What should I be aware of when feeding soaked hay?
Whether to bind dust for asthma and coughing or to reduce carbohydrates such as fructans: there are various good reasons why hay is soaked before feeding. But more than just sugar, dust particles or energy “bathes out” in the water. Depending on your horse’s individual requirements, you should pay particular attention to essential amino acids. We at marstall show you two example calculations.
The benefits of feeding soaked hay?
Soaking hay is a great way to make it dust-free. But it does even more: soaking can, for example, reduce the sugar content by up to 25% or the energy content by 5 to 15%. Just 15 minutes in a water bath is enough – any longer brings hardly any additional benefit.
What is lost when soaking hay?
However, please note that around 35% of small intestine digestible, i.e. utilisable, protein (pcvXP) and around 35% of essential amino acids such as lysine (pcvLys), threonine (pcvThr) and methionine + cysteine (pcvSAS) are also lost in the water. Depending on the performance requirements – and therefore your horse’s requirements – these should be replaced.
Ration example 1: horse with no work
We show you what the ration for a horse with no work should look like. The amount corresponds to the recommended daily amount and should be divided into several portions per day. The calculations are designed for a horse with a live weight of 600 kg.
| Feed / requirement | Energy (ME) | pcvXP | pcvLys | pcvSAS | pcvThr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Requirement with no work | 63.00 MJ | 365.00 g | 15.00 g | 10.00 g | 19.00 g |
| 10 kg hay* (soaked for 15 min.) |
55.00 MJ | 270.00 g | 7.10 g | 4.70 g | 11.30 g |
| 1 kg Faser-Light | 8.30 MJ | 50.00 g | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 100 g Amino-Muskel | 36.00 g | 10.00 g | 8.20 g | 12.20 g | |
| Total | 63.30 MJ | 356.00 g | 17.10 g | 12.90 g | 23.50 g |
*Example hay from Bochnia et al., 2021. Figures should be understood as indicative. Natural contents vary. Figures refer to the original substance (OS).
Ration example 2: Horse in sport
Our second ration example applies to a horse in sport. Here too, the amount corresponds to the recommended daily amount and should be divided into several portions per day. The calculations are designed for a horse with a live weight of 600 kg.
| Feed / Requirement | Energy (ME) | pcvXP | pcvLys | pcvSAS | pcvThr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Requirement, sport | 110.00 MJ | 640.00 g | 26.00 g | 18.00 g | 33.00 g |
| 12 kg hay* (soaked for 15 min.) |
66.00 MJ | 324.00 g | 8.50 g | 5.60 g | 13.60 g |
| 2.75 kg Amino-Sport | 32.70 MJ | 294.00 g | 24.50 g | 22.00 g | 33.00 g |
| 300 ml oil | 11.70 MJ | ||||
| Total | 110.00 MJ | 618.00 g | 33.00 g | 27.60 g | 46.60 g |
*Example hay from Bochnia et al., 2021. Figures should be understood as a general tendency. Natural contents vary. Figures relate to the original substance (OS).
What your horse needs
The requirement for small intestine digestible raw protein and amino acids is often only just covered by "normal" horse hay. With soaked hay, considerable gaps can arise – as confirmed by a study: horses with asthma were fed hay soaked for 45 minutes and lost significant weight, even though lung function and symptoms improved markedly (Westerfeld et al., 2024). It is therefore recommended that this deficit be compensated. Our marstall Amino products, such as Amino-Muskel, Amino-Sport, marstall Getreidefrei-Mix or marstall MyoCare-Müsli, are suitable as a supplement to hay for this purpose.
