From restricted feeding to free-choice hay and slow-feeder hay nets, all the way to time-controlled feeding of hay – we've tried so many things. But it was only time-controlled feeding that really made a breakthrough and brought noticeable improvements for our horses.

Our gelding had been struggling for years with some pretty stubborn metabolic issues:

• Sweating episodes
• Strong body odor
• Persistent bloating
• Soft, pressure-sensitive hoof soles

We could never really figure out if it was too little or too much hay, long breaks between meals, or the conditions at the boarding stable that caused it. We bought him without knowing – the pre-purchase exam said he was "healthy" – but the symptoms were there right from the start.

Even with carefully weighed hay in fine-mesh nets, we still needed expensive natural remedies just to keep skin problems under control for a bit. Hoof quality and overall well-being stayed bad. Vets were stumped, and blood and skin tests just meant more bills. While other horse owners tried to reassure us, our gelding, much to everyone's amusement, would drag entire metal hay racks all over the place.

It was only with the time-controlled feeding that the problems completely disappeared:

• Tough hooves, barefoot on any surface.
• No more bloating, sweating, or unpleasant smells.

If the gelding does get a bit sweaty sometimes, it's enough to just slightly reduce the feeding times.

What we've learned from this experience is: Without the right feeding, even the best hoof care specialist can't get the perfect results. Healthy hooves really do start from the inside – we see this with all four of our Icelandic horses, no matter how old they are.

Wrong feeding really took its toll on our mare too:
Years ago, she got too chunky at the boarding stable and started showing the first signs of laminitis, with misshapen hooves and clear sensitivity.

Back then, our worries were brushed aside: "No cresty neck, so no laminitis," "That's just how grass grows" – basically: it was fate.
We desperately tried to fight it with daily 10-kilometer walks – but it didn't work.
What we realized: You can't just exercise away too much food.

With their health getting worse, we knew we had to act. We quickly decided to bring our horses home, improvised a paddock trail around the house, and leased a small meadow for controlled grazing. Keeping them ourselves was a real adventure and pretty overwhelming at first. But we never wanted to leave our horses' feeding to other stable owners again.

It took our mare a whole 1,5 years – after switching her to lots of small hay portions, getting intensive hoof care, and several vet visits – to finally have healthy, normally shaped hooves again and be physically strong overall.
Shocking: Just six months of incorrect feeding was enough to put a young horse out of action for 18 months.

Time-controlled feeding for chronic diseases

Our Cushing's patient, born in 1990, is also looking a lot better now than when she arrived at the end of 2016. She came to us with long, shaggy fur and was pretty thin, with a watery eye and often coughing.

She's doing much better now, and those symptoms we mentioned have disappeared, even though she's quite old. This is definitely thanks to avoiding long breaks between meals, combined with her Cushing's medication and the peaceful atmosphere among the horses. She still has all her teeth, but she can't digest hay as well as she could when she was younger, so she gets a soaked hay pellets every day with the help of the Cobomat II.

With time-controlled feeding – whether it's fresh, good quality hay or soaked hay pellets – we can easily make sure that horses neither starve nor eat themselves sick or even to death.

What we've seen is: it's not really about an extra kilo of hay here or there. What really matters is splitting it into lots of small portions so there aren't long gaps between meals. Horses can handle those smaller amounts much better than a few big meals followed by long periods of hunger.

Feeding our Icelandic horses in a way that suited them was super tricky for ages, like trying to square a circle. Even after many attempts, they'd still end up with empty tummies for too long. It wasn't until we brought in time-controlled feeding that we finally found the perfect feeding concept for them.

Today, we're convinced: Automatic feeders are a valuable investment in the health of easy keepers as well as sick and older horses.

If you add up all the costs for vets, alternative practitioners, supplements, and more frequent hoof care and compare them to what a Raufomat costs, you'll see that the investment quickly pays off. And that's not even considering how great it feels to finally see your horses healthy and happy again.

