Soaking hay - for how long?

[Hormonal Filly]

Read a vet study which suggests hay should be soaked for 1-2 hours max and any longer isn’t any good for them. Risk of mould, mineral being lost etc.

Our hay is full of sugar at the moment and could see my mare put some weight on. She’s lost 20kg in 2 weeks and looks perfect now.

I was soaking from 7pm - 8am, hanging for 30 minutes and feeding straight away.

Today I soaked for a hour, removed and hung up.. but realised I don’t need it until tomorrow morning! Oops.

Is there a risk of mould starting over night? Not sure what is best? I’m not at the yard long enough every morning (when putting her in) to soak for a hour and feed.

 

[Sossigpoker]

I soak over night and then rinse. It's unlikely that 1-2 hours will do very much for sugar levels. Rinsing after is important aa well as making sure the soaking tub is cleaned well every day.
If you've taken the hay out of soak tonight, I wouldn't risk feeding it in the morning. It will probably be quite rancid to the horse too.

 

[Cragrat]

I would actually think that if it's in a hay net it will be fine overnight. Perhaps less so if left out all day. It will probably last better because it wasn't soaked for so long, therefore hasn't softened exessively. Mine is on semi- box rest, and is having his hay soaked to reduce dust He is given adlib - therefore has enough soaked hay to last him all night, and it is still fresh and palatable by the morning.

 

[Bob notacob]

To dampen and reduce pollen/mould spores just soak for an hour or two. |To reduce sugar content ,soak for at least 8 hours and ideally change the water half way.

 

[Caol Ila]

It seems to be one of those 'ask 10 people and get 11 answers' questions.

I read some things on sciencey websites and ones that distill science into normal English, the Equus and TheHorse. The best consensus seems to be somewhere between 60 minutes and four hours for optimal sugar reduction. My system is to fill Eazigrazer with fresh hay when I get to the yard, then fill it with water. Ride everyone, do their stables, turn them out (they are out at night at the moment). Then drain Eazigrazer, fluff up the hay inside, and put in stable for next morning when she comes in. I guess it sits overnight being damp, but seems fine. It's the best I can do, which is where everyone is at with these things and the science not actually being that definite.

 

[Tiddlypom]

I used to soak hay (I now steam it). The main thing is that it isn't allowed to go off, and it starts to ferment and get hot in the middle very quickly this time of year. In the winter, that's not a problem.

So for me in summer, a half hour soak and then feed it soon after.

It's interesting that my steamed hay (I have a haygain steamer) is still fresh to feed 24 hours later.

 

[Midlifecrisis]

Long soaking only works if the water is changed..in one soak only fifty percent of sugars leach out (osmosis across a cell membrane equalises sugars on either side). So draining and another soak halves the sugars again etc. otherwise the bay is sitting in essentially an effluent for xx number of hours. I soak for an hour rinse then drain.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

To dampen and reduce pollen/mould spores just soak for an hour or two. |To reduce sugar content ,soak for at least 8 hours and ideally change the water half way.

The study says the opposite, a hour or two to remove the sugar and any longer is basically pointless. Found it quite interesting..

The water looked as dark and sugary this evening after a hour as it does in the morning after 12.

It's interesting that my steamed hay (I have a haygain steamer) is still fresh to feed 24 hours later.

Really tempted to get a steamer, hay always smells lovely after being steamed!

 

[Flowerofthefen]

I'm a bit funny about wetting hay. I luckily don't need to soak it but I do damp it straight before feeding. If I soaked some hay then didn't need it for x amount of hours I would throw away as bacteria would start growing as soon as the hay was hung up , especially in warm weather. Its just my way of thinking, probably totally wrong!

 

[Tiddlypom]

Really tempted to get a steamer, hay always smells lovely after being steamed!

Properly steamed hay, not just diy warmed up hay (which just encourages the growth of bacterial contamination) is much better for the horse respiratory wise, but alas does not address sugar content levels.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

Read a vet study which suggests hay should be soaked for 1-2 hours max and any longer isn’t any good for them. Risk of mould, mineral being lost etc.

Our hay is full of sugar at the moment and could see my mare put some weight on. She’s lost 20kg in 2 weeks and looks perfect now.

I was soaking from 7pm - 8am, hanging for 30 minutes and feeding straight away.

Today I soaked for a hour, removed and hung up.. but realised I don’t need it until tomorrow morning! Oops.

Is there a risk of mould starting over night? Not sure what is best? I’m not at the yard long enough every morning (when putting her in) to soak for a hour and feed.

Depends on reason for soaking, my late lami mare I soaked 12 hrs then rinsed


My current mare has EAD and I started with wetting hay then soaking hay and she still coughed. Then I bought a steamer - was ok at first then useless as she still coughed so went to haylage Timothy and no more cough.

A livery just did the same thing - wetting - soaking and she was going to buy steamer and vet said Haylage. no more cough.

 

[Pinkvboots]

My vet said 1 to 2 hours is enough to reduce sugar content mine won't eat it if its been soaked for hours although I don't really soak it for weight control anymore it's mainly if they are coughing.

