Horse Hockey

 

Nah. No horse hockey around here. They don’t sell ice skates big enough.

Just a handmade hay net created from a hockey net. An inexpensive and simple project that will make you and your horse very happy.

 

A few months ago I began researching alternative ways to feed my animals more naturally and to provide them their food even if I had to be away all day or wouldn’t be home until late. You all know how desperate and starving your horse acts even when you’re just an hour late in feeding them.

The biggest motivator for me was seeing how my mare inhaled her food in the morning within 20 minutes or less, and then she’d have nothing to do for 8 or more hours but stand around and pick at the little dead, brown tips of grass sticking out of our dusty, dry ground. That’s the way it is in most of New Mexico. Most horses are kept in dry, grassless, paddocks and unless we have a successful monsoon season (this year was not), our pastures just don’t produce enough grass to satisfy even the jackrabbits and cottontails.

It really bothered me seeing my bored horse standing around for 8 hours, just dreaming about her next meal.

And on winter nights, without anything to eat to keep her metabolism working until morning, her body has to work harder at keeping warm.

I wanted to change that.

As everyone knows, horses are grazing animals. And even though I have no grass to give my mare to graze on, I wanted to offer her a compromise.

Enter, the handmade Hockey Hay Net!

After reading about it on Paddock Paradise, I placed my order from Arizona Sports Equipment. I ordered 4 feet of hockey netting, which comes in 10 foot widths. At $3.29 a foot, my order only came to $13.16. And with shipping the total was only $21.69.

Not too bad for an extra large hay net, or in my case, two large hay nets.  

After it arrived with some rather slow shipping, I sat down with my hay bale twine and got to work.

I read all the instructions from Paddock Paradise and used the photos to guide me. And I also checked out Akal Ranch Blog, which has some helpful instructions and photos, too.

I folded the hockey net in half, and then with baling twine, I laced up each short side with half hitch knots all the way to the top. It took me less than 20 minutes to complete. And then I took the hay net outside and attached it to my mare’s paddock fence using caribiner clips. And then I filled the hay net with hay. (This photo was obviously taken after Baby Doll had eaten most of it. lol!)

    

This is the size hay net that is recommended for multiple horses because you can place an entire bale or two of hay inside.

I only have one horse, and I wanted some more options, so I ended up cutting this net in half to modify it for my needs. After lacing up the cut ends with half-hitch knots, I kept one hay net in her paddock, but placed the other hay net in her stall inside the barn. I figured that way, in inclement weather, she would have a warm, dry place to enjoy grazing on her hay all day and night.

The hay nets have been in use for over a week now and I’ve learned a few things and made a few modifications to make them work even better for me and my horse.

The hay net in her paddock rests against the fence and when Baby Doll was grabbing the hay, she’d push some of it through to the other side, where she couldn’t get to it.

So, I took an empty feed bag (plastic, not paper), cut it open flat, and attached it to the fence, behind the hay net, cutting small holes in the feed bag and tying it to the fence with baling twine. It has worked perfectly in helping to keep the hay on the paddock side of the fence.

I also learned that my mare will sometimes pick up the hay net and toss it into the air to shake out any loose hay. Sometimes the hay net would flip over the top of the fence, where she couldn’t reach the hay net or hay at all. So, on the paddock hay net, I attached another caribiner on the bottom of the hay net to hold it down and used two pieces of baling twine on each side of the hay net, towards the middle, and tied it to the fence.

Now if you have horses that wear shoes, I’ve read that the hay net should be mounted high enough where the horse can’t get their shoe caught in the mesh. My mare is barefoot, so my hay nets are mounted just several inches above the ground. 

For the stall hay net, I didn’t even bother with caribiners. I just attached the hay net to the metal pipe railing with more hay bale twine. And to control Baby Doll from tossing the hay net over the top of the pipe rail, I tied the middle of the hay net on each side, to the bottom pipe rail. I didn’t have to worry about attaching the feed bag ‘guard’ behind the stall hay net because the bottom pipe rail holds the hay net away from the fence, so all the hay that drops will just fall below it.

