Can you (do you) feed round bales to miniature horses?

[sundaymom]

Here is an example of what we have found to be of benefit to the mares and myself.

My husband built two of these for different pastures. Either side of rails can be moved out so a bale of hay sitting on a crate can be placed inside and then the rail side is moved back in position. What you can't see is that attached to the bottm of the rail side is a short straight sheet of thin plywood. We roll the bale in and then slide the flat piece under the edge and the bale itself, holds the sides in place. This has worked great for us.

I have five mares in this pasture that you see in these pictures and one bale lasts them 3 weeks.

Any residue I have left I bag up and save for when the mares start foaling so I don't really have a lot of waste.

Excuse the poop you see..I clean up poop in the pastures everday but this picture was taken after morning poop patrol and midafternoon...ha

 

[weebiscuit]

I currently have 10 miniature horses and am finding it difficult to keep hay in front of them as much as I would like. I have no experience with feeding round bales and am looking for advice. Is it safe, what kind of round bale feeder would be best if any, how fast are my 10 likely to go thru an round bale, do I need to be careful of certain types of hay (as in alfafa) so they don't over do it, etc. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you for your help.

I am one of those people who think round hay bales are only for cattle and should NEVER be fed to any type of equine. They can get moldy and nasty inside, harbor all kinds of bad things, and can cause heaves and respiratory problems in horses.

 

[weebiscuit]

Here is an example of what we have found to be of benefit to the mares and myself.

My husband built two of these for different pastures. Either side of rails can be moved out so a bale of hay sitting on a crate can be placed inside and then the rail side is moved back in position. What you can't see is that attached to the bottm of the rail side is a short straight sheet of thin plywood. We roll the bale in and then slide the flat piece under the edge and the bale itself, holds the sides in place. This has worked great for us.

I have five mares in this pasture that you see in these pictures and one bale lasts them 3 weeks.

Any residue I have left I bag up and save for when the mares start foaling so I don't really have a lot of waste.

Excuse the poop you see..I clean up poop in the pastures everday but this picture was taken after morning poop patrol and midafternoon...ha

That is a really neat feeder! I like the way it contains the hay without it having to be spread on the ground!

 

[wildoak]

Round bales are not my favorite way to feed hay, as stated they can hide icky things, but the labor saving aspect sure makes them worthwhile. I have a couple of big horses in the field who get round bales, and a pasture of mini mares that fluctuates from about 8 to 12 or so. We buy them freshly cut when possible and store them under cover - they stay nice & fresh. The little mares can eat through the gate so sometimes there isn't more than half a bale to put out lol. If we put a bale outside for them, I use a regular horse round bale feeder and bungee a tarp over the top to keep it dry. The hay guy has said he will bale any size for us, so we may try smaller ones this year for the little mares - maybe half the size of the big ones.

FYI...I cut the twine off too, but had a mare the other day get tangled up in twine from a bale inside the barn. She was eating through the gate and managed pull some twine out. I found her backed up at least 15 feet from the barn with twine around her back leg, front leg and around her neck, and just standing there trapped. I had been out an hour or so before so she wasn't stuck for too long, but still enough to get in trouble. Thank goodness it wasn't in the middle of the night and 15 degrees - and that she had enough sense to stand still. Moral - if there's a way to get in trouble a horse will find it!

Jan