Hay soaking in deep winter (trying to plan ahead)

tankgirl1

tankgirl1

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What do you do when it gets really cold? Surely frost/ice will form?

Also can you soak haylage to remove sugars etc?

Just trying to think ahead, as have potentially found a great yard but would need to use YO's haylage, and boyo is a greedy so and so and prone to lami! He won't stay out 24/7 in winter, loves his stable! Would ideally like him to have adlib soaked hay overnight, but never having dealt with a lami pony before, I'm unsure of how it works when the really cold weather sets in!

Thorntons caramel bite thingys on offer :o
 
In the snow last year .. I soaked my hay at home .. Brought it home in nets soaked it outside ( while I was warm and toasty inside)..Once soaked I brought it in to my house and dried it out ( worked the same as if I hung it in the sun to drain) ..I also feed Lucy blocks ...my pony HAD to be on a low sugar diet .. It wasnt very easy , but it did the job .. And after spending thousands on vet bills there was no way he was eating a block of ice hay ;) could u get your hands on some old hay ? Or have a chat with your local farmer .. Our farmer /YO is a hay expert .. He grows 3/4 different types of hay from lami / low sugar hay to top notch Newmarket hay ( rocket fuel) u may just be able to get yourself a few bales of hay for the really rubbish weather that u don't need to soak ?? .. Also if u have a fatty lami .. Use the winter to help slim him down .. Dare I say slightly under rug him .. Let him use the fat to keep him warm .. ;) well anyway good luck at the new place :)
 
As well as Lucie bricks, simple systems have meadow bricks which I believe are lower in nutritional value.
When my mare was on haylage I used two small holed nets one inside the other, took her forever to get through an average net, where usually she would wolf it down.
 
In all honesty I found hay soaking a nightmare! I have an old bath which is big enough for 3 nets so that works very well. I don't mind bits of ice but at one point the tap was frozen for almost a week at a time so I was bringing bottled water from home for drinking but had to feed dry hay. What I try and do is keep my better bales for times I can't soak as emergency hay! It's the only thing I dread about winter, well that and mud!
I'm intending to buy a hay cube to save my back and just make life easier this year
 
just soak it the same as normal-not too worried about a bit of ice-the grass has ice on it at times and the horses living out don't stand and wait till the ice has gone.

some people feel ice causes colic but I am not sure if I agree with that and there is still less colic in horses that live out (eating icy grass) compared to those that live in so for me that shoots the ice theory up the bum. i reckon it is more to do with lack of physical movement and the effect that has on the gut
 
I am in the Cairngorms so this issue affects me for months, even the ice in nets is overtaken by frozen water pipes making soaking impossible.

I also have a lami prone pony. Who eats the brick things too fast.

My solution has been to buy bales of oat straw from a local farmer and to mix this 50:50 with late cut hay. Need to feed a mineral supplement as low in minerals and also don't do more than 50 50 as low in protein but it does provide a lower calorie/sugars alternative to 100% unsoaked hay and also gives the pony a long satisfying chew through the dark evenings and nights.

I don't chop it as she has yang healthy teeth and very very good digestion, but for those who don't you can buy sacks of it chopped mail order from Halleys. Bales are cheaper tho!

Any bits of bales that arent feed quality I use for banking the stable of my non lami big chap who likes a nice pillow for his head :-)))
 
twiggy2 said:
just soak it the same as normal-not too worried about a bit of ice-the grass has ice on it at times and the horses living out don't stand and wait till the ice has gone.

some people feel ice causes colic but I am not sure if I agree with that and there is still less colic in horses that live out (eating icy grass) compared to those that live in so for me that shoots the ice theory up the bum. i reckon it is more to do with lack of physical movement and the effect that has on the gut
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Agree re movement, the only thing is the horses living out are eating the icy stuff all the time and in small amounts, each blade can only have a little ice coating and they have to nibble graze. Inside with soaked nets they are suddenly getting great lumps of freezing cold ice and also eating unnaturally, net then nothing then net then nothing, which I think would increase the risk somewhat.

A bit like less frost induced lami for horses that are outside all the time than ones in overnight then turned out onto frosty ground.
 
Another one for straw, but do introduce any change of feed gradually! Good quality barley straw worked best for me.

I start with two feeders, one of hay and one of straw. Then gradually withdraw the hay when they have been happily eating the straw for a while.

