Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Title: Re: [RC] soaking hay

My scientific antennae are twitching with skepticism: my understanding of the initial, desired gastric response to hay is that it is about gut motility due to the mechanical effect of the roughage. It seems unlikely that soaking the fibers for long enough to add the hydration factor is going to soften the them enough to significantly eliminate the mechanical stimulation effect. The stalk-y parts of wet hay are still pretty stiff and scratchy, and cellulose doesn’t dissolve in water (or even in stomach acid, which is why humans don’t digest it).

Beverley

PS—Thanks for reminding me! Peterson vetted Codigh—been trying to remember his name ! NICE guy!


On 9/25/09 10:23 AM, "Merri Melde" <merritraveler@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Dr Michael Peterson vets some our Owyhee rides, and he recommends NOT soaking hay. Especially don't throw hay in water troughs!
>
> The reason is because eating dry hay stimulates the necessary gastric responses - releasing the enzymes (and acids?? any veterinarian step in and correct me here! I forgot all my physiolgy : ) that the horse needs to digest it - which is obviously extremely important on endurance rides. If you wet the hay first, this does not happen, thereby putting the horse at risk in a different way.
>
> So maybe wet sweet feed/mash, and dry hay is best. 
>
> (Jose choked once middle of a ride at a vet check, from eating alfalfa. We don't give it to him anymore, or if we do, we pick out the leafy parts that he was devouring)


_______________
Beverley Kane, MD
Horsensei Equine-Assisted Learning & Therapy
Woodside, CA
http://www.horsensei.com

The Manual of Medicine and Horsemanship--
Transforming the Doctor-Patient Relationship with Equine-Assisted Learning
http://www.authorhouse.com:80/BookStore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=49669