Vet left a VM suggesting adding whole oats to horse’s feed but didn’t say if they should be soaked. Not going to call until tomorrow but have been looking it up…some say soak for 12 hours and drain to feed, others say soak for a few days to allow them to sprout. And some say you don’t have to soak.
Why do people soak them if they are whole in feeds like Triple Crown Complete? I don’t mind soaking them as I soak beet pulp and alfalfa cubes anyway but I want the most nutritional way to feed them.
?? why do you want to soak oats?? I have been feeding it to my horses for more then 35 years and I never soaked. And I never had any problems…
I have never soaked whole oats.
I do not know of anyone who has ever soaked whole oats.
Why would someone soak whole oats ?
I don’t WANT to soak them if I don’t have to. But it seems that everything I am reading says soak them.
Feed them ~ don’t soak them.
Your horse will love them just the way they are ~ straight out of the bag !
Weigh them …so you know how much you are feeding !
sometimes its smarter not to read to many things and just do what you want to do… I do this all the time 
If anything, feed crimped oats.
Whole oats are large enough in size and have a soft enough hull that most horses can chew them sufficiently without soaking.
There are even scholarly articles available on the subject.
Because I’m too lazy to find more, here’s the first one that popped up:
http://jn.nutrition.org/content/128/12/2698S.full
In general, processing had relatively little effect on the prececal digestion of oat starch (?80–90%)
Lol yep that’s why I turned to Coth…I used to tell patients that Google will kill you lol
For those of you who feed whole oats, do you feed them alone or with something else?
I feed them with a vit/min supplement at very least. My horses get them mixed in with their flax & soaked hay cubes, with the easier keepers only getting a couple handfuls for flavor and the harder keepers receiving more.
Back in the 80’s I knew endurance riders that soaked the oats. It was something like an 8 day rotation. They wanted the oat to have sprouted. I think the reason was supposedly more usable energy.
I’d love to feed my guy oats, he practically moans with pleasure when he gets them for a treat. They turn him into rocket though.
I feed whole oats to my retirees. They get oats, alfalfa pellets and powdered rice bran, 2:1:1 ratio. and a multivitamin, (And a carrot.) All put in a bucket, covered with water, given a good stir and then dumped in their feeders.
They are all round with a nice bloom to them.
While it’s a good idea to soak beet pulp and alfalfa cubes, it isn’t necessary to soak whole oats. But the idea is that they will be digested easier if you do soak them. The other option is buying crimped oats, but those are said to lose nutrition more quickly than whole.
If you do soak your oats, it isn’t necessary to soak them overnight, certainly not to sprout them. I’d be afraid of them going bad, especially in warm weather. An hour with hot water is sufficient.
I feed whole oats in a mash with beet pulp, salt, and a vitamin/mineral supplement. The whole thing gets soaked for an hour or two, basically while I ride, and grows enormously in volume. Soaking helps mix in the supplements, and is needed for the beet pulp. If I was just feeding oats alone, I might not bother soaking them, as they don’t absorb that much water by themselves.
They do get noticeably softer after soaking. I do feel my horse probably digests them better; I see fewer whole oats in the manure.
I used to feed whole oats with a vitamin/mineral supplement added .
I have never heard of soaking oats.
you soak the oats to help break down the hull and assist in the deliverance/palability of the actual oat. otherwise, the hull can do exactly what it was meant to do and protect the oat – most horses do just fine with unsoaked oats but i personally think soaking helps digest them easier. soak too long and they sprout, but some people feed anyway.
i’ve seen people do it both ways. personally, i think you’d be better served buying crimped if you don’t want to soak.
If you worry about undigested hulls you can get crimped (hull cracked) or rolled oats that have the hulls flattened along with the germ.
They won’t last as long in storage as whole, but buying smaller quantities more often solves that (unless you’re feeding lots of horses).
I feed whole oats supplemented with BOSS & a probiotic.
I used to feed 1/2&1/2 steam-crimped & steam-rolled, then switched to triple-cleaned whole for cost savings.
I never soak them, but a place I boarded used to wet whole & rolled oats to feed.
All that did - IMO - was create a Diva of my TB who would toss his bucket if the oats had not been wet to his satisfaction.
Once home he had no problem eating dry oats.
I would just buy steamed/rolled/crimped oats?! I feed crimped barley. Easy peasy, horse loves it, no soaking, digestible, cannot sprout. Even feeding one horse (whose diet is only partially the barley) I have no problem going through a bag quickly enough that it’s still fresh/good when I get to the bottom.
If you’re that worried you could buzz them in a food processor a bit.
[QUOTE=Mosey_2003;8766013]
If you’re that worried you could buzz them in a food processor a bit.[/QUOTE]
That is undoubtedly more work than just buying crimped though 
[QUOTE=vxf111;8765970]
I would just buy steamed/rolled/crimped oats?! I feed crimped barley. Easy peasy, horse loves it, no soaking, digestible, cannot sprout. Even feeding one horse (whose diet is only partially the barley) I have no problem going through a bag quickly enough that it’s still fresh/good when I get to the bottom.[/QUOTE]
Rolled oat here are 28$ for 50 lbs, no way i’d pay that for a bag of oats. Just feed the whole oats lots of people do without issue,no need to soak. I personally won’t buy or feed oats,when there’s better options.
