
My mom once told me a story about a horse that got its hoof stuck in a round bale feeder. One of the ones with solid metal around and pipe at the top. The horse panicked and pulled and pulled and…well it was more than just a broken bone.
My worry with a hay hut is that someone is going to have their head inside and then get bit by another horse and will result in chaos. I haven’t heard anything but great things about the hay hut’s (other than this story) so far, though!
We have a round metal feeder that they just reach over, don’t put their heads through, and built a roof over it. We’ve had great success with this set up for years.
I don’t know anyone around here that has a hay hut or anything similiar, but I’ve seen and heard about a ton of injuries related to the metal round bale feeders. And miraculously, one of my friends had a big draft mare that decided to lie down in the middle of one, and somehow managed to extricate herself without harm. Personally, the hay huts kind of freak me out.
Of course, since my horses would be morbidly obese if I put a round bale out for them anyhow, it’s a non-issue. I just feed them small amounts on the ground, and they’re always hungry enough to eat everything I put out before the next feeding.
No equine injuries or entrapmenta have ever been reported using a Ale Barn www.balebarns.com. The design minimizes contact with the horse.
I won’t use hay ring feeders or i wouldn’t use the hay huts. My one horse loves to climb into the darn things once bales are half eaten down. Thank you very much i’ll put bales out with NO feeder lots safer,waste happens and i’m fine with that. Horse get trapped in a hay feeder overnight ,and you might come out to a real mess. Bad enough to PTS not worth the risk to save on wasted hay.
When will people learn? Those things are SO unsafe in many ways.
I have typed my experience with them so many times, I’m nearly tired of typing it!
Long story short: The supposedly “unbreakable” hay feeder shredded my horse’s hock when he kicked through it (barefoot) and pulled his leg back out. Pierced down to the bone, sliced the leg. Vet bills, rounds of penecillin, horse off for weeks… I absolutely despise those pieces of plastic garbage. I would never turn my horse out in a field that had one ever again.
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