soaking hay

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oln

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my question is what does everyone do to prevent coughing from hay. does just a quick dampening from a hosepipe really work or does it have to be soaked and when soaking how do you all manage it , i put mine in a dustbin but it weighs a tonne to lift out and if i fed all 6 of them hay it would need 6 dustbins{ not impossible i spose but it would take ages to refill them all}so at the moment i buy haylage aswell, bit of a waste really as i have plenty of hay. would love any ideas. many thanks
 
i soak mine for 10 mins i know its a pain but a squrt with the hosepipe wont really do it it needs to be dunked,what about a old bath you can usualy get 4 in that
 
i steam mine now, in home-made steamer, galvanized dustbin with hole in it with pipe leading to wallpaper steamer. it's brilliant and not backbreaking, smells lovely, very palatable, doesn't weigh much more than dry hay.
i think if i had continued trying to soak hay (and it has to be completely immersed for at least 10 mins, which means it weighs a ton to haul out) my back would not stand it. it used to make me incapable of riding.
 
if you soak it for too long all the nutrients leach out into the water and you end up feeding them something not much better than damp cardboard (a bit like tea bags and tea). Either immerse the net for a few minutes and hang up to drain or play a hosepipe ouer the haynet for a few mins and leave to drain. The particles that cause irritation just need to stick to the hay and go down the gullet rather than fly up the nose and into the airways when the horse takes a bite.
 
However you decide to soak/wet it, if your horse is coughing then feeding the hay from the floor rather than a net will help too.
 
We use a large wheely bin.
Drill hole at top for yellow hose attachment(B&Q) and glue on(super stuff).
Drill hole at the bottom for another hose attachment again glue on.
Attach a length of hose(long enough to be tucked into handle on top of wheely bin) to a hose connector.
Dump bale in bin,attach hose to bottom of bin and loop hose through handle on top of bin,plug in water source pipe and leave to fill,once filled unloop hose from top and lower down to drain.If you use the hose connectors they stop flow as soon as unplugged.
Wheel bin to wherever to feed--either tip over,easy as no water and pitch fork out into nets or as we do feed from ground level large bins.
Job done.10min soak no coff coff from arab or strain from lifting wet nets from bath etc.
 
The best solution is to buy better quality hay. Yes, some horses will always cough, but if they are all coughing, change your supplier.

I never have to soak my hay because it is very good quality and I store it well.
 
Our hay is good quality but all hay will have a certain amount of dust on it,so soaking does no harm for 10 mins and haylage is to rich my horse and gives him the sqits
 
I always soak for 20 mins and horse only coughs if he's been in for a couple of days. I think the cough has more to do with him truffling around in his shavings for any bit of supper he may have left behind.

He is a TB and seems to do brilliantly on 20 mins soaked hay at the moment and looks very unlike a TB now. Its a sod to do though and really irritates me!! One horse is fine. 6 is not so fine!!
 
See if you can get hold of an old bath, you can put a complete bale in, slice the string off, soak, remove the plug and then lift out in sections once it drains. You can put the sections directly into nets without having to fluff.

I used to do soaked hay for 8 in two big garden water buts and it was a nightmare trying to lift the sections out again as Im only 5'4 tall and the barrels were almost as tall as me! Twice a day was no fun and a recipe for a bad back later on in life.
 
I find that just sprinking with a hose doesn't get right through the hay - if you root around in the middle of the net it will still be dry, although the outside looks wet enough.

I soak mine and use either a huge tub trug or a waterbutt sawn in half. Big enough to dunk a whole haynet in, but small enough to tip it over easily - no need to heave the haynet out of the water. I soak mine for 15 mins or so and then leave to drain for 5 or 10 minutes. The nets aren't too heavy after they have drained for a while.

ETA - if it's freezing cold, I do also now have a home made steamer, which is really easy, no dust and no bad back!
 
many thanks everyone, its been really interesting reading all the replies, i really like the idea of steaming instead of soaking in order not to lose the nutrients but is it as effective as soaking for preventing coughing? also how long would you leave the wallpaper stripper pushing steam in for? again many thanks for your ideas they are much appreciated.
 
I've just converted to steaming - so much better. I'm guessing that steaming is probably better than soaking for coughing as it leaves the hay really soft without being mushy. It's certainly better for retaining nutritional values. My steamer takes about 15 minutes to reach boiling point, then I steam each net for about 20 minutes - my bin only takes one at a time, if I could find a larger bin it would be better as could then do two at once. Discovered that you can't leave the steamer out over night when it's frosty as the pipe freezes and blows the safety valve when you try to turn it on again. I'm going to try putting a time switch on it so I can have the hay ready for when I get there in the evening.
 
I soak mine. I have a plastic tub, roughly 2'6" high by the same diameter. Give each net anything between 10 mins & 1 hour, depending what I am doing. Usually pull each net up a little to drain & then sit it on a bucket to finish draining before I put it in. You cant do a really big haynet in it so if they need lots of hay its easier to do 2 smaller nets.

I am afraid its not possible to just source better quality hay, we are lucky to find small bales of hay at all near us. Haylage is just too £££, although I do use it when I stay away at events.
 
I steam mine.

I took my green wheelie bin up to the yard, drilled a hole in the side at the bottom for the pipe from the wallpaper steamer to fit in.

I switch it on when I get to the yard, and by the time I've done all my other jobs the hay is steamed and ready.

My horse doesn't cough at all now.

Total cost - £25 for the steamer. No back-breaking from lifting haynets.

I just fork hay straight into the bin, then empty it onto stable floor, no more messing around with haynets!
 
thankyou everyone, today i bought a water butt and wallpaper steamer from B and Q and i have just put it all together with hay in ready for later, am quite excited to see what its like tonight.
 
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