We could have spared our ponies a lot of suffering, and ourselves a lot of worry and money, if we'd only had a feeding system like this sooner.

Based on this experience, we now offer our feeding systems to a select group of customers – not to maximize sales, but to support responsible horse owners who won't compromise when it comes to their animals' health.

Every stable has a different feeding concept – and some horses get left behind!

In nature, horses are constant grazers and spend around 16 hours a day eating. This can become a big challenge for responsible horse owners.

Sure, there are some individual horses and breeds that are such hard keepers that you don't have to worry about any health issues if they have hay available 24/7. But with many Nordic breeds – like our Icelandic horses – you can only dream of such an easy feeding setup. Many easy keepers would literally eat themselves sick if they had hay ad libitum. If you want to prevent that, there's no other option than to feed them rationed portions.

Our observations:

Our gelding and mare were initially staying at an Icelandic horse boarding stable – and since it was run by an equine vet, we totally trusted the stable owner's expertise at first. The horses only got fed in the mornings and evenings. After about 3 hours of eating, the hay was always completely gone, down to the very last bit. So, their total daily eating time was around 6 hours, split into two feeding sessions of about 3 hours each, with two breaks from eating that lasted about 8 - 9 hours each.

Result:

• Frequent colic in horses aged 10 and up.
• It was noticeable how many horses had bad, brittle hooves, even young horses.
• The horses' body condition varied a lot. The lower-ranking horses were so thin you could count their ribs, while the higher-ranking ones usually got too fat.
• Stomach ulcers
• Frequent bite and kick injuries, possibly due to hidden stomach acidity and the daily fight over the limited hay.
  
• Horses feeling chilly in winter, even with their thick winter coats.
• No laminitis "thanks" to the extreme economical feeding.

With our current time-controlled feeding of lean hay from unfertilized nature conservation areas - combined with limited grazing time throughout the year, our Icelandic horses also only receive 6 hours of hay per day, but divided into 12 feeding times of 30 minutes each and 12 feeding breaks of 1 ½ hours each.

Result:

• No squabbles during feeding, since there's at least one whole side of the hay rack available for each horse.
• Overall, a peaceful herd life – absolutely no bite or kick injuries!
• No metabolic diseases!
• No colic!
• No stomach ulcers, no overly acidic stomach!
• Always ready to perform at their best.
• No more freezing in winter. A horse's relatively small stomach needs lots of small portions of hay to keep their body temperature just right – think of it like a small stove that needs to be stoked often to warm up a room.
• Stabilizing the health of chronically ill horses (e.g., like those with Cushing's).
• Faster recovery for sick horses (e.g., with laminitis).
• Strong, capable hooves with good growth, no matter their age!

Horses digest lots of small hay portions, with short breaks in between, much better than just a few big meals.

We haven't noticed horses getting more restless from many smaller hay portions, as you sometimes read. Quite the opposite, our Icelandics have actually become even calmer and more content after we increased the feeding intervals from 6 to 12 times a day, even though the total eating time stayed the same. The short 1 ½ hour waits until the next feeding are easy to fill with other activities – like munching on branches, grooming, napping in the sun, or walking to the water trough together. And then the hay rack opens again ...😉

Summary:

Twice-daily feeding with really long breaks between meals (Icelandic horse boarding stable):

• Acid reflux, colic, poor hooves, metabolic problems, stress, etc.

Hay available 24 hours a day (LAG boarding stable - Shetlands, Coldbloods, Haflingers, Warmbloods, Quarter Horses, Knabstruppers, Arabians, various small horses, and our 2 Icelandics):

• An all-you-can-eat buffet for the horses! But the cost was things like loose stools during grazing season for older horses (no matter their breed), metabolic problems, colic, a high risk of acute laminitis and Metabolic Syndrome.

