soaking hay..

S

skydancer

Well-Known Member
Joined
22 March 2011
Messages
558
Location
NORFFOLLK
Visit site
Hi,
I want to take out the sugars in my horses hay - now i know alot of people will soak their hay for 12 sometimes 24 hours. I was wondering if i hose the haynet hang it in the stable ( with bucket underneath to catch water) will this achieve anything? What effect will this have on the hay once it is dry?
Sorry, i know its a numpty question but i have been wondering...
 
Simply hosing down a haynet will not remove the sugars. They leach out over a period of hours.
Ideally IMO you need to soak for 24 hours with a water change halfway through and then rinse once drained off.
Is there a reason you need to remove some of the sugars?
 
You need to soak it, totally immerse it for at least a couple of hours, hosing it will do nothing.

I got a huge water butt from Focus, its like a huge giant flower pot, not like the ones with the black lid they are narrow, its huge was only bout £10 if I remember rightly, squeeze getting it in the car, I left the lid behind thinking I wouldn't need it, but should have kept it for emergency steaming when the taps freeze, I hate doing this because it doesn't get rid of the sugar but not much else you can do when there's no water to soak it. He has had lami in the past and has COPD so I need to soak it for both
 
Hi Joeanne
Yes i want to remove the sugars because she is very excitable to say the least even though shhe is on forage diet so i was wondering if i cut sugars out of her diet this may help - might be barking up the wrong tree ( feel free to tell me if i am) :confused:
 
Thanks Noisygirl, this is what i was thinking but am worried about when winter comes and there isnt any water - dont want to make rod for own back kinda thing - will look for hugh flowerpot!:)
 
Jewsons have very large tub trugs which will take a haynet, easy to tip out water, . the colour of the water, [brown] shows the amount of sugars you have lost, 24 hour soaking also removes vits and mins normally provided by good hay so you need to compensate, my boy won't eat it if it has been soaked more than 2 hours.
 
skydancer said:
Thanks Noisygirl, this is what i was thinking but am worried about when winter comes and there isnt any water - dont want to make rod for own back kinda thing - will look for hugh flowerpot!:)
Click to expand...
Its about 4 ft high and has a tap, what are you feeding ? but for the reason you are soaking, I wouldn't have thought hay would make a horse hot
 
My horse is an ex hunter she is ridden six times a week hacking and schoolingbut sometimes i get her out the field, tack her up and i literally have no brakes! She is ridden in a waterford gag as she is very strong and she cant lean on it. At the moment she is out 24/7 and comes in for an hour per day for her tea and to get her used to the stable - ( just moved to new yard) - food wise she has 1/2 scoop unmolassed chaff - 1/4 scoop fibre nuts. This is all she has in summer as she is out 24/7:)
 
I can't see that hay is the problem. What I think is likely is that you have a simple schooling issue.....namely you want brakes , and she being an ex-hunter wants to go flat out!
I would get a good instructor in to give you some lessons and help you learn ways of dealing with her excitability.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top