GB2532253A

GB2532253A - Forage bag with safety closure system

Info

Publication number: GB2532253A
Application number: GB1420185.9A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Murphy Rachel
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2014-11-13
Filing date: 2014-11-13
Publication date: 2016-05-18
Anticipated expiration: 2034-11-13
Also published as: GB2532253B; GB201420185D0

Abstract

A forage bag comprises mesh panels 4 bound at side seams 1 to form a bag. The top of the bag at the opening 9 is folded over and bound to form a sleeve 6 through which a rope 2 is fed. The rope is fastened at one end to a ring 3 attached to the side seam 1. The free end of the rope 10 is fed through the ring 3, such that the bag can be closed by pulling on the free end of the rope. The bag has a tie ring 5 to which the free end of the rope can be tied, e.g. when hanging the bag. The bag may have several tie rings (see figure 11). The bag may be formed from differently sized mesh (see figure 6). The bag is intended to be filled with hay for horses. The mesh is preferably knotless, square mesh.

Description

Forage Bag with safety closure system

Background

This invention relates to a Forage Bag with safety closure system which is aimed to restrict the access to unregulated forage and encourage horses to eat slower. The invention allows the horse owner to be able to hang the net in various ways in a stable, shelter or outdoors in order to alleviate neck strain and promote a more neutral and natural feeding position.

Horses require constant access to forage to aid gastric and digestive function. A horse that goes for long periods of time without forage can be susceptible to gastric ulcers, colic and other gastric and digestive ailments and exhibit behaviour issues such as wind-sucking, cribbing, box walking and weaving. Some horses need restricted access to forage for weight and/or medical reasons e.g. Laminitis, Cushings, EMS and therefore need their quota to last for a longer duration.

Statement of Invention

The invention is based on a square holed mesh Forage Bag or rectangular or square shape with a feeder sleeve containing a single safety rope closure system that is created from an eyelet loop that affixes the feeder ring to the Forage Bag structure. The rope is tightened though the feeder sleeve and through the feeder ring. The rope is then secured by tying it off to one of the specified rings with a quick release knot over and over itself like a daisy chain loop. The rope can be tied off to the feeder ring for floor feeding or the side tie ring in the conventional way so that the horse cannot cause itself injury by getting a limb stuck in the rope or Forage Bag opening.

The Forage Bag can be hung a number of ways upright, hung as a conventional net, low hung to, hung sideways with karabiner clips or fed at floor feeding level. This gives the horse owner versatility in terms of hanging the net based on the horse needs and conditions for hanging the net.

The Forage Bag helps to reduces waste by limiting the ability for the horse to be able to extract large chunks of hay purely by nature of the mesh layer(s) and wasting the hay by dropping it into bedding or eating too much too quickly and possibly creating digestive issues.

The safety closure system is one length of affixed rope at one point, not a continuous loop. A Forage Bag in which the safety closure rope is of marine or climbing polyester with dyneema braided quality that provides soft durable handling and abrasion resistance in wet and dry conditions and can support the weight of a heavy soaked Forage Bag.

The Forage bag can be tied to the feeder ring member to create a Forage Bag that can be fed from the floor. It has been proven that lower level forage feeding is a healthier and more natural way for horses to feed.

The Forage Bag has two purposeful tie points that provides safe places to secure the rope to thus avoiding potential injury to the horse. The rope closure safety system makes conventional hanging (tie point ring on a wall) much easier as the Forage Bag can be left on the floor, the end of the rope passed through the ring on the wall creating a pulley effect that the Forage Bag can be raised from the ground until the rope has been pulled to required height and tied to the tie ring, rather than being held in place and tied to the Forage Bag which a conventional hay net has to be hung.

We use square mesh knotless netting on the Forage Bags rather than conventional diamond knotted netting because it is much kinder to horses gums and teeth reducing risk of injury or damage to those areas.

The Forage Bag safety closure system comprises of the post construction process of binding the feeder sleeve fold to the sides of the Forage Bag which encloses the feeder sleeve in a way that the rope is safely contained and cannot cause injury or harm to the horse. A conventional hay net has a rope that ties two ends of cord together with a knot which creates a dangerous loop for the horse to potentially get a limb stuck in it.

The small holes in the mesh Forage Bag restricts horses grabbing large mouthfuls of hay. In order to be successful the horse has to use their lips, tongue and teeth to tease the strands. This means that there is less waste hay on the floor mixed in with the bedding. This also mean the horse does not go through periods of quick eating and then standing without forage but helps to elongate the duration of the eating cycle.

Additional layers of mesh can be bound onto the net in different sizes as part of the manufacturing process either in full layers or at any point up to half way down the net or in a bib style. E.g Bigger holed mesh top half and bottom half layers small holed.

