All articles

Can my horse really eat from such small holes?Updated 2 months ago

The whole idea of GutzBusta® Slow Feed hay nets is to do just that.... slow down your horses rate of consumption.  We all know what happens when we throw a biscuit of hay out on the ground - it is gobbled up within half and hour and that's it.  If you are only feeding once or twice a day, then what does your horse do with the rest of the time if he is locked up without anything else to eat??

Most horses can cope perfectly well with the 4cm Moderator holes.  They may get angry and frustrated at first and will try and bite at the nets, but they soon realise that this isn't successful in getting a meal and then they start to nibble at the nets, pulling strands and not huge mouthfuls of hay through at a time.

Never introduce your GutzBusta® hay net to a hungry horse without having loose hay available too.  That way there is something in your horses stomach, so his behaviour will not be so ravenous and aggressive.

The 3cm Decelerator holes are made for those extra gutzy horses that aren't slowed down enough by the 4cm hole nets.  If you do start with too small of a hole net (3cm), some horses may give up.  Other horses and particularly ponies, have no problems negotiating a 3cm hay net. I use these for my own horses when the hay is palatable and through summer when they need something to eat, but not as quickly as they do in winter where they use food energy to keep warm.  I also use the 3cm to slow down the consumption rate for my metabolic type horses.

Years ago, as an experiment with my own horses, I actually made some 2cm square holed hay nets and my Arabians and Stockhorse were still able to eat through these.  I did need to have palatable hay inside these nets for them to bother with though. I then experimented to 1cm and they could still get lucerne hay out of that. Point being, yes, your horses is perfectly capable of eating through the 4cm hay nets as they are able to eat through smaller holed hay nets than 4cm and even 3cm. 

We added the 2cm sized nets for customers who found that 3cm still wasn’t enough for their really greedy, gutzy horses and ponies or where the hay was super palatable.

Another option is to double bag if you are wanting to slow feeding down more.

Was this article helpful?
Yes
No