Quality Nosedive, In With the New

Almost a year ago I talked about Slow Feed Hay nets we have used and that the Shires greedy feeder came out as the best one for us. The small holes, combined with the material used to make them put them above the other brands we had bought. Over the last year up till October, we purchased a total of 14 nets ranging in cost from $28-$35. Each order of bags was not consistent with previous orders. The very first bags were the size, 41"x 36" with 1" squares, that was advertised. The material used was thick and durable.

Thick material, barely fit 2 fingers

 The next order of three came and were much smaller, but cost the same. We did not worry since the material was the same quality.

Similar material and hole size

The next order brought bigger bags, but the quality of the material was going downhill. It was not as thick.

Getting thinner...

 Finally in October I made the decision to buy another three bags so we would have two per horse. These bags were huge, could hold a whole bale, but the material was so very thin and the knots were looser. When filled the holes actually opened up to 1.25" to 1.5".

Very thin and extra space by my fingers

 With my horses anything over 1" is not a slow feeder. Not surprising one of the newest bags had a hole in it after only a week. We have had holes in the older bags, but that is acceptable given their age. One week was not good.

A down hill comparison, 3 nets

I sent a message to Shire asking about the change in material and asked if discount stores got lesser quality bags. I don't think many people would have see the change in the product we did. They never did answer. Plus the store where we originally got the first bags, now had the same thin material bags. Sorry I am not paying those kind of prices for lower quality products, especially when they do not have 1" squares. Since we did need new bags, repairing daily gets old, I tried to order the smaller size which is half the price of the large bags. Unfortunately those have not been in stock.

So what to do? Peggy, ever the searcher, found the Ultra Slow Feed Net on Horse.com. Normal price is around $17 and since it was Black Friday time frame Peggy got them for about $11 a net. These nets have the 1" holes and they come in lots of colors.

In with the new

 Peggy could only choose between pink and yellow since the rest were out of stock. She went with yellow and now we are waiting because those too went out of stock. I went there and ordered two hot pink bags to round out an order I had and received the bags yesterday.

Tight two finger, and okay material

 They are very pink, but the material is better than the most recent order of Shires and are so much cheaper. If my horses are going to make holes, I would rather they do it with nets not so expensive.
Roscoe bee lined to the bag last night. I guess the bright color caught his eye. He will be a true test, since he is one of the worst about creating holes.

Secure in his studliness :)

Fingers crossed these bags work out. The original Shires nets lasted nearly a year before starting to need major repairs. Even if these go a few months they will be economical.

Preparing for Departure to Venice

Before you get excited, let me specify Venice, FL. In 4 days we will pack us and the dogs into the car for the 14 hr drive to my grandparents house.                                                                                   

  But first we have to get the barn and horses ready for Peggy to take care of while we are gone. So my To Do list was pretty full this weekend. It helped that Saturday it rained so no riding. All the horses were mud balls, but DaVinci was a horse of a different color.

 In these pictures he had just come in when it started raining again. As you can see he is very good at getting even coverage.

Once the horses were in snoozing, I started my list.
First up Setting up Food for eight days
Each horse has their own bags for dry food, 1/2 cup ground flax, 1/4 to 1/2 lb of balancer pellet and lysine for some.
For each day there is a bag to be soaked overnight with about 2 cups of beet plup and a handful of alfalfa cubes.

I boxed up all the bags and can check that off the list.

Next up, Trimming all the barefoot horses. By this time the horses had dried some, but they were still filthy. So I trimmed and then scraped some dirt and hair off. Roscoe was in no mood to cooperate. We did get the trim done though. During Rosemary's trim we worked on her ground tying. She did really well and needed only a few corrections. The boys were great. I was creaky by time I finished. Its been a while since I did four horses in one day. Now they got to go out. And the first thing DaVinci does is roll in the mud...again. Why did I even bother brushing him? Oh well, another check on the list.
I decided that I would do the next bunch on Sunday. On the way home, I stopped at Peggy's to drop of sawdust and carrots. We get a big load of sawdust at our barn then bag some to share with Peggy. The carrots were overflow from Dad's shopping. Her horses enjoyed them though.
At home I had to work on the written instructions. I never realize how much we do until I have to explain it all to someone else. Luckily my horses are flexible so I can simplify in some areas. I had to put special Roscoe instructions, such as:  Do not trust the cute face, he can be trouble. This will be the first time we have left him long term since he was born.
Today, no rain so it was tempting to ride. I knuckled down and went to work. First was Filling Hay Nets. We use landscaping mesh to make our own kind of Nibble nets. The mesh slows the horses down and is more like grazing. Given a choice the horses choose the nets first. I filled up our Overnight size nets, so that maybe Peggy won't need to change them while we are gone. Just in case I filled four of the smaller nets to have a back ups. Still need to drop some more bales for giving hay outside so no check yet.
Then I had to make sure there was fly spray made up and bug balm readily accessible. This led to cleaning and organizing the cabinets where grooming supplies are kept. It is amazing how things migrate from where they are suppose to be.
Once I finished there, I fed the horses, cleaned stalls and cleaned and filled the troughs. Then I thought about riding, but we only have a grass arena and I did not want to chance tearing up the ground. So I called Peggy to see how her sand arena was after the rain. It was okay so I set off to ride Comrade the last time before we leave. He had the greatest walk when we started. I was really enjoying the swinging walk when the dogs started running through the woods. Then I had a poofed up, snorting Comrade underneath me. Oh yeah and I was bareback. So I started doing quarter turn on the forehands and transitions. He started to listen and really work well, then those darn dogs started up again. This time I asked Peggy's husband to nab Shadow. Then I made Comrade work. I used what we worked on last week to get his attention. Two steps and move on and repeat. Today I felt the move on part. There was a noticeable difference in stride. He gave it to me both directions and ended with a great stretchy walk. Now I have to wait until we come back to ride him again.
3 days of a crazy work schedule and final preps for the animals, then I have to get my horse fix from the internet.