Project Slow Feeder Grazing Box - Who Needs A Man?!

Flipo's Mum

Heavy owner of a Heavy
Aug 17, 2009
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Perthshire, Scotland
Well I convinced my mate that we should have grazing boxes (like karinus on here) for the horses this winter. I want to control Flipo's weight, reduce wastage, slow the horses down with their hay intake and stop the hay blowing away in the bad weather.
Now, we've still got a couple of things to do to finish these off, and I will add more photos when they are done and in situ, but we are dead chuffed that we have managed to source and create these without any blokes to help.
Firstly we went to the sawmill and bought all the wood for the sides. And then dashed to b&q for the bottom of the boxes and nails and screws.

My pack horse carrying the bottom


We did some preliminary measurements and checks...


At which point I decided to appoint myself head joiner -


I had to help my mate visualise my plan (instructions were all in my head at this point after spending a heap of time on YouTube and Pinterest looking at loads of different designs!

Bottom made -





We still have runners to add to the base to lift it off the mud, and we want to put handles on the end to move them, and drill holes in the floor to help with drainage (but the bottom is sitting on two rails rather than fixed so it can be pulled out to clean off the hay dust. We also haven't decided on how to keep the grate fixed in the box - either a lip to stop it popping out the top, or put rope loop runners at each end to tether the grate to the box. We will see how it goes! Just hope it stands up to draft horse use and our good old Scottish winters!
 
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I'm in agony today after spending a lot of time kneeling on the ground but thankyou all, I'm still buzzing after being so creative yesterday! Just goes to show that it's not totally out of anyone's comfort zone to build a box. Fingers crossed it endures - we won't get to try them out properly until December when we start feeding hay and we will try to get them inside under cover when not in use the rest of the year.
 
Thankyou!! My buzzing feeling has been replaced today by two bruised knees (I may have accidentally hammered a nail into my leg when I was applying pressure from the other side) a staved finger - and a water blister that means I can't get my ring off! Ruskii, on the basis of these injuries, if I had a man, id be doing exactly the same.
 
We worked it out at about £100 for the two - £30 for the grates - that really dictated the size of the whole box tbh as we couldn't get much smaller than 2ftx4ft gridwall off of amazon.
£40 for the wood from the sawmill for the sides
and £30 or thereabouts for the bottom bits of plywood (which is specifically for outside use and was cut to size already so could get bigger sheets that were probably cheaper if you had the right tools) and sandpaper and nails and screws.
I think the boxes are far too big for one horse - friend and I had some heated discussions about this. They are never going to be filled to the brim unless the weather is horrendous. I would think you could have two sharing filled to the brim per these boxes NL - its just that Flipo won't share with the arab as he's too scared! He just manages to share with the bale but this would be too easy for the arab to give him a nip over the top! If you want any more details around how we made them, I can write them up. But am sure your man will be more competent that I ever have been and could work it out from the photos - as that's what we did from pinterest!
Check out KarinUS's box as well - she made a double sized one which was part of our inspiration.
 
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I want to see the results NL! And yep hopefully gimp, it's got 700kilos worth of blondeness to contend with so hoping it will withstand some hard knocks and being used as a scratching post!
 
I think it's amazing FM, just shows what can be achieved with a bit of inspiration and a LOT of hard work! Was it you who made the tap cosy too? I seem to remember something about a tap/lock cosy and would love to know how you made them.
 
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Yeah that's the plan Nat - drill holes, skids to lift it off the floor and potentially some sort of lip to stop the grate from coming out the top.
The floor isn't attached - its sitting on two rails, so its removable, we can brush out the excess and shove it back in, but still need holes in it to let water go through, and to help with lifting it out.
 
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