  

The website said that for the first week some horses might have trouble with the hay net, but will quickly figure it out. So, for the first few days, I placed about a half a flake of hay on the ground below the hay net and I filled the hay net with the other half, plus another flake, just so she wouldn’t be hungry and frustrated as she learned how to eat from the hay net. But within 2 days she had the hay net all figured out.

The website also said in the beginning many horses will still try to wolf down their hay and it will seem that you’re going through a lot of hay using the hay net. But once the horse understands that they have plenty of time and plenty of hay to eat all day or night, they will slow down and take their time and relax. And I’ve found that to be true of my mare, too. The first few days it only took her two hours and her hay net was empty. A little over a week later and I can look out the window 5-7 hours after I filled up her hay net with 2-3 flakes of hay, and she is still blissfully munching away.

Baby Doll’s attitude seems better, too. She’s not as cranky or impatient when I’m with her. She’s not standing around bored all the time. And when she does stand around, it’s because her belly is full of hay and she’s taking a nap.

I imagine that, for a horse, having access to fresh grass or grass hay all day long is akin to us humans being able to lightly snack all day long. It would be much healthier for us, too, rather than eating three large meals a day…and then feeling hungry in between.

When a horse grazes slowly all day it aids in their digestion, encourages them to drink more often, and helps them relax. And a hay net helps keeps a horse from being bored and prevents wasted hay, too.  

Of course, the handmade hockey hay net isn’t the only option either. You can see a helpful review of many different hay nets, if you check out this website, Paddock Paradise.

I would totally recommend these hay nets to anyone who has bored horses, horses that could use some extra warmth at night, and for horses that have to wait a long time between meals. Your horse will thank you for it.

Hittin' the Hay

It was time to restock some hay, so Ranchman John and twinling, Jem headed out for a Hay Run. I stood out on my tower balcony and waved back at them.

And off they went down the road.
When they returned to Laughing Orca Ranch, they had filled the horse trailer and back of the truck full of fresh green grass and alfalfa hay.

I zoomed in and saw Jem bucking hay into the barn. Those bales weigh half as much as he does. That's one strong son of mine!
And Ranchman John bucks a bale, too.
And after another exhausting day at Physical Therapy, it's time for me to hit the hay, too.


What are your plans for the weekend? Catching up on housework? Organizing? Mucking the barn? Working with or riding your horse? Handling wool/fiber? Getting some rest?


From the Tower of,

Ranch Tour

Last week I pulled a muscle in my lower back, so I was still feeling a bit sore over the weekend. It also didn't help that Ranchman John and the terrific twins were in Maryland so John could serve as Best Man in his friend's wedding. Thankfully, it wasn't too bad because I had three less mouths to feed and clean up after.

So, I laid low all weekend, just going through the odd and extra photos that I've collected over the past few months. I thought it would be fun to do a ranch tour post, showing things that I typically see while spending time here on Laughing Orca Ranch.

So come take a walk with me, and see what I see.