I know an owner locally who fed her horses straw alone with supplements and it worked well. All mine and hers are wintered out in the Scottish Highlands but with natural shelter.
 
I'm a 'hay soaker' for my metabolic boy. His routine will pretty much stay the same through the year, which is coming in during the day (albeit a little later through winter rather than 8am in summer). He'll be out the remainder of the time.

I've sourced 2012 hay and will be using this, so IF it gets too cold to soak my hay over night, i'll be happy that what he will be getting will be less nutritious and will have a couple of buckets of water thrown over it to dampen it down (as he doesn't like the bone dry stuff anyhow).

He does have the choice of a nibble from decent quality Barley Straw at times and he will have a bit, but overall he much prefers his haynet....well actually, he much prefers Dr Green, but that's not gonna happen 24/7 for him!!

I'd try to source some of last year's hay if you can!
 
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If your yard has an electricity supply then why not steam your hay rather than soaking it. I appreciate that hay steamers can cost hundreds of pounds but for alot less you can make one. All you need is a wheelie bin, a tank connector, a wallpaper striper & a timer switch (The type you plug in & use at home to turn lights on & off when you're out).

Cut a hole in the bin a few inches up from the base & use the tank connector to connect the wall paper stripper pipe to it. Put your hay into the bin, shut the lid & set the timer to turn the steamer on about an hour before you arrive at the yard in the morning & then of after a reasonable time. The hay will then be well steamed for when you arrive. Ensure the stripper you buy will run for that period of time without running out of water.

This will do the job at a fraction of the cost of one of those 'Haygain' steamers. ;)
 
horseydebbie said:
I made my own hay steamer for about £60 No need to soak. If anyone would like instructions pm me
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Hay steamers are brilliant if you want to reduce dust so can be useful for that, great to have DIY alternative to expensive retail ones.

BUT they do little or nothing to remove the sugars which are for many (most) soakers the reason for soaking the hay, so won't be a solution for good doers, lami prone etc over winter.
 
lachlanandmarcus said:
Agree re movement, the only thing is the horses living out are eating the icy stuff all the time and in small amounts, each blade can only have a little ice coating and they have to nibble graze. Inside with soaked nets they are suddenly getting great lumps of freezing cold ice and also eating unnaturally, net then nothing then net then nothing, which I think would increase the risk somewhat.
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must be a lot colder where you are, we soak at the side of the barn and just get a coating of ice on top, a bit like the grass I suppose.
ad lib hay whilst in too or straw to nibble at but yes I would think lumps of ice are not good (can't understand the making ice lollies for horses in hot weather)
 
Echo the above,...hence why 'steaming' isn't an option for me as i need to reduce sugars and properly soak the hay...., but for dust control, yes, i think steaming is a great option and i would certainly put together a steaming kit if it's what i needed.
 
twiggy2 said:
must be a lot colder where you are, we soak at the side of the barn and just get a coating of ice on top, a bit like the grass I suppose.
ad lib hay whilst in too or straw to nibble at but yes I would think lumps of ice are not good (can't understand the making ice lollies for horses in hot weather)
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A lot colder and prolonged cold too. If I left a tub with hay soaking you'd struggle to get the hay back out!
 
Maybe a combination of steamed hay and dry straw? My OH made me a hay steamer, we used an old plastic dustbin and wallpaper stripper. Luckily we didn't really have a lot of cold days and my boy had never had lami but was predisposed to it being half native and a very good doer.
 
Straw every time! Just not too much too soon and make sure it is good quality-not dusty or mouldy ( I find oat or barley straw the best). I mix half meadow haylage and half oat straw in double haylage nets all year round. I do not get back or neck ache from lugging wet nets around and the horses eat nice dry dust free forage 24/7. Yes they pick out the haylage first but then go on to trickle feed on the straw which is full of fibre, takes longer to chew and digest and works as a low sugar natural filler. I feed it to fatties and thinnies and no-one seems to come to any harm. My exceptionally greedy cushings and good doer mare thrive on it and no-one ever goes without as there is always forage available, we also have great working feet without shoes. I have fed straw in this way for over 3 years now.
 
I was going to say of water is the issue then get a rainwater holder but it just occurred to me that up here, we've had it so cold that even that freezes up!

The only thing I can suggest is when it's extremely cold, perhaps buy in the haylage suitable for laminitics? It's pricey though. Also if the diet is managed properly there should be very little coming off the grass, perhaps not soaking hay would be okay?
 
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