Date: 10/23/2003 6:34:00 AM
From Authorid: 18527
Question: I am wondering if it makes anydifference if you feed hay on the ground or ina hay net or rack. I have been reading thesebooks that say you should never feed a horsehay on the ground, but it never gave a specif-ic reason. At the barn that I ride (and theprevious barn) they feed hay on the ground,and all the horses there seem fine. Is thereany difference?Thanks, Tara
Answer: Hi Tara! Hay racks in stalls are really for the convenience of horse-ownersand stable staff - it's supposed to keep thehay in one place (more about this later), andit enables the humans walking down the barnaisle to tell at a glance which horses stillhave hay in the racks and which do not.Beyond that, though, racks aren't terriblyuseful, for several reasons.Horses are designed to eat off theground. Their respiratory systems cannot stayclear unless they can put their heads down,and asking them to eat with their heads highis not particularly good for their health.When horses have to reach across and up(instead of down) for their hay, it's not goodfor their respiratory systems, they get a lotmore dust in their noses and eyes, and theyalso run the risk of getting bits of hay in theireyes. Since the equine eye is very large,very delicate, not well protected at all, andextremely susceptible to injury and infection,it's silly to take the risk.The purpose of hay racks is reallytwo-fold: They are intended to keep the haytogether, in one area, so that the horse won'twaste its hay by making a nest of it or usingit for a toilet. They are also intended to helphorses avoid taking in sand with their hay,because the ingestion of sand can lead tocolic. I'll address each purpose in turn.A hay rack can serve to keep thehay in one place, but it's more sensible andhealthy to make a corner feeder in the horse'sstall by putting short boards across one cor-ner, starting at the stall floor and going up toabout two feet off the ground. This smallarea can serve all the purposes of a hay-rack,but as it will enable the horse to eat in a nat-ural position, it will keep the hay in oneplace without creating any problems for thehorse. If you?re worried about the horsestepping into the corner, you can use a tire asa softer hay-containment unit.As for the sand colic, the best wayto guard against the horse taking in too muchdirt and sand with its hay is to keep a rubbermat or tarp under the hay, whether the hay isin a tire or in a rack. If you've ever watcheda horse eat hay from a high rack, you knowwhat happens. The horse pulls a wisp of hayaway from the rack and chews it, and tinybits of hay fall from the rack and from thewisp in the horse's mouth. By the time therack is empty, there is a good deal of hay - intiny pieces - on the ground under the rack.The horse, having emptied the hay rack, thenspends a happy half-hour or so seeking outand eating every tiny bit of fallen hay...which is now on the ground. This is espe-cially noticeable if your horse is being fedalfalfa (lucerne), as the best leafy bits tend tofall to the ground each time the horse pulls afew stems out of the rack.Sometimes there are good reasonsfor using some sort of container for hay, evenin pasture. If horses are in a pasture or drylot and being fed hay ad lib, it's usually bestto confine the hay to a rack of some sort justto keep it from being dragged all over thepasture, trodden on, etc. Racks designed tohold large bales for pasture consumption usu-ally provide access to hay just a few feet offthe ground, which isn't such a problem forthe horse's respiratory system or eyes.However, if the ground is very sandy, thehorses are likely to be ingesting a consider-able amount of sand - which brings us backto the idea of using mats or a tarpunder/around the rack. If the rack is under cover, as itshould be if there is any possibility of rain(large bales are always at risk for mold), itshouldn't be too onerous to put and keepmats underneath it. When a horse is beinggiven hay in a trailer, there's a clear need fora hay bag or hay net. The large, open bagsthat attach at three or four corners are proba-bly the most useful, and they should be fas-tened no higher than chest height, in front ofthe breast bar.Hay nets are traditionally attachedrather high, but that's not for the good of thehorse's respiratory system - it's meant to pre-vent the horse getting a foot caught in anemptied and dangling hay net. (Properly fas-tened hay nets are tied at both top and bot-tom, and thus won't dangle in this manner inany case, but that's another story!)The following is reprinted by permission of Dr. Jessica JahielCopyright ? 2000. Jessica Jahiel, Holistic Horsemanship? Thepreceding letter was reprinted, with Dr. Jahiel's permission, fromHORSE-SENSE, Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletteronline at www.horse-sense.org. More information about JessicaJahiel, Ph.D., Author, Clinician, and Lecturer is available atwww.prairienet.org/jjahiel/. You may email Dr. Jahiel [email protected] or call (217) 684-2570H E A LT H YA S AH O R S E!J U N E 2 0 0 3 1 4REDUCINGTHERISK OFCOLICFEEDING HAY: Rack vs. On The Ground  |
I hope you come up with a case. -Sparky the WonderDog 
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33409 Category:(Discussion) Created:(10/21/2003 6:35:00 PM)