I took advantage of a recent sunny day to build a hay feeder I had been wanting to do for a long time. It’s made from a piece of hockey barrier netting about 10′ x 12′, a few plastic coated cup hooks, three 2x4s and a sheet of exterior grade plywood. The posts had been put in my the barn owner in preparation for a shelter.
It is filled from the back without opening or closing anything. It will easily hold a small square bale, maybe even more. For now, I’m having them fed their usual meal of two to three flakes each. I may try going back to 24/7 free choice at some point. I’ll have to wait for the roof though, so the hay doesn’t spoil.
I had planned to split the net and have half hang to each side. That would make two separate feeding areas, so that a dominant horse wouldn’t monopolize the hay. I may still do that, but for now, Beau and Lily are sharing nicely.
I could see feeding stations like this in a couple of areas of a paddock paradise track, with an A frame roof off the two poles. It would provide a bit of a rain and wind break, along with a feeding station, without having to build a full shelter.
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I’ve wanted to set up a paddock paradise for years. It is a great concept. Many horses these days are kept in small paddocks or pastures and end up standing around. Horses have evolved to move. Feral horses on BLM land travel miles every day from forage to water to shelter. Without this movement and grazing most of the day, horses can develop all sorts of issues, from illness to behavior problems.
Yesterday afternoon, I went ahead and put up a single strand of electric tape on fiberglass posts to make a track. My horses’ paddock is 75′ x 160′, so not very large. Even so, I think that it was worth doing. I saw Lily and Sasha moving around the track even as I was putting up the fence. I think that they have enough incentive to move with their favorite shade tree in the NE corner, opposite the water.
Permanent fencing is black with gates in thick blue.
The electric tape that I put up today is in blue.
The water is light blue.
Rubber mats for hay are brown.
The shade tree is in the upper left.
The fencing is not hot at this point. I’ll have to look for a solar or battery powered charger before any grass starts to grow in the middle. The temptation would be too great to just push through or under the tape.
The next step will be to take some old carpeting that I’ve had for a while and spread that along the west track between the gate and the water. I will cover it with gravel and/or hog fuel. With the choice determined by my budget. The footing gets quite slippery in the winter with all the rain we have here. I hope that this change will help on that front; in letting some vegetation grow in the middle, and putting down a more solid surface in the higher traffic area.
At this point, I am not going to set up any slow feeding hay stations. Lily has gotten good enough at my small mesh hay nets to go through nearly forty pounds of hay in a day! I just don’t have the time to devise new methods to slow here down right now. So they will stay with their twice a day loose hay.
Sasha finding hay scraps along the north track.
Lily under the shade tree in the NE corner.
Lily coming up from the water towards the gate. Beau is in the alley outside their paddock.
The girls eating their dinner hay on the track.
Peaceful dinnertime - Sasha in the center, Lily on the track and Beau in the barnyard.
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