Feeding 4 - 5 times a day with hand-stuffed, small-mesh 3 x 3 cm hay nets (for horses in self-managed care):

• It's generally recommended because horses eat slower, chew their food better, and stay busy for longer. However, it's only really practical if you have enough time to hang up new nets every few hours. The daily task of filling the hay nets was quite a lot of work, and our Icelandic horses still managed to empty the fine-mesh nets within just a few hours.

Even with this method, horses will inevitably have really long breaks from eating overnight, which can lead to stomach acidity.

6 to 12 portions of hay every 24 hours through time-controlled feeding at two hay racks for a total of 4 horses:

• The perfect solution for us!
  The horses love getting small, regular meals day and night, and we're super happy about the reduced workload. We've noticed that it's pretty rare for all four horses to eat at the same hay rack, even though they usually get along really well.

This really shows us how much horses appreciate having a bit of space from others – when they have the option.

Time-controlled feeding helps horses:

• • Having hay freely available often leads to health problems and horses getting overweight.
  • Many horses suffer from stomach acidity and ulcers because they have to go for long periods without food, often more than 3 hours at a time.
  • Because horses need to be fed several small portions regularly, not only during the day but also at night.
  • For horses suffering from laminitis or other metabolic disorders.
  • For horses prone to colic.
  • For horses with brittle or poorly growing hooves.
  • For really sensitive horses, this consistent, predictable, and reliable feeding method actually helps them feel calmer inside. That's a big plus compared to the daily changing feeding times you just can't avoid with manual feeding.

Time-controlled feeding helps you as a horse owner ...

• • if you care about the satisfaction and health of your horses.
  • If absolute reliability for your horse feeding is important to you.
  • if the time you spend on daily feeding sometimes gets a bit much.
  • if the  horses are are prone to illness.
  • if you want to save on vet bills.
  • if you get that guilty feeling in the evenings, thinking your beloved horses have to go through another long night without hay?

For years, we tried every feeding method you could think of to make the eating time last longer. But what ended up happening was that even with several carefully weighed, fine-mesh hay nets placed all over the paddock, our Icelandic horses would run out of hay just about 2 hours after their morning feed – and then they'd be without hay until dinner, which they'd also finish in about 2 hours.

We were disappointed to admit that despite all our efforts, we unintentionally ended up doing exactly the kind of binge feeding with really long breaks between meals that we desperately wanted to avoid. It was only with time-controlled hay feeding that we finally managed to sort out the problem.

All information published here and our recommendations are based exclusively on our own daily practical experience. Our observations have led us to believe that the following three factors are crucial for the well-being and health of horses:

1. Hay Quality: If you try to save money on good hay, you'll just end up spending way more later on supplements and vet bills.
2. Dosage form: Individually tailored to the individual needs of each horse,
   • hay freely available for the poor doers,
   • with hay net feeding, avoiding long breaks between meals (max. 3 hours),
   • all the way to time-controlled feeding around the clock for horses that are super efficient at digesting their food (often Nordic breeds).
3. Group of horses:
   • Small, harmonious groups of horses with similar dietary needs, where even the lower-ranking horse always has the chance to protect itself from the cold, wet weather, and mosquitoes in a shelter or stable.
   • To make sure there's no fighting over hay, the number of feeding spots should ALWAYS be more than the number of horses. So, we recommend a maximum of 1 horse per hay rack side – and ideally, only 3 horses for one hay rack.
   • Horses are generally peaceful and love to get along. That's the only reason humans can work with them. Constant biting, fighting, and bullying in a horse herd goes against a horse's need for harmony. Not only does it cause injuries, but it's also really bad for their physical and mental health. No horse should have to endure that kind of constant stress.

Everyone knows, feeding breaks longer than 3 hours shouldn't be expected of any horse – day or night!

Time-controlled hay feeding unfortunately means we have to limit a horse's total daily eating time to avoid health problems. This goes against their natural need as continuous grazers to eat for most of the day.