 

[2 Dragons]

I have read many articles and posts on this subject. There is no consensus on what is best. I guess there are so many variables: water to hay ratio, type of hay and temperature.
When I can't get the yard in the morning I only soak my hay for about an hour and half- the brown soaking water is very sweet ( yes I tasted it ) so I guess it removing some sugars.

 

[littleshetland]

I'm trying to drastically reduce sugars for my PRE. Ive been soaking the hay (this years)for about 2 hours. It seems to be working.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I would actually think that if it's in a hay net it will be fine overnight. Perhaps less so if left out all day. It will probably last better because it wasn't soaked for so long, therefore hasn't softened exessively. Mine is on semi- box rest, and is having his hay soaked to reduce dust He is given adlib - therefore has enough soaked hay to last him all night, and it is still fresh and palatable by the morning.

I used to have to soak and in winter would soak a net for an hour in the evening ready to put straight in for the horse early morning and it was fine. He used to eat it no problem and I did it for years.

 

[Jenko109]

An hour.

I find hay which has been soaked all night smells nasty.

 

[spotty_pony2]

I soak for around 12 hours. I would wet straight away when it’s really hot weather and throw away any that is left over but I have actually found it’s still ok the next day when kept in a haynet and the weather is cooler. My mare still eats it all, I just find she eats it a lot slower when it is soaked because it’s less sweet whereas dry hay she can eat 3 haynets in the time it takes her to eat one wet one! So it does help.

 

[vmac66]

I soak for about 8 hrs then give it a good rinse. Mare seems happy with it, she's on restricted grazing during the day and soaked hay at night. Not put to much weight on this summer.

 

[First Frost]

I soak for between 2 and 4 hours in the summer and overnight in the winter. Seems to work well for my Connie's.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

Trouble is sometimes you have to soak it overnight for laminitics, mine never smelt that bad at all as i rinse it thoroughly

 

[Jambarissa]

I've read similar on several scientific studies. You need to soak your hay for a relatively short while in as much water as possible. Warmer water works even faster.

I actually spent money testing this when mine had lami - had tests done on unsoaked hay, soaked 2 hours and soaked 9 hours. I'll find the results but the 2 hour and 9 hour were only a bit different in terms of sugar. Other nutrients were better in the short soaked hay but there was no mention of 'toxins' which I think is the potential issue long soaked hay.

Only downside is that it's actually hard to soak for only 2 hours if you don't keep your horse at home. I read that 30 mins is fairly effective, might be worth testing that.

 

[Fjord]

I used to soak morning til night and night til morning, as that worked with the way my friend and I did the horses. Now I just soak when I get to the yard, do the jobs, and feed before I leave. It's only for about 45 minutes to an hour so I don't think it's as effective as soaking for longer, the colour of the water is certainly lighter, but I'm hoping it's better than nothing.

 

[fankino04]

Advice I was given on here was 30 mins to 1 hour in hot water, have been doing that in the evening as I have time to wait and overnight soaking for morning hay and it works great ( would rather do hot in the morning too but I'm not the one feeding morning net and can't expect people to just hang around waiting for hay), occasionally she has had 8 hour soaked in the evening and although the water is just as dark as it is from overnight or hot soaking her EMS crest has always been a bit firmer the next day so it mustn't be getting rid of as much.

 

[Suncat]

Just to pick up on the question of how to soak hay for more than 30min but less than a few hours (when you have to go to work, or sleep or leave the yard for some other pesky reason...) - I haven't tried it yet, but the answer (if you have access to a tap or hose feed that no one else will need) might be a smart water/hose timer? You could time it to open the hose for the time it typically takes to fill your soaking tub, then close it, leaving the amount of time you want it to soak before you plan to feed?

Here's an American automatic hay soaker, which fills on a timer

- which doesn't look to hard to replicate with the timer and either a hose or a second tub to supply the water?
The timer used here is a Melnor BT Timer, which is £60-80 but lots of cheaper versions on the uk market too.

If anyone does this, or rigs it up soon, I'd love to know how its goes!

 

[atropa]

Applying the basic principles of homeostasis, the optimum soaking time is likely to depend on how much sugar is in the hay and the volume of water it is being soaked in. At some point, the concentration of sugar in the soaking water will equal the concentration of the sugar left in the hay, therefore no more sugar will leach out from the hay. This is where being able to change the soaking water helps as you will already have halved the sugar in the hay and then theoretically should be able to halve it again during a second soak.

 

[Jambarissa]

This goes along side the recommendation of shorter soaking tines but gets ignored.

Everyone I know rams their hay into a standard bin and fills with water, I don't think there's really that much water in there . I bought a huge waterbutt to do mine, it takes bloody ages to fill but I added a few extra taps so it's pretty quick to empty. Soaking hay is a pain Tbh.

We have pretty clean river running through, I've been tempted to hang my nets over the bridge for a few hours, bet that would work. The occasional rower might get a shock though.

 

[Sossigpoker]

There's a study done into soaking timed very recently at Hartbury.
In essence, it found that anything under 2 hours (IIRC) achieved less than 10% reduction in WSC,.while 8 hours (I think ) achieved a 50% reduction.

And as above, the soaking water is a pollutant and should go into the sewer ,.not surface water drains .