I see Luna relaxing on the paddock picnic table, with Blanca the Churro sheep below.I see Pepper, the Boer Goat, looking for some lovin'.I see my painted horse following me wherever I go.And I see Barred Rock Betty peeking out of the henhouse.And I see a tuxedo cat named Oreo smiling at me.And I see a cat with a chicken, one of our Silver-Laced Wyandotte Sisters.I see more chickens like this favorite of my 5 yr old daughter, an Ameracauna named Angelina Ballerina. She lays pretty green eggs.And this special hen, Kipper, a Speckled Sussex, also named by my daughter.I sometimes see sad things, too, like this dead baby barn swallow.I also see our home-away-from-home, our little pop-up camper.On the back of our pop-up camper, I see the USA sticker that Ranchman John placed here to show which states we have camped in our pop-up. We've camped in many other states, in a plain old tent, as well, but the stickers are just for those states that our pop-up has been camped in. And beside the grill I see the tool rack that I bought for Ranchman John to keep stuff organized. I like that there are 5 birdies, just like there are 5 of us in our human family.And nearby I see one of the fish in our pond. There used to be 6 fish, but 3 have died. These fish came with the house and were kept in a large stock tank, until we moved them to this pond next to the house.Walking back up to the barn, I see the back of our horse trailer. The trailer already came with the sticker when we bought it. Cute, eh?Underneath the horse trailer I see some wildflowers blooming. Rancher Woman over at the 7MSN calls them 4'O-Clocks, I think. They are very pretty and we have them growing on several areas in our yard and pastures.We have quite a few flowers growing around here, most of them wild with no maintenance. I see this lovely flower growing on long stalks. Isn't it pretty? These aren't considered flowers, but they are kind of neat. I see these cones growing in our pinon trees. When mature they produce tasty pinon nuts, or what some call pine nuts.And this dainty yellow flower bunch I see is called Snake Weed. It's toxic to horses, but they don't try to eat it. It must taste bad. I see them growing over most of our land. Sometimes I feel guilty about pulling them up because they add such a nice punch of free color to our landscape.I often see these lovely tufts of white that remind me of Baby's Breath flowers. They look delicate but are tough wildflowers here in the mountains.Nearer to our house I see many pretty wildfowers growing, like these beautiful purple blooms.Not really a flower, I sometimes see these interesting and pretty cactus growing in the field beside our house. Don't they sort of remind you of snowballs?Before the monsoon rains arrive, I see these odd circular grassy shapes, called Bunch Grass, that will be tall and thick after the rain soaks the ground in July and August.All around the mountains, including on our land, I see these yellow flowers that remind me of black-eyed susans. I'm not exactly sure what they are, though. Anyone know?I see a sunflower getting ready to bloom. My daughter and I planted this one beside the chicken coop.These are just the same yellow flowers from the previous post, that grow wild all around our mountains. I see that this bunch happily decided to grow right beside our chicken coop. Look how tall they get. This bunch were well over 7 feet.Here is a nice surprise. We didn't plant any sunflower seeds beside our pond, but maybe a seed might have fallen and gotten lost somehow? I see that it's joyfully sprung forth from the gravel and seems to be enjoying the view of the pond.I see that it is full of growing sunflower seeds, too. The kids and I are excited about harvesting these seeds to snack on. Don't you just love Volunteer Plants?I see another sunflower beside the chicken coop. This is the same one that we saw earlier, the one that hadn't bloomed yet. It's as big as a dinner plate and packed full of maturing seeds. These sunflowers are called Mammoth for a reason.Here is a baby Caladium popping up out of the ground. I planted 8 of them as bulbs.My daughter calls them heart plants. All I know is that when I see them they add some pretty color and they make me smile.I can see our peach tree in front of our house. Sadly not one peach grew there this year. We had a late May freeze, followed by two terrible hail storms in June. The peaches didn't stand a chance.I see one of our apple trees, too. Same sad story. Not one apple for Fall. When we bought this house last year, right before Fall, both apple trees were covered heavily in apples. We ate apples all day for our first month in our new home. This year....nothing. It's enough to make a person cry.From this angle I can see our apricot tree on the left and the same apple tree on the right. Our chicken coop is behind. Yes, that's right. No apricots either.Over the weekend I saw a truck and a trailer stacked high with hay, pull into my neighbor friend, Val's arena.
You can read more about her hay experience on her blog Fantastyk Voyage. If you have grass eating critters, buying hay before Autumn is a tradition that heralds the end of summer. It's not easy and it's not cheap, but it sure feels good when that hay is stacked and stocked in your barn.I saw my horse, Baby Doll looking longingly towards all that hay.
I hope you've enjoyed taking a walk around Laughing Orca Ranch with me.