Many people have different opinions on using haynets or not. There are many people (including myself) who have used haynets without even knowing about some of the health  concerns of using them, and until writing this post and doing some research on the cons of using them I didn't even think about potential scenarios which could happen when using them.  

Pros

- Less mess

-  Save money

- Less waste

- Control how much your horse is eating

- Can be made up ready for the next day/week

- Slows down eating

- Doesn't get dragged into the bed/left in wee

- Can be tied in specific place so horse doesn't make as much mess

Cons

- Takes time making them up

- Need to work out how much to give to last the day/night

- Goes against natural grazing of floor level

- If not tied correctly, can become loose and horse can get stuck in it

- Pulling on the net develops wrong back/neck muscles

When it comes to giving the horses hay in the field I've always filled up haynets them emptied them onto the floor in the field, but this year we have had to give hay to them quite early on in the year and with no grass in the field they are eating up a net each within an hour. Not being able to put a big round bale in the field we had to come up with other ideas to make it last. Meaning we had to put nets up in the field. Thinking about some naturalish ideas of putting nets over big tubs we couldn't think of ways to make that work. So as the field used to be split in 2 fields there's still some fencing left up, We decided to hang haynets from the rails. This idea is now making the hay last alot longer and there's less chance of them walking it into the mud.

In the winter when the horses are in at night time, they now have haynets as I've used a haybar before and both horses have dragged their hay to the door and dropped it in their wee. Which ends up wasting it all and costing us more over winter. 

Balancers, Why Feed Them?

Balancers are a great way to give your horse all the recommended vitamins & minerals without having to feed multiple times a day or giving them a bucket full of feed. Depending on the choice of balancer you will be giving them no more than 2 cups of feed and that's for a 16hh+ horse.

It has always been a big no no to give your horses bigger feeds as it can increase the chance of colic among other things but giving your horse 2-4 feeds a day isn't always readily available for some people. The more times a day a feed is split up into the better as it keeps the digestive system working correctly as fit's with the way the horse has always eaten, little and often. Splitting the feed up is also a good way to help put weight onto your horse as it will give the system plenty of time to take up all the nutrients needed from each meal.  

Some of the benefits from feeding a feed balancer with ad-lib forage are:

• Better digestive efficiency
• Reduced risk of loose droppings 
• Reduced risk of colic 
• Reduced risk of laminitis
• Reduced risk of stereotypical behaviour (once called ‘vices’) 
• Reduced risk of ‘tying-up’ 
• Reduced severity of gastric ulcers
• Reduced risk of DOD (an umbrella term covering abnormal limb development) 
• More relaxed behaviour with improved focus 

Feed balancers can be fed alone like the Naf Optimum or can be added to a chaff to add a little bulk and more of the horse to eat.

Some balancers come in a pelleted form like the Naf Optimum or they will come in a powder form. From experience I've learnt that the powdered ones will be the ones you come across in a small tub such as the Equine Answers 365 Balancer starting at 1Kg (I've done a review on this product, which you can read here), but the Naf Optimum also comes in a smaller bag starting at 3.7Kg. 

There are now many different types of balancers each suited to your horses needs:

- Performance

- Lo-Cal/Lite for laminitis prone or the fat

- Conditioning

- Weight maintenance

-  Joint

- Hoof

- Veteran/Senior

- Stud

- Donkey

What's great about balancers as well is that they will be low in starch & sugar meaning they won't heat up or fizz up for horse. 

The 2 balancers that have worked really well for Legacy are the Naf Optimum & Equine Answers 365 Complete 

Do you feed a balancer to your horse?

*Images are from this article

*Italicized list is from this article

Feeding for time of year & Behavior

This time of year can be tricky when it comes to feeding, as your horses will either be coming out of winter well or needing to be fed up. In recent years and this one for sure there isn't grass always readily available to put these horses onto to gain the needed weight, so that's where people start or continue feeding conditioning feed. That can be fine depending on the horses temperament, how much they are worked, if they are on any grass and how much condition they need.