For foraging and nibbling during feeding breaks, for years we've had really good experiences with fresh branches and twigs from non-toxic bushes and trees – including beech, birch, hazelnut bushes, elm, willow, fruit trees, blackberry and raspberry branches, etc. Besides the trimmed bushes and trees, our horses eagerly trim all non-toxic plants around their paddock themselves. In summer, freshly weeded ground elder and slightly wilted fresh nettles are very popular.

Horses only munch on what's good for them. For instance, our pasture has lots of poisonous black locust trees, and while they might nibble on them sometimes, it's only very sparingly. We've never had any health issues because of it. In autumn, fresh rose hips, plus a few apples, plums, and acorns that have dropped from the trees around the paddock, get added to the mix. They leave oak leaves untouched, but happily gobble up fallen leaves from other trees before they even get old. All these little snacks aren't just fresh, free, and packed with vitamins; they also naturally satisfy a horse's urge to chew.

We often hear from horse owners that their horses nibble on everything. The vitamin-rich natural treats we mentioned here may help – it's definitely worth a try! If you don't have enough of this stuff yourself, you might find garden owners who'd be thrilled if someone took their fruit tree trimmings. And you can also find some great bits when you're out for a walk in nature.

There are numerous Raufomats in Germany and all over Europe!

• • We really focus on using high-quality, durable components that we carefully match up.
  • We've been thoroughly testing all the products we offer ourselves for years in our everyday open stable setup to make sure they're super functional and built to last. We only offer products to our customers that have really proven their worth in our own stable setup.

Our two oldest Raufomats have been running perfectly, come rain or shine, since late 2016. They've been in continuous operation, providing 12 feeding times every day, and apart from a few ropes we haven't had to replace a single component yet!

• • Before we send out each custom-made Raufomat and Cobomat, we make sure to double-check all the technical bits using the four-eyes principle. This way, we can guarantee everything will work super smoothly for you.
  • Every one of our three Raufomat models is a self-contained system and funktions equally reliable.
  • The technical parts of the Raufomat Smart and Solar are so different that they CANNOT be swapped freely between them!
    
  • Although each Raufomat is shipped as a custom-made kit, it is NOT meant to be a construction set for "creative hobbyists!"
    

From our experience, if customers make their own technical changes, it often leads to problems and repairs sooner or later, which is why we strongly advise against it.

If you set up your Raufomat or Cobomat following its assembly instructions and use it just like we suggest, you'll typically enjoy years of trouble-free daily operation. Soon enough, you won't be able to imagine looking after your horses without it!

The individually customized assembly instructions for your custom-made Raufomat kit (which is built exactly to your specifications!) will be emailed to you on the delivery day.

The assembly instructions aren't just an optional extra; they're a really important and essential part of the Raufomat feeding system. You should ALWAYS install the Raufomat on your wooden hay rack step by step, exactly as the assembly instructions say. Otherwise it could lead to problems later on.

Here's what you'll need to set it up:

• A hammer
• Rubber mallet
• Spirit level
• You'll need a cordless drill and TORX bits TX in sizes 30/25/40. A size 20 bit comes included.

No technical knowledge or special manual skills are required to assemble a Raufomat; all you need is the willingness and ability to concentrate for 2-3 hours and work your way through the well-illustrated and easy-to-understand assembly instructions. If you follow the instructions carefully, after a few hours you will have a well-functioning, robust automatic feeding system for your horses, which, if treated properly, will normally cause no problems and require no replacement parts for years to come.

From our experience, most assembly mistakes don't actually happen because of our customers. Instead, they pop up when the work is handed off to 'specialist companies' or other skilled third parties. That's why we really encourage all our customers to put their Raufomat together themselves – it's a great way to get a better feel for how everything works for when you're using it later on.

Assembling a Raufomat correctly isn't rocket science, and in our opinion, it's easier than building a hay rack! If you really don't feel confident about putting it together yourself, it might be best to hold off on ordering a Raufomat.

Because the Raufomat feeding system is so forgiving, it often takes months or even years for a Raufomat that wasn't put together quite right to start acting up and needing repairs that could have been avoided.

