Hey all! I have 5 horses and I want to be able to free feed them. I have 1 who is currently being fostered she was starved and abandon/escaped and she knows she will have food all day and will not make a mess or eat it all at once. My other 4 on the other hand...3 eat it all as soon as they can and the other throws it on the ground and will pee on it! hay is not cheap here! Does anyone have any ideas on a slow feeder BOX that does not involve metal wire or hanging net. I'm thinking about finding nets and putting it loosely over the feeders so it will drop down but they cannot cut their faces??
Somewhere I saw a mail-order kit to make your own box. It was a some-assembly required type thing, and was about 2x4 in size. Cost was around $75 I think... There also used to be a website that had images/stories/directions for hundreds of slow feeders from all over the world. I used it when I built my nets, but I just searched and cannot find the website now. But, during my search, I saw TONS of images and blogs about building solid slow feeders vs. the net kind, so some ideas should be readily available to you if you search "horse hay slow feeder" like I did. I do remember that the hardest part for people building solid feeders was finding a metal mesh with the correct size gaps that was sturdy enough to stand up to use...
This site has some ideas: http://www.swedishhoofschool.com/Hay_feeder/Corner2.htm And there's good info here as well: http://forums.horsecity.com/index.php?showtopic=47025800 Like Res said, Google brings up lots of plans and suggestions. This is one of the things on my list to get done...at some point!