mares & poop

["lkgower" <jazena@kelp.net>]

I'd like help with this problem also.  My two mares poop & pee on their hay, then won't eat it.  I tried hanging metal feeders on the fence.  They just pulled the whole flake of hay out and eat some of it off the ground. So I bought big 140 gallon water tubs and put their hay in those.  It helped somewhat, but the mares throw the hay out of the tubs (to get to those little bitty alfalfa leaves), then again poop & pee on it and refuse to finish it.  My gelding never poops on his hay but does pee on it, but eats it anyway.  I do waste a lot of hay and don't know what to do.  Maybe I should try haynets.  Would they work tied to the fence?  Would they last in the heat and sun & rain?  By the way all the horses are in their own corrals.  No stalls, just shade covers.  And I clean the corrals twice a day (unless it is raining).

Lindak