Soaking Hay

[TelH]

Someone please tell me I'm right (or not!!) One of my ponies is a bit on the round side of good...she is on restricted grazing and is worked 5 days a week...All my ponies have hay soaked for about 15 mins each but this pony I soak her hay for about 8 hours...today YO took it upon herself to remove hay from barrel and tell me that I should not soak it for that long cos it goes bad and is not good for her...wtf is that all about?? It is perfectly ok to soak hay for that long isn't it?? I hate when someone makes me question my own judgement...

 

[dwi]

Its fine as long as you change the water daily and then let the water drain out of it before feeding.

 

[lucy1984]

When you soak it for 8 hours, the water its in is worse than sewer water in terms of bacteria, and your supposed to take care when pouring it away - straight down the drain.

Always re-soak the hay if it been in water for over 2 hours to 'clean' it before giving it to your neddy.

 

[gails]

I was always told that is fine as long as the water is fresh at each soaking

 

[samstar]

My mare is fed 24 hour soaked hay and there is nothing wrong as long as water is changed and you let it drain well

 

[TelH]

Thanks! I always drain it well and use clean water every day!

 

[ellieplatt]

yes soaking it for that long is fine, as long as u drain it for around an hr? thats what i used to do when i soaked it, and m pony was perfectly healthy living on that

- or you cld just change to haylage and be the posh one on the yard x

 

[TelH]

I think I may already be considered as the posh one on the yard as 5 of the ponies are mine and no-one else has more than 2!

 

[kellyeaton]

i soak mine for 24 hrs then bring it out to drip dry with a bucketfull of clean water poured over the top!

 

[Eye_Spy]

I soak mine for 24 hours then rinse it off quick then leave it to drip for a few hours before feeding. No horse eating bacteria so far in the 8 years I've been doing it!

 

[Ranyhyn]

Jeepers I just soak and feed and my horse is still alive...!

 

[ruscara]

I understood that most of the sugars were leached out in two hours and it wasn't necessary to soak for longer than that.
I always rinse mine well under a running hose before feeding.