It just arrived today. Our new hay thingie. It’s huge and galvanized. That means hopefully it’s draft horse-worthy. Our petite little ponies can be ruthless on equipment. When I figure out how to post pictures on this blog-thing-a-ma-jig, I will (don’t hold your breath though——-cyber-learning for me is at a glacial pace).

But time will tell, with regards to our girls destroying the new hay toy.  Hopefully it will take a lot of time before they spindle & mutilate this new gadget. It’s for large Tifton hay round bales. I’d guess the bales weigh about 600 lbs. a piece.  It’s a new design………and yes, we tried all the old designs, which ended up out at the roadside along with a “Free Scrap Metal” sign after we abandoned the mangled masses of metal tubing. Some wonderful anonymous scrap metal person picked it up………..along with our original mobile home steps (which didn’t have a freebie sign on it and we didn’t want taken).

We didn’t want the steps removed because we still used them as a mounting block (aka:  ladder-type crutch for getting onto big horses) out by the mailbox after we would shut the front gate.  So……..that wasn’t planned, but it was solid metal and we miss it.

Now we have to leave the gate open when we go trail riding. This does have it’s benefits, especially when you fall off and your horse runs home without you and said-horse can then go right through the open gate to the front yard and wait for you to return.

Not that I have ever had that walk-of-shame home before……………not once…….ever……….

But back to the new hay cradle thingie. It’s not like the old hay rings at all that would just surround the round bale on the ground. This new improved model is on a welded metal pedestal of sorts, with a welded metal cradle that you place the round bale onto.  Now doesn’t that just sound so easy?

……..not that it’s happened yet, but I can see the word “place” not being as graceful as we might want. I’m sure that will be the subject of a few subsequent posts. “Placing” a 600 lbs. awkwardly revolving, loosely bundled mass of dead grass on a spear off the front bucket of our tractor. I could imagine other words being more applicable rather than the benign “placed”————“slung”, “dropped”, “run-over”, “unraveled”, “unredeemably (is that even an adverb?) destroyed”, …….I’m sure there will be more. Just give us time.

But for now we can hope and see all of the positive opportunities that our new hay cradle can provide. No more playing hockey-puck with the bale as the mares roll it all around the pasture while scratching their bellies on top of it. Or just leaning against it while they casually munch with their chests against the bale and their front hooves dangling off the ground. Oh, and let’s not forget the ever-popular butt-scratch. That one pivots the bale back and forth as the girls scratch their tushes while trashing out great quantities of good hay. And those are big ladies with big tushes!

So all in all I am hoping for our hay thingie to save us money on avoiding so much spoiled hay. And please, let’s not forget! The girls do not like their hay spoiled, or stepped on, or laid on, or too wet, or the ever dreaded……pee’d on! They are very large princess ponies with very large bladders.  So elevated bales could be a good thing.

Here on semi-annual wet lands, hopefully this cradle will keep the hay drier by getting the round bales up and out of the mud (or whatever) longer.

I almost forgot we also have this wonderful device to use along with the cradle that is much like a very heavy-duty hair net. We can haul it over the top of the round bales and secure it underneath. This slows the voracious eaters down….and wouldn’t you know it, every single one of our mares are healthy, healthy eaters. We don’t have one picky eater in the bunch……….I guess it runs in the family here in general……….livestock as well as people. We all like our food.