why do you feed soaked hay to overweight horses?

[HorseGirl18]

i was reading the thread on whether you were meant to have hay in the stable all of the night for overweight horses and ponies. nearly every post was talking about soaked hay.

ive never had an overweight horse so i am intreeged(sp) to know why you feed soaked hay for overweight horses!

enlighten me

 

[TGM]

Because soaking the hay removes some of the sugars in it, and therefore reduces the calorific content.

 

[Twinkle Twinkle]

The longer you soak it the more calories you remove.

 

[starryeyed]

Yep, as above! Reduces the nutritional value, so they can munch away without getting any goodness from it.

 

[ebonyallen]

As they have all said it strips all the goodness out of the hay. My girl has to have it soaked as she can gain weight very quickly. The hay should be soaked for at least 12 hours but really 24 hours is best and I find by doing this it has really helped with her weight controll, and she stii is able to have hay all night to munch on.