So, as an extra free service, we invite all our customers to send us some high-res photos of their newly set-up Raufomat before they use it for the first time. That way, we can spot any potential tweaks or improvements early on. This approach has proven super helpful, and we make sure to mention this service regularly, from when you get your quote all the way to when it's delivered.

Please note:

• We don't really offer a phone assembly service, and it's not part of what you get. Honestly, if we did, we'd just end up spending hours on the phone reading you the assembly instructions you already have!
• If you're still a bit unsure even after checking the assembly instructions, we're always happy to quickly answer polite emails from our customers, Monday to Friday.
  
• Operating a Raufomat on an unsuitable hay rack, or installing it in a way that doesn't follow our assembly instructions, comes with unpredictable risks for people, animals, and the equipment itself. Plus, according to our T&Cs, it means you'll immediately lose your statutory warranty.
  
• If you run into any technical problems, we can only help you quickly and effectively if you provide clear pictures and an accurate written description of the issue.

This sentence from one of our customers beautifully sums up what it's really all about.

It's purely about the horses' well-being.

That's exactly who we're here for – horse owners like that! We love helping them find the best possible solution for themselves and their horses.

We're NOT about doing things at any cost...

• • to attract as many customers as possible,
  • to sell as many Raufomats and Cobomats as possible,
  • to make as many sales as possible,
  • To win over skeptics.

Our customers are responsible horse owners who have figured out that feeding their horses exactly what they need – plus lots of space and exercise in a happy herd – is the best recipe for a happy and healthy horse life.

Since we've personally gone through years of experiencing just how tricky it can be to get horse feeding spot-on, and how little expert help and understanding is out there, we totally understand the struggles and worries other horse owners have.

By the way, sometimes a "best possible solution" might even mean we'd advise against time-controlled hay feeding for a specific horse. Horses that are lean even with hay "ad libitum" don't need their feed rationed.

Time-controlled hay feeding shouldn't just be seen as a 'trendy fad' that you blindly apply to every horse. Instead, it's actually perfect for horses who tend to get overweight and unwell when they have unlimited hay and grass.

Over 50%  of our customers opted for a Raufomat Solar.

As long as the "Raufomat-equipped" wooden hay rack is sturdy enough, the entire hay rack, including the solar module and hay cover can be moved a few meters without having to dismantle anything. We've even done this ourselves with one of our "Raufomat-equipped" wooden hay racks. However, moving it regularly is definitely not advisable, considering the wooden structure.

Some of our customers even use several Raufomat Solar or different Raufomat models at the same time, and then buy even more Raufomat systems after a while. To our own surprise, our Raufomats are increasingly being used in boarding stables alongside large time-controlled feeding systems from other manufacturers. This often makes sense if you want an automated hay feeding system in a power-free outdoor area of the facility or for a smaller group of horses with special needs.

In our experience, automated hay feeding with many small portions of hay day and night is the best and most horse-friendly way of rationing horse feed. And it's great that horses are increasingly moving away from their image as "working animals," which must primarily be useful in order to be allowed to live, toward being friends and partners to humans, whom we want to help live happy, long, and healthy lives.

When we do good things for our horses, they willingly give back so much more.

Approx. package dimensions for the Raufomat Solar Kit:

Raufomat Smart: Approx. package dimensions:

Easy to adjust—to hay quality and horse bellies ... 😉

Regarding Frequency and changes in feeding times: Based on our own experience, we recommend that you give the horses as many meals as possible to keep breaks short.

Depending on the hay quality and how big the horses' bellies are, we might find ourselves needing to adjust our 12 daily feeding times by 5 minutes each, several times a year. This adds up to an hour more or less eating time each day. Even just that one hour difference has an amazing effect on how big the horses get.

Thanks to these subtle changes in feeding times, just a few minutes per meal, it's much easier for horses to adjust. This is way better than suddenly skipping a whole feeding or adding an extra one, which can quickly make horses confused, unsure, and frustrated.