The fresh spring grass that is coming through is full of sugar, there is less sugar in the grass at night but it's still there (tip if you have a laminitic prone horse that has to come in for some time, put them out at night). If you have a horse that can be easily fizzed up through sugar & starch you will be best putting them on a low starch feed. This can be a fibre based feed with mainly chaff, fibre cubes, or a complete fibre feed. Complete fibre feeds are good as they are typically aimed at laminitic horses meaning they will have low or hardly any sugar, but there are also condition fibre feeds out there such as Dengie Healthy tummy or Spillers conditioning fibre. These 2 I've heard have great results on ex racehorses & the Healthy tummy on ulcer prone horses. I've used both of these for Legacy but as a 'chaff' rather than a complete feed as with the size of her she would be going through the bags too fast.
Cubes are also lower in starch than mixes although they are created with the same high ingredients as the mixes. Cubes also cost less to make which means they cost less to buy off the shelf which is always a handy added bonus. When a feed has high starch the blood sugar levels are always changing which can cause the horse to become fizzy at times but when they are on a high fibre low starch feed the blood sugar levels are maintained, meaning you will have a happy horse.

Some horses can be really sensitive when it comes to feeding sugars & starch while others can have it all and still be laid back (these are rare to come across). 

Here are some ingredients in feeds which your horse may be/or react to:

- Molasses (Pure sugar)

- Barley

- Oats

- Beet (through either Sugar Beet or Speedi Beet) 

Allen & Pages Calm & Condition is good as it's molasses & Barley free but some horses can react to the barley replacer that they use. This is something to keep in mind if you ever use this product. If you are feeding a few of the above list and have a fizzy horse my best suggestion is to try and cut some of them out so you can pin point which one is causing any trouble for you.

Not all horses express their excess energy through being fizzy they can become bargy and boulchy to handle. This is where it's important to sort out their feed as they can learn this behavior if not corrected and if left before changing feed they may carry on like this after the feed has been changed. 

I had a scenario with Legacy the first winter I had her, she was in need of a little extra fat on her so she was on a good amount of conditioning mix and she was behaving as normal as she had since I'd had her and she'd been living out August- December. I then moved yards and be became stabled and had ad lib hay in the field & 2 haynets in the stable at night to get her filled up, along with her usual amount of feed but now in 2 meals instead of one ( can anyone see where this is going? haha) anyway the weight started to come on her and when I was riding her in the school she would like to blot off, and at this point she had not been re-mouthed and hated turned corners in any speed above walk. I just through she needed more schooling and it was the racer part of her that wanted to go in an open space in a straight line, I mean she would go from bolting off in a fast canter to dead stop in seconds she hated the corners so much. In the end it got to the day before new years eve last year and she took off, I tried to stop her and she was having none of it, she was up vertically in the air then down to buck and I think this repeated about 3 times before I flew off in the rear. This was my first fall off her and my first fall ever so atleast it was an eventful one. I had to go to A&E with a bad headache as I could still feel the rim of my hat on my head hours later, and I was completely fine and didn't even end up with a bruise. But I learnt the hard way about feeding too much starch  and feeding mixes to a sensitive horse. She's completely fine with sugars but I have to watch the starch. 

Have you had any experiences like this? Did you find this blog post handy? If you'd like more like this let me know.

Chart taken from the Allen & Page website. 

NAF Hedgy Treats Review

Legacy loves her treats, and when NAF brought out their new Hedgy treats I just had to get her some to try. They are made with natural ingredients which include read hedgerow herbs, so she's not only getting a treat but it's healthy for her. 

The herb ingredients in the treats are as follows;
Common Nettle,
Hawthorn Berries,
Dandelion Leaves
Rose hip Shells

These are all herbs which horses could find in the field which proves it's natural and healthy. If you're horse doesn't have any of these in their field these treats are a great way to add home variety into their diet. 

Back when Legacy cut her head open and I wasn't able to bring her head down to get a good look into the cut, I fetched these and she was happily bringing her head down to eat these. 
These treats have even resulted myself having a black eye from my mums horse, I was using them to keep him still while trying a new rug on him and I moved into the stable rather than over the door and he flew his head up to look where the treats have gone, and his head flew up into my face, splitting the edge of my eye open and then having a black eye for a few days. 

The lesson I learnt from that day is to never under estimate the power of some tasty treats. 

Here are a few links to where you can check out the treats;

VioVet, Hyperdrug, Houghton Country, Millbry Hill

New Page! Legacy's Feed!

I don't know if anyone's notice but I've just added a new page in the header bar. It's called Legacy's feed, it's a page where I show and write about what she get's in her daily meals from hard feed to supplements. It's just a little breakdown as to why she's on that feed and if she's doing well on it so far. Who knows the page might be changing quite a bit of the time depending on if she's stays well on them or I decide to add anything extra in, keep an eye out. Hopefully sometime soon I will also be posting reviews on the supplements mentioned if I haven't done one already. 

You can either find the page on the header or click here to check it out.