Slow Feeder Theory.
Hard Feeders
On a Hard Slow Feeder the horse is “grazing” through a metal grid. There has not
been any reports from anywhere about problems with the horses lips or tongue not
even in extremely cold environments. Optimal hole size in the grid seems to be between
2-
Top feeders
On a top feeder the metal grid is placed on top of the hay in some kind of container and the horse is pushing the grid down on the hay making it impossible for the hay to get stuck anywhere. This seems to work pretty good as long as the horse do not out smart the feeder grid and manage to get his head in under one side to eat underneath. Sadly enough this is very common. Another issue with Top Feeders is that they need to be emptied before refilled otherwise there will be old hay in the bottom that eventually will start to molder. This means that you must remove the old hay before you refill the feeder and the put the old hay back on the top before putting the metal grid back. Letting the horse empty the feeder is not recommended since quite some horses starts getting stressed already when they figure that the supply of hay might eventually run out. Of course you can address this issue by having plenty of feeders available to the horse.
Side feeders
On a Side Feeder the metal eating grid is placed vertical (on the side) of the hay container and a slanted bottom is supposed to make the hay slide out to the grid for the horse to eat. This works good in theory but is harder to achieve in real life. The risk of the hay getting stuck somewhere and not slide all the way to the eating grind is apparent and even if it works just fine with one kind of hay you can be pretty sure that there will be problems when you change to another hay quality. Of course the angle of the slanted bottom (and how slick it is) is extremely important but the more you slant the bottom the less hay the feeder will be able to store. I advice against having parallel sides on the hay container because hay is very likely to get stuck between parallel sides (even if they are 4’ = 120cm apart). The smallest unevenness or roughness will make the hay get stuck.
Personally I have (after 13 years of experimenting) given up on Hard Slow Feeders since I believe that there are better ways.
Soft Feeders, SMHN, Small Mesh Hay Nets.
A SMHN is a hay net with a mesh size of no more than 4cm = 1 5/8”.
I strongly believe in a second era for the hay net now when SMHN;s are available.
But of course not for the traditional hay net with large mesh and hanging high up in the air. That solution is completely obsolete and unnecessary!
When we are discussing hay nets we must remember that low hanging and unprotected hay nets and shoed horses is a dangerous combination. One shoed hoof getting stuck in the net and something will break (lets hope it will be the net). Barefooted horses and low hanging hay nets is however usually not a problem. I do however advice against putting SMHN;s directly on the ground for any horse to stand on, lay down on, pee and poop on. There is also a risk that your horse then will step on the SMHN and tear it apart with his teeth. A horse can destroy anything if he sets his mind to it but on the other hand our herd (of barefoot stallions) has used the same round bale SMHN for about 16 months and it is still 100% intact.
There are two tricks to get a SMHN to last really long. One is to school them slowly (see the bottom of this column) and the other is not to stretch it hard but instead let it be fairly loose and/or swinging. When the horse has gotten the hang of eating through a SMHN he will no longer bite the net since that is not as effective as pulling the hay out through the holes. If a frustrated horse destroys a SMHN with his teeth he will most likely do it during the first week before he has figured out how it works.
Hanging SMHN
SMHN;s can be hung on a wall, between two trees or from the ceiling (to a low level) but all these solutions are only recommended for barefoot horses. For shoed horses you need to take one more step and protect the net in some way. The larger number of meshes that are used to carry the weight of the loaded SMHN the longer it will last. My recommendation is to use a broom stick or a rope to spread the weight over a larger number of meshes instead of putting all the strain only on the corners or a small number of separate pieces of yarn. The harder the SMHN is stretched the easier it becomes for a frustrated horse to bite through the net.
No muscular or mouth problem are known from the horse eating from a low hanging SMHN.
Laying SMHN
I know that a lot of horse owners fill SMHN;s and leave them laying on the ground
but that is something I would not recommend and of course strongly advice against
if there are shoed horses around. Bales (or loose hay) netted and left in a box or
container that allows the horse to reach into the box and graze through the net is
however my personal favorite and works perfectly fine even for shoed horses. There
is no need for loosing up a bale. It is really easy to dress a complete bale in a
SMHN and that works just as fine with all bales from small bales to complete round
bales. If you have served your herd free choice from a round bale before you are
in for a treat if you put the round bale in a SMHN. Lots of horse owners report that
they have saved 30-
Androgynous Slow Feeders
I believe future success lies in a combination of SMHN;s and rigid constructions designed to gain from the good parts of both sides. This area is where I will spend most of my time in search for the perfect Continuous Slow Feeding solution.
Some advice when you plan to
build your own Slow Feeder:
Avoid parallel rigid sides anywhere.
If you are thinking of a Slow Feeder where the hay is stored above where the horse is supposed eat and the hay therefore is supposed to fall down through the storage area it will get stuck between parallel sides (and that is a promise). I advice against all use of barrels or any other prefabricated storage shafts with parallel sides (you will just be disappointed). The solution to a fool proof storage shaft is to make it more narrow at the top and wider all the way down and of course avoid everything that is even remotely capable of catching the hay on the way down.
Don’t even think of a solution where you plan to push down or lift the hay with force. My experience is that the amount of force applied will always be wrong. The hay will either be pushed to hard against the eating grid, making it too hard for the horse to get the hay out, or not enough, making it impossible for the horse to reach the hay since the hay will not be pushed all the way close enough to the grid.
A hard grid that is leaning on the hay from the side might work just fine but remember that the hay will not slide down on a slanted bottom as long as the grid is leaning on the hay. This means that the horse has to eat the hay through the grid where it is, high and low. It might work to spring load the grid to move away from the hay to make it possible for the hay to slide down when the horse is not pressing the grid against the hay but I have not tested.
Do not stretch a SMHN hard in a frame to be used instead of a hard grid because that will increase the risk for the horse to bite through the yarn. Wire mesh usually do not work for vary long before the horse has managed to move the wire to make one big hole in the middle.
Schooling your horse on a SMHN.
How long it takes for a particular horse to learn how to work a SMHN is individual. Some horses get the hang of it right away and some need up to a month to understand that it is more effective not to bite the net but instead pull strands out though the holes of the net.
The best way to school your horse on a SMHN is to keep feeding some 75% of the hay the old fashion way and ad the full SMHN as a bonus. When your horse chooses the SMHN before the hay on the ground is finished then it is time to stop feeding hay on the ground.
I do not recommend feeding portions in a SMHN since the objective is to reach Continuous Slow Feeding when your horse can have seem less access to his hay without eating too fast or too much.
Finishing the hay in a SMHN only adds to the eating stress which will work against what we wish for.
Continuous Slow Feeding only works when your horse has forgotten that there can be an end to the supply of hay in the SMHN. When he thinks that the hay is growing in the SMHN just as it is growing out in the pasture then marvellous things starts to happen.
If your horse destroys the SMHN then you have rushed the schooling process faster than he was ready for. If this happens I recommend you to start all over and feed both in your traditional way and in the SMHN for a while again.
Many horses do eat more than they should during the schooling process and the only way to handle that situation is to exercise him more. Reducing the amount of food available is not a good way to reach the fantastic state of Continuous Slow Feeding when the horse lives in harmony and you never have to suffer from bad conscious because you are late for feeding.