Meet the Owner of Handy Hay Nets
Marie Racine
For Marie Racine, Handy Hay Nets is as much a business as a labour of love aimed at improving the lives of animals and their owners.
Marie grew up in small-town Quebec, where she had horses in her life from a young age. Now a resident of Winlaw, British Columbia, she still loves horses and keeps two of them on her property in the beautiful Slocan Valley. “I ride just about every day when the weather permits,” Marie says. “I plan my days around it and I always have time for the horses every single day. They’re very important to me.”
But with a small piece of land, she had to get creative in how she kept her horses healthy and comfortable, and slow feeders were a necessity for their digestive health and overall happiness. “I had to create more of an environment for them, so they’re not just standing in a square space. So I created stations throughout the pens and the horses naturally push each other from one bag to the next.” Slow feeding not only helped improve the health of her horses but also helped reduce waste and cut her hay consumption by two tonnes per year while making the process of feeding the animals much simpler.
Marie and her gelding
“I started the business because a lot of my friends and people in my community had slow feeders but when they saw the ones I’d been making they preferred them over what was out there. The word quickly spread in my small horse community and before I knew it people were contacting me asking if I’d make bags for them.”
The only problem was when Marie went looking for slow feeders, she couldn’t find anything she liked that was affordable and made close to home. So she decided to start making her own – and Handy Hay Nets was born.
Marie now sells her Handy Hay Nets here on her website and through many retail locations across Canada and internationally. What has made her slow feeders so popular? Marie says it’s the combination of affordability and quality. “Others are way more expensive, which limits the people who can buy them,” she explains. “My slow-feeder hay bags are more accessible for the average farmer. I put a lot of time and research into finding materials that have a good balance of quality and cost-effectiveness.”
What’s more, they’re hand-made by a person who truly loves and cares about the end-users of her product – the animals and their owners.
"They’re made with love, the welfare of the animals is what really motivates me every single day to do what I do. It’s about making them have better lives; so they live longer, are healthier and aren’t suffering. For humans, it eliminates waste, saves money and simplifies the feeding process for your animals."
