| Maryvet's Blog |  |
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| Purpose of this blog | Here's where I share my observations and practical knowledge gained from working with Caspians (and a few Thoroughbred interlopers) every day. As a veterinarian, I've had a life long interest and book knowledge of horses. True horse sense developed after moving to the Missouri countryside and sharing my life with these wonderful horses. Please send your comments and questions to maryvet01@yahoo.com. |
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Hay Saver |
Do your horses waste hay, pulling or pawing it out of the feeder and then trampling it? Although we love our Caspians, they were vexing us with their hay-wasting ways. We were feeding hay in oval water tubs. The tubs were sturdy but proved to be too convenient for pawing and nose-tossing large volumes of hay onto the ground. The hay waste was bad enough, but cleaning up the mess was the really annoying part of the problem. We needed a better solution and found it at a local farm store. This is an 8’ diameter feeder designed for feeding large round bales to horses. I like the open-top design of the feeding slots, as there is nothing to bump the horse’s head if they raise it quickly to get out of the way of a bossier horse. You can find several variations on this basic design. |
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This feeder is comprised of 3 panels
that each form one third of the circular unit. The panels are pre-drilled for
bolt assembly. We used 2 panels to make fenceline hay feeders in our horse
pens. The feeders don’t take up much space, they’re super strong, and they
really cut hay wastage. |
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We considered removing the panel legs in
order to get the unit down to ground level, but realized the unit would become
even sturdier if we buried the panel feet in the ground. So, after a little
pickaxe and shovel action and the addition of some eyebolts, we had achieved
our goal. |
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After buying one feeder and testing the
prototype, we purchased a second feeder. Using the 6 panels from these 2
units, we were able to make 3 fenceline units so that each of our 6 horse pens
has a hay feeder. We think we’ve solved our hay-feeding problem. |
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