One hay rack side means one feeding spot for one horse, so you can have a maximum of 4 horses per hay rack for a relaxed horse life!

We've noticed that having plenty of individual space and more feeding spots than horses really helps create more harmony in the herd!

Larger square or rectangular hay racks with a side length over 190 cm might be necessary for really big round or square hay bales. That's the only reason we offer oversized Raufomats!

The bigger Raufomat sizes are definitely NOT for 8 or 12 horses to all squeeze around one hay rack and fight over their hay! Having too many horses at one hay rack always causes stress and arguments, and the lower-ranking horses always get the short end of the stick. That kind of horse keeping doesn't align with our philosophy or modern horse care, and we definitely won't (knowingly) support it, because it's not good for the horses!

To really understand the daily stress horses face in such an overcrowded environment, just picture this: you're at a buffet that's way too small, surrounded by lots of hungry people. The really confident ones shamelessly push their way in and grab triple servings, while others are left with just crumbs or have to go hungry because they're either too polite or just can't physically or mentally stand up to those 'Rambos'.

• Ideally, for 3 horses, you should have a complete hay rack with four accessible sides so the lowest-ranking horse always has an alternative spot available.
• 4 horses per hay rack is still totally fine, as long as the horses know each other well and live together peacefully.
  
• If you've got 5 horses sharing one hay rack, you're bound to run into some stress sooner or later.
• If you have 6 - 8 horses in your herd, we recommend setting up two hay racks.
• If you have 9 - 12 horses in your herd, we recommend setting up three hay racks.

When you're thinking about all this, please keep in mind that horses in open stables have to live together 24/7, and unlike in the wild, they can't choose their 'roommates' or their personal space.

When people ask us if a Raufomat can handle their 'rowdy horses,' we assume that their horses must be living a pretty stressful life. This could be due to things like bad herd dynamics, not enough space, too few feeding spots, not enough food, or feeding breaks that are too long, etc. Honestly, we can't explain constant commotion in a horse herd any other way. Horses are prey animals, so they won't waste their energy for no reason.

Above all, horses just want to live in peace. That's the only reason we can use them as riding and draft animals. As horse owners, it's our responsibility to meet this basic need for our horses and give them a life that's as stress-free as possible.

A horse feeding system that lets even the lowest-ranking horse get to its main food, hay, without any threats, kicks, or bites from other herd members, is a really important part of keeping horses humanely and in a way that's good for them.

Horses who handle ad libitum hay feeding well don't need time-controlled hay feeding!

We generally recommend using round bale hay nets for time-controlled feeding with Raufomat.

• • If you're feeding without hay net, please avoid filling the hay rack much higher than the height of the hay rack side walls - in order to prevent big chunks of hay from blocking the hay cover.
  • Round bale hay nets should be secured upwards for safety reasons. While securing them downwards is possible, we definitely don't recommend it with time-controlled feeding. That's because horses often manage to find gaps where they can still bury their heads deep in the hay. Here's a near-miss example.
  • Round bale hay nets don't just help your horses salivate better and save hay. They also stop the hay cover from getting blocked by big clumps of hay that horses can pull over the hay rack's side walls.
  • Don't worry - small amounts of loose hay won't block the hay cover while closing or opening the hay rack!
    

The following size combination of hay rack, round bale, and round bale hay net fits together perfectly, we've been using it daily for years, and it can give you a good idea for other dimensions.

Hay rack dimensions: 185 x 185 cm or 190 x 190 cm (measured from the outer edge of corner post to corner post)

round haybale size: 135 cm diameter / 125 cm height

Round hay bale net size: 160 x 160 x 180 cm (Length x Width x Height)

When picking a round bale hay net, we suggest going for a size bigger if you're unsure, rather than too small. A hay net that's too small will just be annoying every time you feed, as you won't be able to close it properly at the top.