Slow Feed Hay Net Update Still Going Strong

I’ve been feeding Grace from a slow feed hay net for 4 months now. I am really impressed by how well it has held up and that she actually eats from it. Grace is by far the pickiest horse I’ve ever owned when it comes to hay, supplements, grain, and even treats. If her hay gets stepped on, damp or dirty she refuses to eat it. She does well on an alfalfa/orchard grass mix. I have to be sure to only buy her hay that is grown in Eastern Washington or Eastern Oregon because the hays grown on the west side of the states hold too much moisture and are never really free of the molds and mildews that Grace is sensitive to. I also have to make sure that her hay is free of chemicals and dyes. I bought a ton of beautiful green hay from a dealer last winter when my source was out. It was beautiful hay, but almost too green there was something not quite natural about it. Grace flat out refused to eat it. I believe it may have been dyed and she is sensitive enough to know she doesn’t want anything fake. With all that in mind I wasn’t sure if my Prima Donna would be willing to put out the extra effort to eat out of a hay net, especially one that was designed to slow her down.

The slow feed hay net has far exceeded all of my expectations. Grace actually eats more hay out of the net than she did when I fed all of her hay on the ground. At first I only filled the net with orchard grass and still fed plenty of alfalfa mix on the ground twice a day. I’ve started to add more of the alfalfa mix to the hay net, only leaving a small amount on the ground. The first time I filled the hay net with a few flakes of alfalfa mix added to the orchard grass I was pretty sure Grace spent the entire night eating. I went out to feed her the next morning and noticed that she wasn’t her usual demanding self. She looked tired, like she had been up all night even yawning when I asked why she didn’t meet me in her usual spot. It was then that I saw that the hay net was almost empty; I easily had put 3 feedings of hay in there the night before. I’m still working to find the right ratio of hay so that she eats enough but not gorge herself. The crazy thing is if I had put that same mix and amount of hay on the ground I would be lucky if she finished a third of it by the time she had it spread out and dirty. Now in mid-January I’m still riding 5-6 days a week and the mare is fat. The weather for the last two weeks has been dry and cold including a few nights in the 20’s, it was nice to know on those cold nights that along with the extra blanket that my horse had plenty of fuel to keep her warm. I used the hay net at the horse show in early December and for the first time didn’t leave the stall bedded in hay. It does seem odd that making it harder for my horse to eat would result in her consuming more food, but I no longer question the magic.

Slow Feed Hay Net Update

I've been feeding Grace out of the slow feed hay net for two weeks now. At first I was worried that Grace wouldn't eat enough hay and might lose weight. She surprised me by eating more at times out of the hay net than if I had put her  hay on the ground. She still doesn't empty the hay net all the way, but I take the left over hay, usually about a flake and mix it back in with the new hay when I refill the net. If she had left that same flake behind while feeding on the ground, it would have been spread out, stepped on peed on and then thrown in the manure pile. Now I hardly ever have to put hay in the manure pile before it makes it way through the horse.

I found this website full of great ideas on how to set up slow feed hay nets. I took the idea of running the bucket strap through the top to close and hang the bag. I have two nets and quickly learned that I like the larger one. It holds up to 30 pounds of hay and I can leave it up without refilling it for more than one feeding. I still like to pull the hay through the holes to get it started for Grace, my goal is not for her to lose weight but for her waste less hay. She still gets her flake of alfalfa mix on the ground twice a day, the orchard grass is there for her 24 hours. Last night I had a late meeting after work so I was gone for over 13 hours, I didn't have to worry about the increased amount of time in between feedings causing an ulcer flare.

This is what the net looks like right before I refill it:

When it is full:

 

 

 

 

Bucket strap:

 



 

 

 

 

I had a hell of a time uploading these pictures tonight. Blogger kept rotating them every time I would upload. I went to Google to see what was up and the party line put it back on the camera that I took the pictures with. I'm not buying that because when I logged out and back in I was able to get one picture to load correctly. If it acts like a bug and looks like a bug it is most likely a bug.I knew there had to be a way around it. I uploaded the same photos in Picasa, one of which uploaded rotated (Picasa is a Google Site) but I was then able to rotate in Picasa and upload here. Nice to know all those hours working for a software company are paying off!



Slow Feed Hay Nets and Other Mysteries

Every time I feed Grace I am reminded of why I own only one horse. She most defiantly eats better than I do! At this time her daily diet consists of 2 feedings of the best Eastern Washington orchard grass hay I can find, which is now mixed with the same quality alfalfa/orchard grass mix. 3 pounds of rolled ration twice a day, Miracle Clay, Dynamite vitamins, Dynamite Free and Easy, Chia Seed and Organic Black Strap Molasses to mix it all together. I will soon be adding papaya powder to this mixture for digestive health. This diet keeps Grace fat, slick and shiny while being ridden 6 days a week and showing at least once a month. There is one big issue I've been facing for at least the last 6 months; Princess Grace won't clean up her hay. 

At one point I was feeding Grace 6 flakes of hay a day. She has experienced ulcer flare ups in the past and my idea was to keep hay in front of her all the time.  Again - I feed the best hay I can find, I don't mind feeding extra as long as it doesn't go to waste, but I found I was adding more and more of it to the manure pile before it went through the horse. I had a ton of 1st cutting that has some stem to it so I thought that was the issue, but then the 2nd cutting with the soft beautiful grass arrived and she was leaving even more of that behind. I cut her back to 4 flakes a day (2 flakes twice a day) and she was still leaving perfectly good clean hay behind. I found that if I took away all of the left over hay Grace was better about cleaning up the new meal I put in front of her. This works for a feeding and then she starts leaving hay behind again. It was killing me to fill a wheelbarrow with perfectly good hay that any other horse would eat and dump it into the manure pile. Sarah suggested that I start feeding Grace out of one of those slow feed hay bags. I filled one and hung it on the trailer at a day long horse show; Grace wouldn’t touch it so I shelved that idea. This weekend the ½ ton of orchard/alfalfa arrived. Grace is currently inhaling the one flax of alfalfa mix but she then leaves most of the flake of orchard grass behind. Again – BEAUTIFUL hay – I would eat it! I have to believe that if there was another horse to compete with for food; this would not be an issue. Grace is still fat, shiny and happy but I only see dollar signs in the manure pile. I also want to get this under control before the rain returns and makes a mess of things.
  
Last night I pulled the slow feed hay net back out and filled it with 3 flakes of the orchard grass hay. Before hanging it up I pulled hay through the small openings so Grace would get the idea. I fed her flake of alfalfa mix on the floor of the shelter and then hung the hay net in the corner. I prefer to have my horse eat with her head down, but I am at the end of my rope with the hay waste. I left her for the night convinced that she would be starving in the morning with a full hay bag hanging in front of her. I also had the creeping thought in the back of my mind that she would somehow hang herself up in the hay net event though I knew I hung it safely.

When I went up to the pasture to feed this morning I caught sight of the hay net in the glow of my head lamp, it was still hanging. From a distance I could tell the shape of it had change, it was longer and narrower! On closer inspection Grace had not only eaten from the hay net, she had eaten about 2/3rds of the hay in it! I searched the ground under the hay net – no hay on the ground; she had also eaten all of the alfalfa mix from the night before. I have no idea why Grace prefers to eat her hay in the bag, but I was really surprised by how much more she consumed in one feeding. I plan to get a second slow feed bag so I can have her morning hay ready to go the night before. I don't even want to think about how much hay I could have saved if I had just listened to Sarah the first time. Sigh...