The Great Hay Soaking Debate - Experts please come forward!

[Tobiano]

Because some of us have horses with EMS and/or Cushings and are trying to get them to lose weight. Better to reduce the calories in the hay so you can feed them a bit more for the fibre (and reduce boredom when on box rest). Even double netted haylage nets don't last my horse long.

I agree - for me it is a battle to give them enough fibre, and no haynet has yet been invented that can slow down my horses' rate of eating. In particular, Harry attacks the things like a fighting stallion (though I suppose he uses up calories in doing that!). If I use double nets I just get holes made in them twice as quickly!

Thanks so much for all the good ideas and advice on here, I think we were more or less on track but some useful adjustment suggestions

Oh - ETA I am not so much trying to get mine to lose weight as desperate not to put any*more on... they are both very doers and I really don't want them to get too overweight in case it precipitates EMS.

 

[Bryndu]

Hi,

Hay that has been totally submerged in cold water for 1 hour will reduce the sugar content by 40%. After 1 hour the water molecules cannot soak up any more of the sugar so the water must be changed to clean if you require more sugar content reduction. You need to check the sugar level of your hay before soaking because if it is very high to start with you may need several changes of water to reduce the sugar content.

You need to drain the hay before feeding to be able to carry it.....ideally for 1 hour

Bryndu

 

[Cortez]

Hi,

Hay that has been totally submerged in cold water for 1 hour will reduce the sugar content by 40%. After 1 hour the water molecules cannot soak up any more of the sugar so the water must be changed to clean if you require more sugar content reduction. You need to check the sugar level of your hay before soaking because if it is very high to start with you may need several changes of water to reduce the sugar content.

You need to drain the hay before feeding to be able to carry it.....ideally for 1 hour

Bryndu

Really? What study showed this? The controlled studies I've seen showed a maximum reduction in sugars of 27% after 16 hours; nowhere have I seen a report of reduction of 40%, even after repeated water changes.

 

[Pebble101]

An interesting post on FB - The Laminitis Site:


"The ECIR group suggest around an hour in cold or 30 mins in hot water. Most of the research coming out of the USA suggests short times like this. But research carried out in the UK has suggested longer times, even up to 16 hours.
In the UK, they tend to look at WSC loss, but it's likely we need to be most concerned with ESC loss - that's the simple sugars - glucose, fructose and sucrose - as these cause the insulin increases. These tend to soak out quickly - as you know if you mix sugar or glucose into water".

 

[criso]

Really? What study showed this? The controlled studies I've seen showed a maximum reduction in sugars of 27% after 16 hours; nowhere have I seen a report of reduction of 40%, even after repeated water changes.

The study I linked to which is relatively recent showed 34% after 9 hours and 37 % for steamed/soaked hay so a bit more than that but I agree 40% after one hour is a bit generous.

As well as type of sugars, the other thing to bear in mind with UK/US studies is whether the hay was netted or loose.