Katy Watts wrote:A small pilot survey revealed that in practice, at least in parts of the UK, long stemmed hay is often soaked in just enough water to submerge it completely, (equivalent to a hay to water ration of 1:10- 1:15 W/V, for either 20-40 minutes, 2-4 hours or overnight. ......the current study aimed to mirror current common practice in hay soaking by UK horse owners. ....
Saying what is highlighted in red doesn't mean its
"usual practice" or that
"everyone soaks hay in the UK to prevent inhalation of mold spores. It’s a real moldy place" which is what you said in your first posting.
Then they did math to say how much sugar and nitrogen compounds came out of the highest sugar hay, and said "This may lead to environmental issues relating to the disposal of such liquor."
Again "may" doesn't mean what you said in your first posting and for sure that isn't the same as saying
"disposing of the water “which is essentially sewage” is difficult too"
No way is water disposal treated as sewage in the UK.
During Pat Harris' presentation, she said people had difficulty getting water to some barns, or paying for metered water on city taps.
That's total poppycock. Less than 20% of total mains water supply in the UK is metered and predominently this is in city domestic establishments. I actually live in the only part of the country where there's a relatively high number of premises that are on private supply. That only totals 2,000 premises. So again I'm thinking the comment must have been misunderstood or taken out of context because for sure it would and should be challenged and for certain it's not what I understood to have been taken by the researchers.
Other people from UK have told me that most hay is brownish in color there, often musty. Why you often do baleage or silage there.
Sileage is never fed to horses in the UK. Haylage often is and because hay is at a premium. Not because it's poor quality at all. The rainy weather and the fact that we have a season that only allows for one cut of hay means that it's a limited resource and very expensive. But there's nothing wrong with the quality. Though of course, same here as there, some folks might be buying stuff that hasn't been properly stored.
I agree, and always said that soaking hay was an emergency measure, and never intended it to be done for years, as apparently people practice. But I was dismayed that they seemed to be so negative about the whole concept.
I'd say factual and realistic.
From my emails and comments at clinics, horse owners and vets both say that soaking hay is frequently a life saver.
That's definitely over egging the pudding. Though of course reducing sugar from a laminitic horse's diet is ALWAYS going to lead to an improvement.
THEN hopefully they will realize that testing hay is worthwhile.
You might be interested to know that here the majority of hay is tested.
Some owners often aren't interested in that though and ordinarily stuff their horses full of high sugar content grass and hay AND grain AND manufactured feed stuffs none the less and until they come across an acute problem such as laminitis.
Then they get the wake up call and have to go into emergency contingency measures and start doing what they should have done all along.