hi everyone! i need some advice.

last friday i moved stables. i have a 3 year old icelandic horse called Abel and he is my absolute heart horse. we moved together with his best buddy and teacher, 16 year old Palli. we come from a not-too-great-stables with untrustworthy owners so we are super glad we could move! 

we are now in a tiny paddock paradise and everything is great so far. they are still seperated from the herd of 4 other horses but have been having contact over the fence and all is very calm.

the only thing is that the slowfeeders are turning out to be a hassle. we have a part of the track for abel and palli with 1 of 6 feeders. they are not managing to get the hay from under the nets. the nets are knotted and approximately 2 by 2cm. they are so tiny of course to make sure the horses eat slowly and have feed for as much of the day as possible. the other horses seem to be managing alright-ish and are not too thin or anything. on the other hand these nets are new since 2 weeks. 

Abel is not an icelandic who gets fat just by looking at grass. he is actually quite skinny and i put in some effort to get to my ideal weight for him. now he has already lost some which really sucks. moreover, our two horses are noticably hungry. 

the owner of the new stables doesnt really provide solutions as of yet. she both says that they need to be stimulated to figure it out as well as they shouldnt be hungry. she does know about the fact that the horses need at least 6-8kg hay a day. i dont really know what to do anymore right now. it is of course the intention that they join the herd sooner rather than later but then we loose the possibility of giving them some loose hay on top of the net for the worst hunger. on the other hand, Abel really learns by seeing other horses do the trick so maybe it would work? 

i am worried, sad and frustrated because exactly the feeding schedule is a big part of why we left the previous stables. any advice and/or kind words are very appreciated🫶