Soaked hay to take away calories???

[charlie55]

Ive always known and been told that 12 hours is the time to soak hay to get rid of calories, but how true is this?
After reading the haynet thread, and after thinking about my physio bill every three months because of my horses tight neck and back, maybe it is due to haynets

I'd like to put his hay on the floor but he has a huge weight problem, he only has to look at food to pile on the pounds and its really hard work to keep the weight off.

He is an eating maching, eats like theirs no tomorrow which is why i have always double netted a haylage net, id have to put a whole bale of hay in if it was to last a whole night, will soaking it for 12 hrs really take everything out?? It still doesnt seem right to me? And to think of the looks id get putting a whole bale of hay in a fatties stable

Anyone had the same problem that could offer advice?

 

[kylie88]

I am in the same situation after reading the threads about the probs haynets can cause but also have a little fatty thats hay would be gone in a flash if it wasn't in smalled holed net.....

I have also read the following..... on soaking hay

New research, conducted by the WALTHAM–initiated Laminitis Consortium, has raised questions over the assumption that soaking hay will make it safe to feed to laminitis-prone horses and ponies*.

The Laminitis Consortium comprises world-leading equine veterinary, nutrition and research experts interested in collaborating on the important topic of laminitis. It includes the authors of this work: Dr Pat Harris of the WALTHAM® Equine Studies Group, Clare Barfoot of Mars Horsecare UK Ltd and Dr Annette Longland of Equine Livestock and Nutrition Services (ELNS).

Over-consumption of water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) has been associated with the onset of laminitis. It has been recommended that hay with a non-structural carbohydrate (WSC and starch) content of less than 10% should be fed to obese animals as well as those at risk of laminitis2 and that hay should be soaked in water before being fed in order to reduce the WSC3,4,5. The study, which was completed earlier this year, examined the loss of water-soluble carbohydrates from nine different hays submerged in water for up to 16 hours. It was presented to the biannual Equine Science Symposium in America in May 2009.

Previous studies have shown that the prolonged soaking of chopped hay in large volumes of water can result in the leaching of nutrients, including soluble carbohydrates. However, because common practice in the UK tends to involve long-stemmed hay, soaked in relatively small volumes of water over varying timescales, the Laminitis Consortium’s study aimed to replicate such a practice6.

The nine different hay samples were analysed for WSC and then soaked in cold water. The soaked samples were subsequently analysed at four intervals of 20 minutes, 40 minutes, three hours and 16 hours.

“The results showed a highly variable leaching of WSC and substantially less leaching than reported previously for chopped hay soaked for 30 minutes3” explained Clare Barfoot. “Very few samples reached below 10% WSC, despite prolonged soaking. The concern is that this strongly suggests that soaking may not be sufficient to render some hays safe to feed to horses and ponies prone to laminitis.”

“Our current advice is that ideally you should analyse your hay before feeding it to an animal at high risk of laminitis and choose hay with the lowest WSC content you can find. Soaking hay provides an additional safeguard but should not be relied upon,” concludes Clare.

The study also highlights that if hay is soaked for extended periods, it may not meet the nutritional requirements of the animal because substantial amounts of other nutrients, protein, vitamins and minerals will also be lost 5. In such cases it is even more important that the horse or pony should receive a balanced supplementary feed.

The Laminitis Consortium is continuing its work in this area and hopes to be able to identify practices that will be of greater benefit to the horse owner faced with hay of unknown WSC content.

*Longland AC Barfoot C & Harris PA (2009) The loss of water- soluble carbohydrate and soluble protein from nine different hays soaked in water for up to 16 hours. J. Equine Vet Science 29 (5 ) p 383 – 384, 2 Frank N Equine Metabolic Syndrome J Equine Vet Sci 29 (5) p 259 - 267, 3Cottrell, E., Watts, K., Duarte, S. and Ralston, S. (2005). Equine Science Symposium, 2005, 4Kenny, D. (2007). Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science. 5Warr EM, Petch JL. Equine Vet Educ 1993;5:169-171, 6Longland, A.C. (2009) In preparation.

What is other people take on this...........

 

[FleabittenT]

I stopped soaking hay after the lami consortium published this research a few months ago. Was only soaking for 8 hours in a small amount of water, so not sure there's any real benefit for all the effort of lugging heavy, wet nets around in winter.

My connie's a good doer so was soaking just to keep her overall calorie intake down. If I had a laminitic or a really good doer, I'd probably keep soaking anyway, on the basis that any amount of WSC's removed is a good thing.

Would be interested to hear the thoughts of other too

 

[kylie88]

I did stop soaking my hay when I first read this to, thought whats the point with all the messing around if if doesn't really do much.
TBH my pony didn't suddenly pile on the pounds, he doesn't get as much hay as he would like im sure but I haven't notice the difference in it being soaked or not.

 

[auntyfred]

I went to a lecture given by Pat Harris (who did this research) earlier this year on managing obesity in horses where she went into detail about this peice of research.
What it meant for me was I no longer panic if I haven't been able to soak hay. Soaking brings it's own problems in freezing weather or heat waves.
I do still soak because my mare isn't keen on it soaked so it takes her longer to eat and she doesn't eat so much.

 

[trendybraincell]

I soak hay to control weight and eliminate dust...he has never had laminitis and I would like to keep it that way!

He is out at night on poor grazing and in during the day with 6-8kilos of wet hay, because of this I supplement his feed with Top Spec Anti Lami balancer

We have gone from this

to this

Soaking may not render some hay safe for laminitis risk ponies but it certainly helps control weight!

 

[ISHmad]

I agree. We soak ours overnight, rinse it well with fresh water the following morning and then feed that night. We also feed a balancer to make sure that the horses get all their nutritional requirements the same as you Trendybraincell.