# How to stop a horse throwing his food around?!



## kit279 (19 February 2008)

My TBs have the worst table manners EVER... I feed them in big Tubtrugs and they always throw them around like a plaything and trample all their feed into the ground  
	
	
		
		
	


	




 I've tried using rubber tyres to stop them knocking the tubs over but to no avail.. Once I found one of them with a leg wedged between the tub and the tyres (eye roll). Anyone with any good advice?


----------



## RachelB (19 February 2008)

Have you tried one of the very large, round but shallow TubTrugs? One of the babies (well 3yo) out with my mare chucks her feed about, and the trug has all but cured her. I also find giving the other youngster (4yo, used to chuck her food around like the 3yo) more food per meal makes her tip it out. I think they just want it spread out thinly over a large area to snuffle about in, rather than heaped up into a small bucket/ bowl! It took the 3yo a couple/ three months to get over her habit but she's quite clean now.
Edited: Alternatively try a wall-mounted manger or one you hook over the door (and tie it down!)


----------



## Morrigan_Lady (19 February 2008)

No advise Im affraid, but we do have a horse at our yard that will literally launch his feed bowl at you as you walk past his stable!


----------



## blackcob (19 February 2008)

Try sticking a big brick or rock in the bowl with the feed - a lump of rock salt is best. Or use over the door mangers


----------



## Loupride (19 February 2008)

We had a horse like this on our yard and found the salt-lick/rock affect worked really well. It meant he had the move the rock about to get at his feed...

Could be worth a try anyway...


----------



## pinkcatkin (19 February 2008)

My friend's TB has appalling table manners, he takes one huge mouthful and then with his nose turns the bowl over and flips it out of the way, then he treads in the feed and then proceeds to lick it all up.


----------



## kit279 (19 February 2008)

Yep, that's just like my boys. The thing that really annoys me is that I then have to pick sugar beet out of their hooves. Grr.


----------



## JM07 (19 February 2008)

Fit a corner manger.


----------



## ischa (19 February 2008)

tie it to something a wall or something


----------



## horsegirl (19 February 2008)

my TB does exactly the same, the takes a couple of bites then tips the bucket up and roots around to pick out the apples and any other tasty bits then he tramples all over it.  Every weekend we have to scrape a big mound of rotting food off the floor.


----------



## BigRed (19 February 2008)

Have you ever thought about why they do that, rather than asking how to stop it.

Are you giving them something they don't like, so they root around to try and find the bits they do like ?

Are you someone who puts all sorts of additives in, that might be good for them, but actually taste and smell horrible to a horse ?

My mare does not like Dengie Alfalfa.  If I give it to her, the whole bucket will be tipped up, so she can sort through it and leave it behind.


----------



## horsegirl (19 February 2008)

I think, like children, they just want to eat their favourite bits first


----------



## kit279 (19 February 2008)

Nope, mine are absolute gluttons. Having tipped everything on the ground, they eat it all. Unfortunately, most of it is stuck in their feet by then.


----------



## Jomanser (19 February 2008)

My irish draught plonks his nose in, whisks it around so food goes flying in all directions. He then spends the next hour hunting for it in his bed! He has thrown it about 4metres before! When he has finished he then picks the bucket up and launches it across his stable.


----------



## chriscrogul (19 February 2008)

In general a horse prefers to eat from a shallow bowl; still sees himself as a prey animal and likes to be able to see all the time, which he can't if eating from a deep bucket/bowl.


----------



## Pedantic (19 February 2008)

I'm glad it's not just my beast that does this, it's infuriating that after all the effort gone into making up his feed he messes it all over the floor and a lot gets wasted


----------



## Keltic (19 February 2008)

My mare is 28 and she still does this!! ive tried big buckets, little buckets, shallow ones, bucket in a tyre etc etc etc nothing works... it doesnt matter what feed it is even if its just a few carrots its always taken out of the bucket


----------



## BarmyC (19 February 2008)

sus does the same he likes to root out the best bits and them hoover the rest up from the floor.


----------



## helencharlie (19 February 2008)

My TB does the same. Chucks his feed on the floor, throws his bucket around the stable. I am using a tyre at the moment and this is failing. Is it a TB thing?


----------



## dozzie (19 February 2008)

I use a corner manger with anti spill bars. I can feed mine with this from the floor and he struggles to get it out of the bucket and onto the floor. Not totally failsafe but the best thing I have found in the last 30 years of owning him!!

If it is attached to the wall he still tries to scoop out the feed but cant manage it very well.


----------



## Cop-Pop (19 February 2008)

My TBx used to be as bad - my dad filled a tyre with cement and put a large tub in there then I used to wedge her feed bowl in it.  Soon stopped!!


----------



## kelsi (19 February 2008)

tipped feed into old ceramic sink (the brown ones) or large belfast sink cemented in the stable, or just tipped onto clean patch on floor


----------



## sevenoceans (20 February 2008)

[ QUOTE ]
Fit a corner manger. 

[/ QUOTE ]

Makes no difference to mine! i gave up and let him get on with it. I think it's do with spreading it but thinly. He got hay on the floor besides the manager and enjoys picking them out of the hay!

In the fields he got big (i mean huge) metal bowl and doesn't do it.

Edited to say... he's a TB!!


----------



## sunny001 (20 February 2008)

My youngster does this. Very annoying after horse feed aint cheap !!! in the end i got him a corner manger with the handles on each side. Up to yet he hasnt threw his feed out, he banged his face on the handles the very first time i gave him that bucket and it must have hurt him and he hasnt done it again since haha.


----------



## Fransurrey (20 February 2008)

I had this problem with my exmoor. I had to buy him the largest kangaroo skip on the market. I hypothesized that the problem was the food going up his nostrils, as he would tip the food out onto the ground, throw the bucket away, then eat!

Turns out I was right - when his feed is spread out in the large skip, he doesn't tip it, but if I'm using Hi-Fi as partial hay replacer (and so increasing the volume), out it goes...!


----------



## OliveOyl (20 February 2008)

I had one that did this, to stop him doing it, I used to give him his feed in 2 go's.  About a third of it to start with, which he'd throw all over the place, then put the remainder in his skip a few minutes later and he'd eat that calmly. Seemed to be that he couldn't contain his excitement, so had a funny few mins, then settled down to eat it properly.


----------

