Feeding soaked hay

[Star the Fell]

My pony coughs if I feed dry hay, so I rinse it through and hang it up to drip for around an hour. She always leaves the very wet bit in the bottom of the hay net as she doesn't like it that wet. So would it be ok to leave it to drip overnight so that it is mostly dry when she gets it in the morning?

 

[joellie]

Yes overnight would be fine but I find any older than a day or 2 they won't eat it as it can go sour..

 

[Jessey]

I would often hang mine overnight and feed it in the morning, but I didn't do it through the day as figured warm on wet would probably mean mould and bacteria getting a kick start

 

[Star the Fell]

Thank you. Will try it tonight, she only has a tiny net in the morning before we ride, so not too worried if she turns her nose up at it, she won't starve.

 

[Mary Poppins]

Yes, I do this on a regular basis. My horse also coughs on dry hay, so I soak it for about 2 hours in the evening between about 6pm and 8pm, I then let it drain for about 10 minutes by hanging it on a gate, and then I put it in my stable. He comes in at 7am and always eats it and I have never had any problems.

 

[Liseyloo73]

We soak our hay all day and then let it drain over night, ready to hang up the next morning, our ponies are out overnight and in during the day, they eat it. My horse was exactly the same with dry hay and would cough, soaking hay worked quite well, I did give him Benylin too at times, which worked too - he's currently on American Equine Airways as a supplement, this is brilliant, smells great and keeps the airways open.