My guess it that by the end of the weekend he will be there about 10minutes before the feed is due and then choof off back to graze once he is done.

I went for the one that i found was made in Australia, mainly cause it meant that if there were any problems it would be easier to contact the maker and if needed send stuff back for repair etc.

Its a small business in Toowoomba QLD, the guy that i was dealing with was extremely helpful and being that my mum and i arent very good when it comes to constructing and setting up stuff (give us a fenceline to repair and we will have it sorted no problems but anything else and we are blank faces) and we must have rung him dozens of times to ask questions and he was more then willing to give us whatever advise we needed.

There are different 'versions' you can buy depending on what setup you want etc some have solar panels, others just batteries, others connect to mains power.

Website is http://www.autofeeder.com.au

I just had to do something that meant that i knew my boy was being fed as finding people willing to go and feed twice a day was getting harder, this way i can top it up whenever i am there, whenever i cant i know he is still getting a full belly. Plus the benefits of smaller feeds more often which my vet said is a must considering my guy cant chew grass anymore so is getting no nutrients out of it, so lots of small feeds were a must and what do you think the chances were of finding more people to feed him 3 or 4 times a day

I clicked onto the website, thankyou

How sturdy is it, one of my horses is such a glutton, I would be worried that he would keep shaking it and head butting it until he managed to throw it to the ground to get the food out ??

We have it mounted on the outside of the paddock, with the feed chute coming through the fence into a bucket. We then have a 'backing board' pretty much a sheet of wood mounted on the inside of the paddock so that the wood is between the horses and the feeder.

I had the same concern, my old guy wouldnt bother to shake the feeder, once the feed is gone he would wander off, but my tb would be more likely to have the thought that if the feed comes out of it then if is shake it maybe more will. So we made sure that he couldnt get near it.

It seems pretty study, we have it mounted on 2 wooden rails. And we have it filled with feed, we fit a bag of economix in it, you could probably fit a little more. But just for studiness sake, thats 25kg and it doesnt feel like it is straining under the weight or like it is pulling off the fence.

But i guess it would depend on how and what you mount it too.

Are your two horses sharing ?

I would have to get them one each.

I am going to give them a call.

Now to find something to saddle my horse for me and give me a buzz when it is done

one of mine would head bash it to pieces.

put his feed in an old wheelie bin once and after it was empty he bashed it until it split and broke up trying to make it cough up some more.

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur

I really needed to make sure he couldnt get to it, i know what he is like. We usually feed them in those big car tyre tubs and my tb used to play with them, pick them up and throw them around. Now they are light, i dont usually carry them, i roll them when i have to move them. I am surprised he has any teeth left. But he throws them around like a plastic milk bottle, i have found them down the paddock and even over the fence a few times.

Wasnt going to risk him bashing it about after all the time i had spent in finding someone who sold them and then the time mum and i set it up.

Wouldnt have been a happy horse mum if i had found it trashed

I think you can get a diverter chute which would just means that the feed can be spit out into 2 seperate buckets. My guys arent sharing, its really for my old guy who i need to get some weight on and the fact that he cant get any good stuff from all the grass he is eating.

My other guy is as big as a house and really doesnt need anything, he survives off all the spill over (anything that my old guy drops). Has been this way for the last few years. If and when i do feed my tb it is usually only hay or chaff. He is retired also, so no need for anything to give him energy for work.

Mine has done that to a wheelie bin too Mindari It did not even have his food in it, it was even tied to a fence... Ooooh he is a bad horse, he is so destructive...Breaks gates, just everything, he is just so strong and heavy.. Hubby yells get that elephant to stop breaking things I went away at Easter, my dad was taking care of the horses, I came home to find that my dad had padlocked him in a small yard I asked why he was in there, dad did not answer

I use concrete tubs now.. Tyre feeders are used by all of my horses like footballs, team football

Thanks for the confidence nushiek8, I am going to look at getting them for mine

Dont have any photos. Will try and get some this weekend. The website is:

www.autofeeder.com.au

Our problem was travel as well. We asked the lady that we agist with to feed them once and she was happy to, but she is old and not always in the best of health, my horses are friendly but sometimes when you go in with buckets they can be a bit pushy and will thrust their heads into the buckets, makes it hard for me when they do and we just thought its not really the safest thing for her to do, plus she isnt that confident with horses either. So then we started to get friends and family to do it. Trying to find 10 buckets with lids and mixing up food and labeling them isnt always easy

At least this way, i know my guy will be getting some feed while we are unable to get there.

Thanks for letting us know about this, it's a fantastic idea! My mother looks after 2 oldies of mine and has the same problem when she goes away. I'll let her know about it as she always has trouble trying to find someone to look after the horses.

Thanks again
Shorty

as i said earlier ive left out 44 gallon drums in the stable full of chaff with their concentrates througly mixed through (need to be absolutely sure they cant pick out their favourite bits throughly mixed they get the hint and just eat without tossing and searching) if I have either had to go away or I have one I really want eating 24 7 to gain weight fast as possilbe.

interestingly after initial gorging at the excitement of all that lovely food they quickly settle (2 to 3 days) and discovered after that they just nibbled all day the the amount actually gone was roughly equal to their daily feed anyway.

out in the paddock ive put full rounds or squares fenced (so they cant spread it over the entire paddock pawing) and covered (against rain, but accessable from the sides) for them to eat ad lib n same there.

Ive had a good sized round bale last a month per horse.
tucked it into the stable and put mesh round the sides that wernt against the wall so he couldnt massacare it n turn it into a giant bed as one thought was a nice idea.

My guys still have full access to pasture but just means that i can put the pellet mix that i use in their and he gets it spread out over a few feeds a day.

my lot i had to do what i did because the drought was so bad they had nothing but dust to examine

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur

The container isnt too small, my mum is going away next week and we worked it out that we can get 3 feeds a day for 7 days and that is getting about a kilo per feed. But it will depend on what you put in there, as i am sure if you put just pellets in there then you would get more then if you put a mix of chaff and pellets.

But we will see, next week will be the real test as my mum leaves on the saturday and i will top the feeder up on the sunday and wont be back out again until late Friday afternoon.

See how i go. But i am feeding only 1 horse though

There is plenty of grass so he wont go hungry, just that he wont get his hard feed if for some reason it does stop.