Feeding Soaked Feeds

15 August 2016

Soaked feeds are a good way to feed horses. Soaking increases the bulk of the feed three fold, and six times in the case of PuraBeet. Big feeds take longer to eat and horses need to spend as much time as possible eating. Adding a chop/chaff also increases eating time and encourages proper chewing. Avoid chops based on straw as it is now recognised that straw is not a suitable feed for horses. Soaking restores the natural hydration of forages and so helps to maintain the horse’s hydration. Some feeds when soaked make something similar in texture to mashed potatoes, which is much finer than even the best teeth will grind the feed down to! A soaked feed that is more like a fine chop is more natural and better for the horse’s gut. LucieNuts, Organic LuciePellets, LucieFibre Cubes, Blue Bag Grass Pellets and PuraBeet all soak up to make a feed with texture that is more pleasant for the horse and better for his guts! Simple System feeds ARE different! When feeding forages (and not all fibre is forage, so do not be misled by the term fibre) there is NO limit to meal size and NO requirement to withhold feed around work BUT do not do this with other brands of feed unless you are totally certain that they are forage and not fibre from other sources or with starchy ingredients. We do not limit the grazing or indeed, the hay, except in specific situations, because these forage feeds are digested in the horse’s enormous caecum, not its small stomach. After all, horses evolved eating forages for up to 18 hours a day. For more information and for advice on feeding your horse, contact our Feed Line on 01728 604 008 or email info@simplesystem.co.uk