More Time Saving Barn Hacks (part 2)

Here are some more tips to save money, time and energy when you work at a horse barn or when you have your horses at home.

Haynet Hacks

Use Clips

Use clips to hang the nets, not knots. Saves a lot of frustration and time a few times a day. Especially when you have more than 2 horses to take care of. It is only a few minutes, but the frustration of knots that you hardly can untie (with cold hands in Winter!) and the worry your horse gets entangled in a net are not worth it.

I prefer cotton nets above the nets that are made out of polyester or similar materials.

Easy Hoop Feeder

This is a clever and time saving favourite of mine! It is an expensive one (about $50 for just the Easy Hoop) and then another $50 or so for the slowfeeder nets, but totally worth it.

Natural Grazing Posture

Depending on the circumstances you can even choose to offer your slowfeeder nets on the ground. Some things to consider are the surface. Perfect to do on gravel, hog fuel/ wood chips or in a field, not so smart for in the mud on on sand.

Take the knot out of the rope to hang the net and knot the net close. Then offer the net from the ground. This is only a time saving hack if you buy a big net that saves you offer one feeding.

House-Train Your Horse

This takes a time investment but it will safe you so many hard labour hours in the future.

Teach your horse to poop in a designated place in the stall, paddock, pasture and even in the arena. I share tips to clicker train a mule to become house trained in this video.

In another blog I share my training strategy how I house-trained Kyra in the arena.

You can even teach your horse to poop before you take him out of his stall/paddock/field so you never ever have to clean up the hallway, cross ties or poop scoop the arena. We all know we forget once in a while! We also know forgetting this a few times in a row can damage our relationship with the barn owner or other boarders (who do clean up).

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Business Showcase for HayNet: Why I choose the name ‘HippoLogic’

Business Showcase for HayNet: Choosing the name HippoLogic

Hello, I am Sandra Poppema, B.Sc. and I am the proud founder of HippoLogic. I connect equestrians to their inner wisdom and teach them the principles of learning, so they become confident and knowledgeable to train their own horse safely and effectively.

HippoLogic offers online coaching via Skype, courses in Equestrian goal setting and training challenges. Since HippoLogic went online I have had clients from all over the world. I will tell the story how HippoLogic evolved from a rural business to an international business in the next blog.

Choosing a name

One of the hardest decisions I had to make as a business owner was choosing a name. I started out as a riding instructor giving private dressage lessons on location. I travelled to my clients and my business therefor was very local.

I wanted the word ‘horse’ somehow in the name of my business, since they are the focus of what I do. I looked into Latin but already a lot of businesses had the word equus, caballus or something with equi in their names. So I started to look into Greek: hippo meaning horse.

Something with horses…

In Dutch we also talk about ‘concours hippique’ (French) if we are talking about a jumping competition. A well know word, even non-horsey people understand in The Netherlands. I liked the French word ‘hippologique’ (horsemanship) too, but I wanted a non-existent word. For me the word ‘hippo’ sparks joy, it just sounds happy. I think because of the i sound, your mouth already smiles.

Now I had to think of the rest of the name. First I thought about adding something with ‘liberty’ in the name because I was very much into at liberty training and trick training at liberty at the time. Somehow it didn’t feel ‘right’.

Eureka moment

I pondered for weeks and one night when I was in bed I suddenly knew what it was that was ‘me’ and would never change. In order to understand horses, build a wonderful relationship with them and train or ride them you have to ‘know’ about them. So what do you need in order to understand them? You have to know about their natural behaviour, their physiology, their nature. The Greek word Logic means ‘knowledge of’ and ‘science’. Eureka! I found my name: Hippo-Logic. Horse science/knowledge. I decide to write it with 2 capitals HippoLogic so it would be clear it was descended from 2 words.

A name with the future in mind

At that time I was offering  only private riding lessons on location, but I was thinking about publishing books and videos about horse training. I was thinking about offering clinics and workshops to educate equestrians. I wanted to help people gain a better relationship with their horse and achieve the results in training they wanted.

My business name had to be something that I could use ‘forever’ and I didn’t need to change when I would change my business model and this was it: HippoLogic. Everything I do will be based on science and will be to benefit the horse. That is my core.

Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.

My mission is to improve horse-human relationships by educating equestrians about ethical and horse friendly training. I offer coaching to empower you to train your horse in a 100% animal friendly way that empowers both you and your horse.

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Slowfeeder nets

A slowfeeder net is a hay net with much smaller mazes/holes than regular hay nets. Whereas the regular hay nets have mazes varying between approximately 8 – 15 cm (3,1 – 5,9 inches), slowfeeder nets have mazes of 3,5 cm – 6 cm (1,2 inch – 2,4 inch).

The goal of a slowfeeder net is to slowdown the intake of hay the horse eats so he spends more time eating and less time doing other behaviours (vices).

Why a slowfeeder net?
Horses are built to eat 16 hours a day. A big difference between a human and a horse is that we humans only excrete acid in the stomach while we are eating. The stomach of a horse produces acid weather he is eating or not.

The upper part of a horses stomach doesn’t have a protective layer against the acid. So if the horse is not eating and doesn’t produce a lot of saliva to neutralize the effects of the acid on the stomach wall, horses can get ulcers.

I can’t help thinking that it must also give them a miserable feeling when they have an empty stomach when Mother Nature want the relatively small stomach always filled with high fibre and low nutrient grasses.

Most domestic horses don’t have the possibility to spend approximately 16 hours a day grazing. If they do get to forage we often give them a flake or few flakes of hay which they finish very quickly. Slowfeeder nets mimic grazing.

Other advantages
It can save a lot of work. If you purchase a big net for your horse(s) that you can fill, you could skip meals. Depending of the size of the net and the amount of horses you have to feed, you could go from feeding hay 3 or 4 times a day to one meal of hay.

Hay doesn’t get spilled, blown away by the wind outside or spoiled by horses peeing and pooping in their hay anymore. This can save money in the long term.

It also saves work because you don’t have to spend time raking spoiled hay. It might even save disposal costs because the manure pile isn’t filling up with spoiled hay.

In general it extends eating time, prevents boredom and helps the horse mimic his natural behaviours.

As a bonus it saves you time and money you can then spend on your horse in a different way.

How to deal with the disadvantages 
Filling a net can be time consuming. Make sure you buy a net with a big opening that makes filling the net quick and easy. There are “hoops” available that keeps the opening open if you use the round shaped nets. For the square nets I found my own way of filling it quickly. See this video:

Slowfeeders can be very expensive to purchase. It can take a while before the hay saving costs cover the price of your net. In general you will be saving money by buying the more expensive ones instead of trying the cheap ones first. The cheap ones I tried broke quickly and were frustrating to use. I recommend doing some online research about size, shape, material and maze size.

If you choose a slowfeeder with holes that are too small for your horse it can create frustration or your horse might not eat the amount of hay he really needs.

To prevent frustration when introducing a slowfeeder net to your horse, it can be a good idea to give only half or less of its normal portion in the new net and provide the rest of its ration the way you always do. Most horses learn quickly how to eat out of a slowfeeder net.

Depending on the way your horse has to keep his neck and head while he is eating out of a net, it can cause an unnatural position which can cause health problems.

Be aware that you are introducing a new activity and be alert for any changes this causes in your horse.

Sandra Poppema