If soaking is not something already offered at the barn, forget it. It’s not going to happen. There is no way to make that ask easy enough for them to do it and deal with the clean up.
At my current barn, there is no soaking. A few horses get a supplemental meal of beet pulp or similar, some with supplements some not. That the owners or the trainer does individually, every day, bringing and cleaning their own containers. Nothing of that nature is stored in the feed room for boarders.
Former barn manager here…I’ll echo those who say if they aren’t already set up to soak feed, anything is going to be a hassle for staff.
It is much easier to soak in a sink or near a drain. No water in the feed room is a problem. What if your water container gets knocked over? Will it ruin other feed? Will it drain?
Soaking also invites flies and cleaning feed tubs and feed buckets. We are small place here, so I have no problem washing our buckets every few days. But they get gross fast in NC heat.
That said…what about using Outlast as a carrier? It’s a small serving, although I don’t know the calorie count. I supplement my guy with it 2 times a day and have used it as a carrier for his amino acid and electrolyte supplements (a pellet and a powder respectively). Nothing gets left behind!
Good luck!
If you cannot find a different ration balancer to suit your horses needs, and/or ration balancers have too many calories, then I’d find a vit/min that suits the needs of the horse (one was already suggested here, but you could browse through SmartPak’s site or local feed stores for ideas as well) and mix it in with some chaff/chopped forage/Triple Crown Safe Starch.
I feed Mad Barn Omneity, and I don’t have water in my barn. If you don’t actually need feed soaked and are just doing that to mix in the vitamins so they don’t picked out, this is what I do. I keep a gallon jug of water and a spatula. I splash in just enough water and mix it up so that everything sticks. I use a handful of triple crown senior gold and a handful of timothy/alfalfa pellets to make it palatable.
You may not have to soak a textured balancer.
I’m not sure if the OP has concerns about NSC, but that is my concern w IR horses I care for. This says low…but it’s 15%, which is not low to me.
You don’t need to soak pellets for a normal horse that has its teeth and isn’t prone to choke. Cubes, yes. Pellets, no.
I wet them down at feeding time, but not to make them softer, just to get the extra water in the horse.
NSC consumed would depend on the feeding rate.
@NaturallyHappy I also agree this is too high for the easy keeping type.
Also, if OP is looking for a VMS like Vermont Blend/CalTrace, they are notoriously unpalatable to a lot of horses. I had to start my gelding who turns his nose up at nearly nothing, out having to use a diluted molasses spray to get him to eat it and he was much more agreeable to it in mash/slop form.
I just looked at the comparison between the Omneity and those two VMS, and they are a little different. VBP has twice the amount of copper/zinc plus more biotin which might matter to OP, the Omneity has added amino acids and more vitamins but I’d also be curious about the Omneitys Vitamin E and whether or not they see the same degradation issues with it being combined with the minerals like the known Cal Trace issue as well. The Omneity is slightly more cost effective.
I was going to add this myself but you beat me to it!
Right. 1 lb at 15% NSC ration balancer is fine compared to 6lb of a similar NSC grain. Assuming the rest of the diet is also low NSC.
If Soaking feed is not already regularly on the to do list for the barn staff, just forget about it. At best it’s going to get done irregularly - With resentment. At worst it’s going to be really jacked up. Don’t make yourself “that boarder” Instead, find another alternative, maybe Chopped alfalfa. Something that does not need to be soaked or even wet down. If you really feel it needs to be wet down at most, you could put a small container of pre-measured water and an easy to manage opening system. just dump in before feeding. One per bag. Even that could be considered to be difficult, if the opening system is tricky and easy to spill.
FYI, I feed several of the horses in my barn a ration balancer, none of them need a carrier except to. And they got about one cup of equine senior in the mix. They goble it right up.
I have 100% NOT had this experience and we’ve been at 5 barns now that we are the only ones with soaked feed needs. I have everything planned and prepped and I also make a point to rinse his bucket out and put it back in the feed room every night for the next morning. Im 5 for 5 with this very much working out for us and no gripes from BO or staff.
@Minxitbabe I would just ask about this and see what they say. If you can do things to help make it easier for them, offer. With that said, perhaps don’t be shocked if they balk, but I have yet to have that happen yet.
I do understand that…but I have one who is very prone to laminitis, so I am as careful as I can be w him.
Someone mentioned Unbeetable Forage Only and I can confirm that these pellets soak up to soft pretty much immediately.
Another feed that soaks up super fast in my experience is Triple Crown Senior.
If you’re just looking for a carrier for your forage balancer and supplements, a handful of either one of these would work if you wanted something that could have water added at meal time and served pretty much immediately. Just keep a couple of gallon milk/water jugs on hand and filled with water sitting near the feed. Have the meals pre-mixed with the carrier and all supplements combined, then all the barn staff has to do is dump in the bucket, pour enough water to cover, and by the time they carry it to the horse and dump it in the feed bucket/tub, it should be soaked enough for consumption.
I understand not having water IN the feed room, but there’s no water access anywhere near the feed room??? That is strange to me.
Only your BO can tell you if this is reasonable for their program or not. What one BO allows is not the same as another.
But if you’re in a hot climate like Florida, soaking pellets for eight hours isn’t going to be great to feed, either. If it’s hot like Florida, the water that comes out of the ground isn’t exactly cold, and most pellets take maybe 30 minutes at most to soak up. Mine usually are good-to-go in about 10 minutes.
Alternatively, I’d consider a Ration balancer and pelleted versions of the supplements you want to feed.
I also have a horse on minimal grain and beet pulp and alfalfa cubes are the majority of his “grain” feed. At horse shows I leave the water in the bucket and dump his giant ziplock bag with his “grain” and supplements into the bucket about an hour prior to feeding so it has lots of time to soak. In summer, the beet will go sour in a couple of hours when soaked.
There are a couple of VMS that come in pelleted form. Omneity, Cal Trace for example. If you could get all of your supps in pellet form, maybe no need to soak? Or just a quick splash of water from the water bucket?
I soak everything because I am paranoid about choking, but I also only have three horses. I don’t find the soaking part annoying, but having to scrub extra buckets every day is admittedly a hassle.
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