soaked or steamed hay for lamanitic pony?

[flump]

Just wondering if its best to feed soaked or steamed hay to lamanitic/fat pony.. Lives in now, horse walker 2x daily, no feed

 

[Fransurrey]

Soaked. Steaming is just for dusty hay/ to swell the spores. You're aiming to lose WSCs, which you need to soak hay for in order to achieve.

 

[KSR]

Just be aware that soaking can also leach 20% of the protein out too..

Currently struggling with mine.. I was also advised not to add oat straw either in more than 25% straw to hay/haylage ratio as its affecting his protein levels whether soaked or not.. And is on a couple kg of un molassed alfalfa chop with beet and balancer in addition to 12kg haylage in a net per day..

He needs blood tests for urea and creatinine levels now to check on his protein metabolism.. I've spoken to several experienced and/or high profile nutritionists after being given their names from the BHS..