New Nets

In light of Raven's recent injury I have decided not to build feeders into the horse shelter -- I simply can't think of a design that would be safe and practical for that trouble-making mare. They will have to make do with hay nets.

Hay nets are not ideal for a couple of reasons. First, they need to be hung up high to avoid legs getting tangled in the nylon webbing. This forces the animals to eat with their heads and necks in an unnatural position, and hay in contact with the eyes can lead to irritation and infection. Tonka and Raven eat at least 75% of their forage from the feeders so I am not too concerned about these impacts. Second, traditional hay nets (see above) are made of mesh measuring about 6 inches -- lots of hay comes out of the holes, and feet can easily slip into the holes if one is pulled down. It would be just a matter of time for Raven, I'm afraid.

Fine mesh hay nets (above) are gaining popularity in the UK and the USA, but I couldn't find any at our local tack stores or from Canadian online retailers. Last week I bit the bullet (i.e. the plummeting exchange rate and ridiculous cross-border tariffs) and bought two from horseloverz.com. They arrived yesterday, and I rigged them up tonight on breakaway bindings. The horses really have to pull to get hay through the 2 inch mesh, so the darned things bounce around like punching bags. So far Tonka thinks it's fun and Raven thinks it's a pain in the ass.

Feeder 2.5

Given that my time and disposable income have been...er...diverted for the next little while, the new feeders are on the back burner. In the meantime I was inspired by the Swedish Hoof School to replace the hose-sheathed rebar in my feeders with two panels from the dogs' 48" exercise pen. It works so well that I cut some bars out of another panel to make a new facing for the goat feeder (and I bought a new ex-pen).

I am watching Raven out our bedroom window as I type. She has been off her feed a little over the past 24 hours, but I guess that's not surprising in a high-strung thoroughbred pumped up on bute and antibiotics -- we are lucky that she is eating at all. Watching her after she gets up from being down is heart wrenching, but once she gets going she is moving quite well. No more bute until tomorrow morning so that Kerstin can honestly assess her degree of lameness when she arrives. It is beautiful outside and I was able to exchange her rain sheet for her fly sheet (why are there still flies in the middle of November?) at least. I am so glad that we are not getting last week's heavy rain through this difficult time.

Flogging a Dead Horse Feeder

The two hay feeders I built for the horses are approaching the end of their first half life. No major repairs have been needed thus far, but nothing made of wood lasts for long in a rain forest (hence the steel shelter). Like any good engineer I am already working on an improved design to be implemented next summer. Two treated posts will be required to hold the whole thing up, but otherwise it will be made entirely of steel. For anyone interested in the construction of slow-release hay feeders, this site recently came to my attention. There are some great ideas here, though none of them appropriate for the wet coast (with the exception of this huge round bale net -- brilliant!).

Hay Nets

dIn my last year of high school I got a summer job managing the pony ride at a local amusement park. The 60+ hour work week was grueling for both me and the ponies, but it paid much more than $500/summer. I actually kept that job throughout my undergraduate degree because it also paid more than good summertime engineering positions (especially because I was living with my generous parents in Toronto instead of paying rent in Vancouver). Most other ride managers were university students working hard to support their educations, and we had a lot of fun in our scarce spare time.

The pony ride had 10 - 12 ponies that I would rotate as fairly as possible (never fairly enough). When not working they lived in a paddock at the petting zoo along with an insane zony (a zebra crossed with a pony) and an ornery zonkey (you do the math). To maximize efficiency while minimizing wastage I fed them all by hanging 6 - 8 stuffed hay nets around the paddock each morning and evening. When you multiply this by six days per week, 12 weeks per year for 5 years you might believe my claim to being the fastest hay netter in the west (this lady is doing it wrong).

We are using hay nets to minimize wastage in the shelter*, and I think of my ponies every time I fill them. Some of them were with me every summer (the picture above was taken long after my time in 2005, but the bay is Bubba who I trained in 1998 when he was 4), and that job gave me an immense respect for the pluck and personality of the little guys (they were all geldings). One day I would like to give an old pony a retirement home, in honour of their hard work for me over the years.

*The horses love the shelter again. David is convinced that they are just messing with my head, and I am beginning to believe him. Either way, Tom is coming out on Wednesday to put crusher dust around the whole thing, and to make a path up from the south end of the paddock.