The History and Story behind the HayMate

Richard Cansdale, the HayMate's inventor, keeps native ponies, on a small farm in Northumberland. Richard is a highly respected Water Consultant who has been inventing and installing pumps and filters in rural villages throughout the world, for over 30years.

It was while working on African water projects developing appropriate reliable handpumps, that he first became an inventor.

"When you are in a small remote village and encounter a problem, you cannot nip down to the shops 100 miles away for a replacement. You have to come up with a solution there and then using materials available. You develop lateral thinking. When it works well it gives you a buzz and inventing gets into your blood. I get great satisfaction from devising solutions to common problems."

When Richard and his wife, Sue, realized they were wasting a lot of time on the tedious chore of filling haynets, Richard turned his inventive mind to solving this problem for the family. He came up with the ingenious 'twist and drop' mechanism, which really makes the HayMate the very best haynet filling device available. Richard and Sue also discovered that not only did the HayMate save time and effort, it was much more comfortable to use and, with the HayMate, haynet filling actually became a pleasure. Fascinated friends queued up to use it. The Blacksmith pronounced it 'Bloody brilliant!' and persuaded Richard to market it.

"The HayMate has been extremely well received by the equine and farming community, and we have some fantastic feedback from many happy customers who say that now, they wouldn't live without their HayMates. We always go to our customers for their opinions and guidance in regards to affordability, design, usability, manoeuvrability and more. This is how the range has been developed''.

Having invented the HayMate, several customers asked Richard to try and solve another problem: turning large round bales in a small enclosed space. It was not long before Richard came up with the concept of the BaleMate, A turntable like a 'Lazy Susan', which revolves on its own axis, cleverly designed so that hay and other debris are not trapped in the mechanism. The combination of HayMate and BaleMate, have made hay handling so much easier.

Richard says, 'If you have an enquiry, please get in touch. We are always pleased to hear from you and we will reply as soon as we can.

Sue Cansdale