The additional configuration layers are enclosed where the material ends but are bound closed so that the horse if it grabs the top layer they will not get any hay as the layers pull apart but contain no hay as the layers are only bound at the sides and at where the additional layer finishes.

Trials based on the horses needs helped to establish that we needed a base Forage Bag with a safety closure process that was safe but easy use. The qualities of the mesh needed to be adaptable to horses needs in wet and dry situations but able to add additional layers of mesh and bound together.

Some horses require double layers of mesh to teach the horse to eat slower and throughout the trials particularly aggressive forage eating horses became less aggressive when eating from the Forage Bag variation and more contented as their forage lasted longer. This is not a need for every horse however the base Forage Bag in our trials was sufficient for most horses. Our invention includes layered designs from those trials that are part of the invention but variations of the base Forage Bag. The invention of the half combination Forage Bag helps to alleviate a horses initial hunger eating from the bigger holes at the top half of the bag and then allows a more natural grazing period as the contents empties, leaving the smaller holed net area the only access to the forage thus elongating the eating time.

Detailed Description

The Forage Bag is constructed as an open mesh bag (Fig 1, Fig 5) with our safety closure and tie point system (Fig 2,Fig 3, Fig 4). The Forage Bag consists of a single piece of square holed mesh (1.4) material that comprises of 2.3mm to 5mm diameter mesh that has 2cm to 4.5cm holes. To construct the Forage Bag the mesh (1.4) material is folded in half and the top two end pieces are folded out and down. The fold down is bound(1.1) 4.5cm to 7.0cm down across the width of the mesh (1.4) to form a feeder sleeve(1.6) for the safety closure rope (1.2) to feed through.

The Forage Bag is then heavy duty bound (1.1) up the two long sides which creates the basic bag, top opening (1.9) and secures the construction of the feeder sleeve sides (1.6).

The Forage Bag can be additionally constructed with a second layer of overlaid mesh (Fig 6.9, 7.9, 8.9, 9.9, 10.9) on the front and back which makes the Forage Bag multi-layered but still retains the open bag function. Both layers are bound (1.1) together at the sides and as part of the sleeve binding (1.1, 1.6) with either the mesh squares aligned or offset configuration (Fig 6.9, 7.9, 8.9, 9.9, 10.9). The Forage Bag can also have a layer of mesh aligned to halfway up the length of the Forage Bag where it is again bound onto the sides and front and back of the Forage Bag (Fig 6.9, 8.9, 9.9, 10.9). This can also be two different size meshes either at the top and bottom or the same size holed mesh overlaid (Fig 6.9, 7.9, 8.9, 9.9, 10.9).

A 25mm/4mm ring is bound onto the Forage Bag between 4cm to 8cm from the top of the bag onto the side edge of the feeder sleeve one side to create a 'tie point' ring (1.5, 4.4, 5.5). A second 25mm/4mm 'rope feeder' ring (1.3, 3.3, 5.3) is affixed the opposite side of the Forage Bag to at the cross point of where the side binding meets the feeder sleeve binding. This is affixed to the strong bound side (Fig 1.1, 2.1, 3.1, 5.1) of the Forage Bag using the safety closure rope (1.2, 2.2, 3.2, 5.2) by creating a whipped rope eye loop (2.6, 3.6, 5.7) which contains the rope feeder ring (1.3, 2.3, 3.3, 5.3) and mesh edge binding (1.1, 2.1, 3.1, 5.1). This means that the rope cannot be lost in the feeder sleeve (1.6, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 5.6) and remains insitue and provides weight bearing strength. The creation of the eyelet that is fixed (2.6, 3.6, 5.7). The closure rope (Fig 2.2) then passes through feeder sleeve (2.5) and out through the last hole before the edge binding on the feeder sleeve at the tie ring end (Fig 4) to create the closure quick release (4.6). It then feeds back into feeder sleeve(4.5) the other side of the bound edge via the first mesh hole and then through the feeder sleeve and out the last hole in mesh and then immediately feeds though the feeder ring (2.3, 3.3).

The safety closure rope (1.2) is made of polyester and/or polypropylene and is of marine or climbing quality. The safety closure rope is a single piece of rope that when the loose end (1.10, 2.9) is pulled the combination of the affixed eyelet loop (1.7, 2.6), feeder sleeve (1.6, 2.5, 3.5, 5.6) and the rope feeder ring (1.3, 2.3, 3.3, 5.3) to close the Forage Bag. The remaining rope can be tied off to a wall tie ring (Fig 12) or the Forage Bag 'tie ring' (Fig 13) or alternatively the' feeder ring' (Fig 14) using a quick release knot over and over to create a daisy chain.

