Product Review: Super Handy Leaf Mulcher for Chopping Hay & Senior Horses
My senior thoroughbred, Honor, experienced some weight loss and wet manure this spring. We immediately booked a vet appointment, which revealed some dental changes - ones which were not as pronounced at his last dental check, less than 12 months prior.
With the rapid changes, I decided it was time for Honor to begin to transition onto chopped hay. I test every load of hay that comes into our barn, so buying pre-chopped hay was not only economically impractical, but also not a gamble I wanted to take for my horse's nutritional balance.
I scoured the web for a product that would be effective for my chopping needs, and landed on this product: The Super Handy Leaf Mulcher - and spoiler alert, it has been SUPER handy.
Why chopping hay helps horses with dental failure
Horses have to reduce the length of forage from long-stem fiber pieces 20-40cm to lengths <1.6mm and smaller (Meyer et al., 1985), with the average particle size found in the stomach ranging from 0.69-1.76mm in length (Carmalt and Allen, 2008). Your horse will need to chew every kilogram of forage over 2000 times in order to reduce it to this size.
Chewing helps release the soluble components of forage, and is the major first step of the digestive process (Meyer et al, 1993), but for a senior horse with smooth teeth, painful teeth, or missing teeth, they are no longer able to accomplish this crucial first step of the digestive process. This can result in weight loss, impaired nutritional status despite a balanced diet on paper, and in some horses, digestive complications and diarrhea.
In order to support these senior horses, we must develop a plan to meet their fiber requirement in a way that their body physically can process, while also maximizing their chew time throughout the day - we don't want them working HARDER to chew their food, but we do want them to spend as much time per day chewing something appropriate. This is crucial for both mental and digestive wellness.
A 2023 study comparing 3cm x 3cm hay cubes vs long-stem hay reported that when feeding the same quantity of hay cubes vs hay, cube-fed horses completed their meal an average of 1 hour earlier than hay-fed horses, but maintained the normal chew rate (Petz et al., 2023). This suggests that the horses may have had sufficient chew time to meet needs, but required less time to reduce the 3cm pieces to <1.6mm pieces. While complete senior feeds and other pelleted forage replacers can help meet the fiber requirements of horses with dental failure, horses who are on pellet-only diets can consume their pellets at far faster intake rates (which sometimes results in choke!), in which case these horses may not be maintaining sufficient chew time for their mental wellness. While soaking feedstuffs can increase the time spent eating pelleted feeds (Grimm et al., 2025), incorporating some stemmed fiber - if the horse can safely handle it - can support both mental and digestive health. For senior horses who are transitioning onto pelleted diets, they still require regular dental checks, as these horses may have an increased risk of lateral hook development in their mouths. In addition, horses who had not had a dental exam in 12 months had longer chewing lengths, which improved post-dental (Jacobs et al., 2022), suggesting that routine dentals help maintain optimal chewing and feed breakdown. This aligns with another study reporting that fecal fiber length of ingested hay decreased following dental treatment (3.27mm vs 2.15mm), improving chewing efficiency (Di Filippo et al., 2018). If your horse is struggling with long-stem fiber, make sure your horse has had a dental check.
Chopped hay is sometimes called 'chaff' in other parts of the world, where it can range from lengths of 1-3cm in length. Adding chaff as 15-50% of the diet helped slow rate of intake with no difference between <2cm and 4cm length of chaff (Campbell et al., 2020), with 30% inclusion leading to slower eating periods and an increase in chewing (Ellis et al., 2005). Research has fed 2.0-2.25% BW (as-fed) of chopped hay per day and reported no differences in digestibility compared to feeding long-stem hay for young horses with adequate dentition. Existing research suggests that the main benefit of chopped hay is indeed for horses who cannot handle long-stem hay due to chewing efficiency issues.
The Product: Super Handy Leaf Mulcher
Pros:
The metal blades - rather than plastic twines on other products - chop the hay efficiently and evenly, without risk of a plastic twine ending up in my horse's hay.
This model comes with wheels, allowing for easy moving - this has been great for being able to wheel it to the electrical outlet, chopping hay, and then wheeling it back into it's storage spot.
