Q: What is the difference between a soaked ‘complete’ feed and a soaked sugar-beet feed?
Water is essential to life. In fact, it makes up to 70% of an adult horse’s body and is needed for every aspect of nutrition from creating saliva to microbial fermentation of fibre in the hind gut. It also helps to regulate body temperature.
Soaked feeds play an important role in our horses’ health and wellbeing, with mashes and soaked sugar beet helping to mimic the levels of water content that would be found in their natural diet, which consisted mainly of grass and other forages.
During winter especially, horses can become dehydrated because they drink less water than usual, eat more hay and hard feed, and experience a reduction in forage through grazing less, which can lead to digestive disturbances.
Mashes – often made up of fibre-based ingredients and sometimes cereals and added herbs – and soaked sugar beet are a great way to avoid any issues by increasing and maintaining hydration levels.
Soaked complete feeds, as the name suggests, combine concentrate and forage elements of the diet in a single feed for optimal nutrition, whereas sugar beet has a good macro-mineral content and is high in calcium, but it is not balanced in micro-minerals or vitamins, so these need to be added if providing beet as the only bucket feed.
Q: If it’s ‘sugar’ beet, how is it that it’s low in sugar?
Sugar beets themselves are root vegetables, grown specifically to provide sugar for the human food chain. They are processed, the sugar is extracted and the fibrous pulp residue is retained for horse and animal feeds. This is low in sugar and starch, an excellent source of highly digestible fibre, and it has a similar energy value to grains and conditioning feeds.
Q: How does an owner know when the feed is properly soaked and ready to feed?
Owners should follow the soaking instructions provided by the manufacturer. Beet pulp is available as horse feed in 12-hour soak shreds, 24-soak pellets and 10-minute-soak flakes, which can be reduced to half the soaking time when hot water is used.
If the correct water/feed ratio is followed, the beet flakes will absorb the liquid to become soft and swollen. If required, additional water can be added to make a sloppier feed. The most important factor is to weigh beet pulp out before soaking so that the benefits are realised.
Sugar beet has been fed at up to 50% of the total diet but, generally, rates of up to 6g/kg body weight per day are recommended – 3kg maximum for a 500 kg horse (dry weight before soaking).
Q: Why are soaked feeds more suited to horses with poor dentition?
Horses with dental issues such as those with missing or worn teeth or inflamed gums, or veterans with arthritis of the jaw can find it extremely difficult – and sometimes painful – to chew. This can lead to weight loss, choke, colic and other digestive disturbances. A soaked feed provides a soft, palatable mash that is easy for them to eat, securing good levels of hydration and adequate fibre intake.
Q: Is it OK to add juice to the water when soaking to encourage fussy feeders?
Some horses can be incredibly fussy and need more than a little tempting to get them to tuck into their feed. Rather than adding juice to the soaking water, it is best to mix the juice – apple or blackcurrant are popular choices – into the soaked feed when it is ready. Chopped or grated carrot or apple, or a sprinkling of a few herbs such as dried spearmint, fenugreek, cinnamon or aniseed, can be added.
Q: What is the difference between the sugar beet feeds of yesteryear that had to be soaked for 24 hours and today’s quick-soak feeds?
Sugar beet products on the market today have a much shorter soaking time because of a cooking process known as micronisation. This sees dried beet pulp put under infra-red heat, which is set at a relatively low temperature for a short period of time to break up the fibres in the pulp. It is then flaked to ensure a larger surface area to increase the rate of water absorption far beyond that of a traditional sugar beet nut.
Q: Is there any benefit to soaking a feed with warm water in winter or does this just make the owner feel better?
Soaking feed in warm water does not really create much internal heat for the horse, although it can make a feed more palatable, which is a great help with fussy feeders, particularly in winter when they need to maintain water uptake.
Ensuring that the horse has plenty of fibre is one of the best ways to encourage the switch- on of its own internal central heating system because heat is generated by the fibre as it is fermented by microbes in the hind gut.
Q: Is there any evidence to support soaked feeds being better for horses with gastric ulcers?
Equine gastric ulcers are known to be a multifactorial condition, with poor nutritional management playing a contributing role. While some types of diet have been shown to increase the risk of this painful condition, high-fibre, low-starch feeds, including unmolassed soaked sugar beet, for example, are considered better suited to the needs of an EGUS- prone horse because the fibre acts as a physical barrier to help prevent acid splashing on the non-glandular part of the stomach. Providing ad-lib forage also ensures increased chew time and saliva production to buffer the stomach acid.
The British Equestrian Trade Association runs a feed assurance scheme to highlight suitable feeds for equines affected by EGUS as a way of helping owners make an informed choice when purchasing feeds. There are several soaked feeds that have passed the scheme’s stringent three-stage application process to be included.
Q: Name three scenarios where a soaked feed would be more beneficial than a dry feed.
1. Soaked feeds are a great way to encourage a horse to take on more water, particularly in winter, when they drink less.
2. They are perfect for a horse struggling with dental issues, as it allows them to remain hydrated, supplied with fibre, and to take in all the nutrients they need in a manageable form.
3. Soaked feeds are really helpful in responding to increased water requirements when travelling and competing.
Q: Do soaked feeds need to be stored in any special way? Is there a danger that storing in a cold warehouse could see the product degrade?
Soaked sugar beet feeds should be eaten within 24 hours or sooner in hot weather although they will go off less quickly than traditional molassed sugar-beet products, as they contain much less sugar and what little there is, will not ferment as quickly.
All bags of feed should be stored in a cool, dry environment.
Q: What is the average shelf life of a bag of soaked feed?
Most bags of soaked feeds have a shelf life of up to 12 months.
Q: Can a horse gain enough energy from a soaked feed alone if he were in hard work?
Feeds such as soaked sugar beet provide good levels of medium energy when fed at higher rates, equivalent to lower-energy grains such as oats or competition compound feeds. It is low in both starch and sugar, and the energy it supplies is relatively slow-release. If used as a sole bucket feed, a balanced source of vitamins should be added, as well as a little extra salt.
Q: Can beet feeds be used as a forage replacement?
Yes, they make a great partial hay replacement for older horses and ponies, and when hay is in short supply or of poor quality.