How to Fill and Use Your Parallax Hay-Saver

The Parallax Hay-Saver is a great, sturdy, purpose-built slow feeding tub designed to cut down on hay wastage while giving your horse a more natural, extended feeding experience. Its secure lid and grid system keeps hay contained and protected from the weather, while the reversible zip tie makes opening and closing simple, without any fiddly clips or latches to wrestle with.

This guide covers how to open, fill, and close your Hay-Saver correctly, along with important advice on hay packing to ensure your horse can feed from it comfortably.

Opening the Lid

Your Hay-Saver comes with a reversible zip tie, which makes opening and closing the lid quick and easy.

1. Undo the zip tie and place it somewhere safe while you fill the tub (Choose a spot you'll actually remember once filling is done!)
2. To open the lid, spread your hands wide so you are gripping the inside of the top lid. Lift and slide it sideways, moving in the opposite direction to the zip tie hole.
3. Take care not to catch your fingers as the lid slides over the bottom tub.
4. Once the lid is lifted, leave it partially in place (about one half to one third open) rather than removing it completely.
5. Pull out the grid, and you are ready to begin filling.

Filling Your Hay-Saver Correctly

How you pack the hay makes a significant difference to how well your horse can feed from the Hay-Saver.

• Grab two biscuits of hay at a time and fluff them up before adding them to the tub.
• Continue adding fluffed biscuits until the tub is filled to your preferred level. Most customers find half to two-thirds of a small bale is typical.
• Do not pack in a full, compressed small bale. While the Hay-Saver can physically hold a full bale, tightly compacted hay is very difficult for horses to pull through the grid holes. This leads to frustration, and in some cases, horses chewing at the grid to try to reach the hay.

Fluffing the biscuits as you go allows the hay to sit naturally behind the grid, making it far easier for your horse to access while still providing all the benefits of slow feeding.

Closing Up

1. Place the grid back on top of the filled tub.
2. Slide the top lid back into position, making sure it is pushed far enough that it drops fully into place.
3. Refit the zip tie through the small hole to secure the lid to the tub.
4. Your Hay-Saver is now ready to be moved or dragged into your preferred feeding position.

Refilling Note

When refilling, you may notice a small amount of hay and seed remains at the base of the tub. Rather than discarding this, it can be spread over bare dirt patches in the paddock. As our hay includes quality grass seed, this makes for a simple way to help reseed worn areas.

Monitoring Your Horse

As with any new feeding device, we recommend supervising your horse for the first few hours or days of use. This lets you confirm they are comfortable with the Hay-Saver and able to access the hay easily.

The most common issue we see is hay being packed too tightly, particularly when a whole compressed small bale is used rather than fluffed biscuits. If your horse appears frustrated or is struggling to pull hay through the grid, check that the hay has been fluffed and isn't overly compacted.