My horse has a routine to eating dry cubes…She methodically bites each one in half but doesn’t eat them, then bites them in half again. At this point she will eat half the batch saving a small amount until later. Then she goes back for a snack to finish them off after eating all of her hay.
It’s really fun to watch!
Because of this horse’s age, I think it is safe to assume that his teeth aren’t what they used to be. For that reason, I would probably soak the cubes.
For healthy horses with good teeth who do not bolt their feed, I have never found soaking to be necessary with alfalfa cubes. Many horses don’t like soaked cubes, and it can be hard to keep them from spoiling or freezing before they are consumed when large amounts are fed. I studied in grad school under a researcher who is probably one of (if not THE) the most well-respected equine nutritionists in the world. The vast majority of horses on our studies were fed dry alfalfa cubes as their sole source of forage. No chokes yet, and we fed everything from weanlings to geriatrics.
Too funny!
I give soaked in hot water with little pieces of cut up apple. My gelding loves pushing around the “mash” to get the apple treasures and then he eats the soaked cubes. What I love is that I can add 10 cubes to the bottom of a bucket and add 2-3 liters of water, and it is still not runny, and that liquid is getting in him.
[QUOTE=deltawave;6005278]
FWIW, the only choke I have ever had in a horse of mine was after feeding inadequately-soaked alfalfa cubes. :([/QUOTE]
And in my case, first and only serious choke episode I have ever had in a horse of mine was from feeding unsoaked alfalfa pellets. She can eat regular hay just fine, but the pellets, not!
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