2/05/2021

Haygain's Forager Brings Nature’s Genius to Horse Management

Innovative and extensively tested slow feeder enables stabled horses to eat the healthy way that nature intended.

By Kim Miller | Equestrian Writer

Horses in their natural habitat spend over half their day eating. Between 12 and 16 hours are spent with their head lowered, grazing forage that ranges from easy-to-get grasses to blades and stems that are hard to extract and often contain very little caloric energy.

It’s a way of life that leads to virtually zero colic, ulcers, excess weight and metabolic imbalances. Cribbing, weaving and other boredom behaviours are non-issues.

Very few horses live that way these days.

Most riding horses live in settings where stable management realities dictate feeding schedules and methods. Delivered only two or three times a day, meals often consist of high-energy concentrate processed feeds with little to no forage available throughout the day. Most horses spend only 10 percent of their day eating, versus the eight to 10 hours considered a minimum for physical and mental well-being.

Receiving only intermittent, small meals alerts the body's food-scarcity mechanisms, including stress over the whereabouts of their next meal. The gaps between meals trigger fat storage, increasing the chance of obesity. And, less time spent chewing throughout the day means less production of saliva that protects against gastric ulcers. Unlike the human digestive system, the horse's gut produces acid all the time and it is only neutralised by saliva.

Harnessing Nature's Methods

Haygain’s Forager brings nature’s genius to healthy horse management. Designed in conjunction with the Royal Agricultural University in the U,K., the Forager has unique features that resulted from extensive research – Haygain’s hallmark. These make it an ideal stable management solution for many reasons.

Holding approximately 12kg of hay, the 72cm tall Forager enables the lowered-head eating position nature intended.

A regulator grid with holes of different sizes sits on top of the hay. The horse pulls hay through one bite at a time, ensuring slow consumption and smaller bites. The extra chewing that is required maintains saliva flow which becomes a buffer between the stomach lining and the naturally-occurring acids waiting there to digest food. Saliva is a good natural defence against ulcers that affect one in three leisure horses

Many Benefits

Boredom Busting: Pulling pieces of forage through the regulator grid is a natural, healthy and more fulfilling pastime than cribbing, stall weaving and other vices.

Extended mealtimes are especially helpful for horses on restricted diets. Measuring heart rate and eye blink frequency as stress level indicators, the aforementioned study showed metrics that were very close to each participant's baseline when eating out of the Forager.

Respiratory Health: Haygain's Forager keeps the hay separate from stall bedding, a huge source of dust, mould, bacteria and other inhalable particles that can irritate and harm the respiratory system. The Forager’s 72cm height facilitates a natural, lowered-head eating position used by grazing horses. This allows for exhalation and drainage of breathable particles present in all hay.

Inviting Design: Four openings between the side walls of the circular shaped Forager allow ventilation and light that encourages the horse to delve deeply into their forage. Even the top ring’s light colour was chosen for its proven appeal to horses.

Less Waste: Separating forage from the floor eliminates waste of hay that otherwise gets walked into the bedding, manure and urine. It also reduces the risk of ingesting sand and dirt.

Safety: The regulator is constructed of sturdy, durable, yet flexible engineered plastic. The Forager grid slows the horse without frustrating it. Dental damage that can occur with metal grids is not an issue.

Convenience: The Forager's exterior grey ring lowers as the horse eats down his hay supply, providing an easy-to-see consumption level. The regulator’s click-and-secure system allows effortless filling of the Forager and grid swapping.

The unit’s base can be filled with sand for stand-alone stability in the stall or outside. It can also be secured to a wall using built-in fixing points. Drains at the base ease cleaning and let out rainwater. Assembly and disassembly are easy for travel and cleaning.

Haygain is proud to include the Haygain Forager in its roster of science-backed horse health products. Along with Haygain Hay Steamers and Haygain ComfortStall Sealed Orthopaedic Flooring, the Forager is an important part of natural, healthy horse care.