FAST! While it can seem tedious, I have been timing myself and I am able to chop 10lb of hay in 5 minutes. As I am currently feeding 50% long-stem hay and 50% chopped hay free-choice, in addition to fiber replacement elsewhere in the diet, I can easily chop a couple days worth at a time.
Stem reduction: The mulcher can reduce hay from a pre-chopping length of 40cm to a post-chopping length: 2-5cm - an impressive 87.5-95% reduction!
Cons:
The instruction manual suggests not running the mulcher for more than 15 minutes at a time - if you were chopping larger quantities, you may need to let the engine cool down between batches.
The blades WILL get clogged if you put too much hay in at once. I recommend fluffing up the flake and dropping handfuls into the chute, rather than inserting a whole flake at once. This can be tedious.
Takeaways: Overall, this product has been a great investment for my herd, especially for my horse who is finding long-stem hay increasing difficult. If chopped hay is a good fit for your horse, I would definitely recommend the Super Handy Leaf Mulcher: https://link.amazon/B0e6V4M5M
This is not an ad. I purchased the Super Handy Leaf Mulcher with my own money. As an independent, self-employed professional, I only recommend products that I believe will offer a benefit. If you purchase at the link above, I may earn commission as an affiliate, which helps support this blog and the free educational content I put out.
Considerations for Chopped Hay
The suitability of chopped hay for your senior horse will depend on your horse's dentition - not all horses with dental failure are candidates for chopped hay. Some senior horses with diastema (gaps between molars) can suffer from reduced dental surface area and can also collect impacted feed within these spaces. These horses would benefit an alternative method of fiber replacement. As such, the decision to switch to chopped hay for the senior horse is one that should be made with consultation of your horse's veterinary/dental and nutritional professionals. Different types of both age-related and pathology-related issues (neurological symptoms associated with muscle weakness of the mandibular; chronic deficiencies, etc) associated with chewing will require unique management strategies according to the individual horse.
For horses with dental failure who are good candidates for chopped hay, it is strongly recommended that ALL hay be tested via a forage analysis prior to chopping to confirm quality and nutritional suitability.
Chopping your own hay is ideal for those who have a consistent source of forage and prioritize forage testing due to careful NSC monitoring (metabolic horses, PSSM, etc) and mineral balancing requirements - especially in cases where available forage replacers are not sufficiently low NSC or readily available at your local feed store.
Work with your horse's veterinary, dental and nutritional professionals to determine what is best for your horse's needs before investing in a leaf mulcher is recommended! If your horse needs a nutritionist on their care team, I'd love to work together to support your horse - please get in touch to discuss the best program for your horse's individual needs.
References & Recommended Reading
Campbell et al., 2020. Factors Affecting the Rate and Measurement of Feed Intake for a Cereal-Based Meal in Horses. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 84: 102869
Carmalt, JL., Allen, A. 2008. The relationship between cheek tooth occlusal morphology, apparent digestibility, and ingesta particle size reduction in horses. J AM Vet Med Assoc 233: 452-455.
Di Filippo et al., 2018. Effect of Dental Correction on Fecal Fiber Length in Horses. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 64: 77-80.
Grimm et al, 2025. Processing and soaking of sugar beet pulp changes the feeding behavior of horses. Animal Feed Science and Technology 327: 116426.
Jacobs et al., 2022. Equine chewing is influenced by dental intervention. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 100: 103558.
KER.2012. Beyond Hay: Chaff and Haylage for Horses. Accessed online from: https://ker.com/equinews/beyond-hay-chaff-haylage-horses/
Meyer, H., Coenen, M., and Gurer, C. 1985. Investigations of saliva production and
chewing in horses fed various feeds. Proc. 9th ENPS, East Lansing, MI, 38-41.
Meyer, H., Radicke, S., Kiengle, E., Wilke, S. and Kleffken, D. 1993. Investigations on
preileal digestion of oats, corn and barley starch in relation to grain processing.
In: Proceedings of 13th ENPS, Gainesville, FL, pp. 92-97.
Petz et al., 2023. Changes in eating time, chewing activity and dust concentration in horses fed either alfalfa cubes or long‐stem hay. Vet Med Sci 9(3): 1154-1162.
Robinson et al., 2017. Chopping Hay Before Feeding Does Not Influence Fecal Particle Size, Blood Variables, or Water Intake in 3-Year-Old Arabians. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 54: 118-122.
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