Texas Haynet Review by we3equines.com

Thank you to the ladies at We 3 Equines for testing our round bale hay net. The following is a re-post of their personal experience. The original post can seen here.

Haaaay ya’ll, it’s Ely here, with a review on a hay net straight outta Texas!

“The Texas Haynet slows down hay consumption to a natural pace. Horses are no longer allowed to engorge themselves and frivolously waste hay. Our round bale hay net eliminates hay waste and clean up as well as prevents serious health problems caused by over eating and burrowing.” -from the manufacturer website

The Texas Hay Net is an oversized nylon net made to cover round bales for 24 hour feeding. At 8lbs, the Texas Haynet is lightweight and easy to install – no heavy equipment or rolling the bale is required. The Girl and The Guy had a hard time the first few times they used the net with the installation process. Our hay supplier had loose roundbales, and that hay net did not want to cinch around the bottom like it was supposed to. With some flipping on its side, and then back over we got it to work, but with the loosely baled rounds it was a little challenging. The last roundbale was SUPER easy, since it was a tightly baled round, making net installation a breeze, so humans keep that in mind! Although I did snicker a little watching them wrestle that net onto the bale…

The Girl did some experimenting with our hay consumption, and with 4×5 grass mix round bales, here is what she noticed:

A round bale lasted two average sized horses (Sam and I) about 6 days with NO net and NO ring. A lot was wasted and we had our faces BURIED in the bale.
After the addition of the hay ring the same size, the same size bale lasted about 8 days. We did not waste as much, but we still had our faces buried in the bale for MOST of the day.
With the Texas Hay Net AND the ring, our bales are lasting almost 11-12 days.

The Girl did notice a little frustration on the first day we had the net, we expected to be able to dive right in and chomp away, but that darn net made us actually WORK for our hay…How dare she!! It made us slow down, and take some much needed breaks in between munching that we were NOT taking before. It in turn has not only saved The Girl and The Guy money, but it has really helped me regulate my intake, which The Girl thinks it has helped settle my tummy quite a bit since I have NEVER even seen a round bale in my life. Plus, we do know that slow, consistent feeding is MUCH better for our digestive tract and nutrient absorption.

Texas Haynet does recommend using a hay ring with the net to reduce wear and prevent shod animals from injury, as is good practice with any round bale net. We tried it without the ring once, and it worked, but I enjoyed laying on it so The Girl put the ring back. Oopsie…

Price is $195 for the nylon net, but with a life expectancy of 2-4 years and the extended time out of each round bale, we think it is worth the investment, if you regularly feed round bales to your horses.

For more great product reviews check out we3equines.com