Further 25/4mm rings can be added on one side below the primary tie ring (Fig 11) of the Forage Bag at the hallway point between the sleeve and the bottom of the Forage Bag and another ring attached near the bottom corner of the Forage Bag. This allows for the Forage Bag to be side hung but still using the safety closure rope to close and secure the Forage Bag (Fig 11.5)

Introduction to Drawings

Fig 1 -Open bag view -Shows 3D image of the Forage Bag with safety closure system 1. Binding 2. Rope 3. Rope feeder ring 4. Mesh 5. Tie point ring 6. Feeder Sleeve 7. Rope eyelet 8. Closure release 9. Top opening 10. Rope end Fig 2 View of drawn Forage Bag closed-Shows 3D image of the Forage Bag with safety closure system 1. Binding 2. Rope 3. Rope feeder ring 4. Tie point ring 5. Feeder Sleeve 6. Rope eyelet 7. Closure release point 8. Top opening (drawn closed) 9. Rope end Fig 3 -Side view of the safety closure system & Feeder ring 1. Binding 2. Rope 3. Rope feeder ring 4. Mesh 5. Feeder Sleeve 6. Rope eyelet 7. Rope Fixing Fig 4 -Side view of Closure release & Tie pint ring 1. Binding 2. Rope 3. Mesh 4. Tie point ring 5. Feeder Sleeve 6. Closure release Fig 5 -Front view of Forage Bag 1. Binding 2. Rope 3. Rope feeder ring 4. Mesh 5. Tie point ring 6. Feeder Sleeve 7. Rope eyelet 8. Closure release Fig 6 -Half and half small hole mesh top with bottom half double layer mesh 1. Binding 2. Rope 3. Rope feeder ring 4. Mesh 5. Tie point ring 6. Feeder Sleeve 7. Rope eyelet 8. Closure release 9. Mesh (1/2 Double Layer offset) Fig 7 -Half and half larger hole mesh top with bottom half single or double (offset) layer mesh 1. Binding 2. Rope 3. Rope feeder ring 4. Mesh (Single layer) 5. Tie point ring 6. Feeder Sleeve 7. Rope eyelet 8. Closure release 9. Mesh (1/2 bag Double Layer) Fig 8 -Double Mesh bag 1. Binding 2. Rope 3. Rope feeder ring 4. Mesh (Single layer) S. Tie point ring 6. Feeder Sleeve 7. Rope eyelet 8. Closure release 9. Mesh (Full Double Layer offset) Fig 9 -Half and half larger hole mesh with bottom half overlaid small hole mesh 1. Binding 2. Rope 3. Rope feeder ring 4. Mesh (Single layer) 5. Tie point ring 6. Feeder Sleeve 7. Rope eyelet 8. Closure release 9. Mesh (Half bottom Double Layer offset) Fig 10 -Small hole mesh bib style mesh overlaid to one or both sides of mesh. Manually bound for application and removal.

1. Binding 2. Rope 3. Rope feeder ring 4. Mesh (Single layer) 5. Tie point ring 6. Feeder Sleeve 7. Rope eyelet 8. Closure release 9. Mesh (Patch layer bib style removable) Fig 11 -As Fig 1 with Additional side hanging tie point rings 1. Binding 2. Rope 3. Rope feeder ring 4. Mesh 5. Tie point rings 6. Feeder Sleeve 7. Rope eyelet 8. Closure release 9. Top opening 10. Rope end Fig 12 -As Fig 2, but showing additional way of tying the Forage Bag using conventional wall tie ring using Tie Point ring as weight distribution Fig 13 -As Fig 2, but showing additional ways of tying the Forage Bag using conventional wall tie ring to Tie Point ring on Forage Bag Fig 14 -As Fig 2, but showing additional ways of tying the Forage Bag for low/floor feeding

Claims

Forage Bag with Safety Closure System Claims 1. A 'Forage Bag' for the feeding of horses. Which comprises of single or multi-layer mesh configuration and safety closure system.
2. A 'Forage Bag' according to Claim 1, in which a singular piece of rope is permanently affixed to a strong side bound member of the Forage Bag.
3. A 'Forage Bag' Bag according to Claim 2, in which the rope is contained within the rope feeder sleeve, created from the embodiment of the Forage Bag. The rope is fed from the affixed point though the feeder sleeve out the opposite side and back into the feeder sleeve. To return and out through the rope feeder ring.
4. A 'Forage Bag' according to Claim 1, in which has multiple tie points that provides safe places to secure the rope and thus avoiding potential injury. These multiple tie point provides alternative hanging options of securing the Forage Bag for the operator.
5. A 'Forage Bag' according to Claim 3, in which the closure release is used to aid opening the mouth of the gathered Forage Bag once the rope has been untied.
6. A 'Forage Bag' according to Claim 3, in which can be tied to the feeder ring member to create a Forage Bag that can low hung or be fed from the floor. It has been proven that lower level forage feeding is a healthier and more natural way for horses to feed.
7. A Forage Bag according to Claim 1, in which additional layers of mesh of varying hole sizes and configurations allow for tapered feeding.