Since a long, long time I am feeding my horses their hay in so-called slowfeeders. These nets are not the same as the old fashion haynets with huge holes where the horse pulls out huge amounts of hay and drop half of it on the ground. Also the risks of getting stuck in these nets are way lower than with the common haynets. (Just have to add that you still have to be careful with horses with shoes.)
Slowfeeders are nets with smaller holes and because of that the horse has to “nibble” on the hay to get it out. Or they shake it out because a horse is very inventive. Because of these smaller amounts they get, it takes them way longer to eat one flake of hay (say 10 minutes versus 30 minutes) which makes it more natural for the horse and better for their intestines. And because of that I can give them a couple of flakes and at the end off the day they are just finished with it.
As I said I use them already for a long time. In the Netherlands they were quiet popular already, not so much here in Canada. It took me some time to find a place where they sold slowfeeders which were also of good quality and shipping & handling didn’t cost me a small fortune. I tried out a couple but most of them got holes in it within months or they were just not handy to use.
Now I stick to one brand called NAG BAG (www.slowfeeders.com) and they work great for me. I have different sizes nets but also different size holes. The sizes of the nets vary between able to put 3 or 4 flakes in it or a 1200lbs round bale. I use the small ones for in the stall at night. I use a bigger size, which can hold a small bale, outside when I am out of my big 1200lbs roundbales.
I have a net for these roundbales too. Just over 3 weeks is what it takes 2 horses (14 hands) to eat these big guys and there is really barely any hay spilled or left. What a release after my first big bale without the net. But then they had a beautiful bed where they could poop and pi on and lay down all while eating. 30% probably ended up at the manure pile eventually. The only thing I noticed is that the small versus the “normal” size holes didn’t make much difference. Just a couple of days.
So these nets are not only saving me a lot of money (certainly when the hay prices were ridiculous high like last year), they are better for their health too. And if you would make it even more healthier, you can hang a couple of nets all over the place so they have to move around. But not everybody can do that. And I can’t just put them on the ground because coyotes love to play with them and tear them apart lol.
Start with Baudina 