# Soaking Beet Pulp



## Foxtail Ranch

Oh my gosh! Good thing horse girls have the guns to pick up something like that!


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## riccil0ve

Oh the joys of beet pulp. =P
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## gypsygirl

i just soak the beet pulp and add the pelleted feed dry !


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## jillybean19

gypsygirl said:


> i just soak the beet pulp and add the pelleted feed dry !


That's what I've done in the past - I don't think the Triple Crown expanded much if any. I mixed them while it was dry so I wouldn't have to get too messy. Except I stuck my hand in there and mixed it around to make sure it was completely soaked anyway lol.


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## grayshell38

I had my mare on TC senior and beet pulp, soaked. I use warm/hot water in the winter as it soaks it absorbs faster that way. I soak the TC first as it takes quite a bit longer than the beet pulp, and add the beet pulp after the TC is all done. Four pounds of TC and a pound of BP turns into almost enough to fill a five gallon bucket! 

Nothing better than happy mush covered horse faces. LOL.


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## Pattilou

I use beet pulp daily with my horses supplements. 

Darn ! 5 coffee cans if enough for 5 horses ! That is one big heaping pile of mash ! ! Too funny, what did you do with it all ?


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## Speed Racer

I give beet pulp to my oldster, along with Blue Seal Trotter. He gets one quart of beet pulp and one quart of Trotter twice a day, as well as hay.

I use hot water to soak it, and it doesn't take more than 5 minutes tops for all the water to absorb.


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## Mochachino

Holy batman!! I only give each of mine two cups twice a day.


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## jillybean19

grayshell38 said:


> I had my mare on TC senior and beet pulp, soaked. I use warm/hot water in the winter as it soaks it absorbs faster that way. I soak the TC first as it takes quite a bit longer than the beet pulp, and add the beet pulp after the TC is all done. Four pounds of TC and a pound of BP turns into almost enough to fill a five gallon bucket!
> 
> Nothing better than happy mush covered horse faces. LOL.


Yeah, I'm doing it at home in the tub so the water is warm - plus it's still warm when I feed it to them! I'm using Triple Crown Complete, which already feels "moist" in the bag. I wonder if it did add to the expansion?


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## jillybean19

Pattilou said:


> I use beet pulp daily with my horses supplements.
> 
> Darn ! 5 coffee cans if enough for 5 horses ! That is one big heaping pile of mash ! ! Too funny, what did you do with it all ?


Yeah, I definitely overdid it *just a little* Tomorrow it'll just be 2 or 3 cans of beet pulp for the two of them. They love to eat it, though, and went through it pretty quickly. I gave them some, let them do their damage, then refilled their buckets and tied an extra one up. I'm sure it's all been gone for a while now!


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## jillybean19

Speed Racer said:


> I give beet pulp to my oldster, along with Blue Seal Trotter. He gets one quart of beet pulp and one quart of Trotter twice a day, as well as hay.
> 
> I use hot water to soak it, and it doesn't take more than 5 minutes tops for all the water to absorb.


What kind of beet pulp are you using? These are pellets and took a total of 4 or 5 hours to soak completely through so there's nothing hard. At rides, most of the people I know soak their beet pulp overnight. It was interesting to find out exactly how long 5 coffee cans of beet pulp take to soak through!


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## jillybean19

Mochachino said:


> Holy batman!! I only give each of mine two cups twice a day.


My Arabian has always gotten a pretty decent amount - he LOVES it (and so does my QH), and he needed to put on weight. He looks pretty good now, though my friend/boarder thinks he needs another 100 lbs. I could do with a little more weight, but maybe not that much.

My QH doesn't need any weight, but he just lost both front teeth so he probably appreciates soft food at the moment, too. Plus, he's still growing, so he could use the nutrition!

However, I think I'll just do 2-3 coffee cans of the beet pulp tomorrow plus 2 cans of Triple Crown Complete.


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## Clayton Taffy

Oh my gosh, it is like the fish and the loaves!!


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## usandpets

jillybean19 said:


> What kind of beet pulp are you using? These are pellets and took a total of 4 or 5 hours to soak completely through so there's nothing hard. At rides, most of the people I know soak their beet pulp overnight. It was interesting to find out exactly how long 5 coffee cans of beet pulp take to soak through!


We use rolled beet pulp. I don't know if it was shreds or pellets before it was rolled. If you use hot water, it won't take very long. We will let it soak for an hour or more but it's usually ready within a half hour. 

How big are your coffee cans? We use a feed scoop which I think is 2 quarts. I put 2 of those scoops in a 5 gallon water bucket and fill it to the ridge with water. Usually, I get 8 scoops out of each bucket. All we give our horses is 2 scoops of soaked pulp.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## nvr2many

Bah ha ha ha. I got a kick out of your post. Made me lol.


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## usandpets

I meant 2 scoops soaked for each horse.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Speed Racer

jillybean19 said:


> What kind of beet pulp are you using?


I use the shreds. No way am I going to soak beet pulp for hours.


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## Pattilou

Taffy Clayton said:


> Oh my gosh, it is like the fish and the loaves!!


Appropriate for the season ! 
or 
you can liken it to pasta, a little in the pot, yields a lot out of the pot !

Technically, at least shredded beet pulp does not even need to be soaked, but I can not imagine that would be palatable. The amount of time soaked does not matter, as long as, it does not sit long enough to become rancid. Nor does it matter hot or cold water it will absorb it either way.


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## whistler49

We feed our two Standies 1 cup of dry beet pulp and 1 cup of dry alfalfa pellets---we soak this in boiling water about an hour before we bring them in for the night. We put the mix in their feed bin then add 1 1/2 cup ration balancer, 1 cup flax and apples and carrots. In addition to this they get about 15 lbs of timothy/alfalfa hay in a slow feeder nibble net. They are in excellent health-beautiful shiney coats, excellent feet, our farrier is amazed at their condition and has asked what our feed regimine is.

When the weather gets really cold we will bump up the beet pulp to 2 cups dry measure or if we notice that they may be dropping weight due to the cold.


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## Sunny

A little over 1 1/4 scoops (3 quart) dry beet is what it takes to feed our whole barn! :lol:


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## jillybean19

Pattilou said:


> Appropriate for the season !
> or
> you can liken it to pasta, a little in the pot, yields a lot out of the pot !
> 
> Technically, at least shredded beet pulp does not even need to be soaked, but I can not imagine that would be palatable. The amount of time soaked does not matter, as long as, it does not sit long enough to become rancid. Nor does it matter hot or cold water it will absorb it either way.


One of the main reasons I feed beet pulp is because it absorbs so much water and then they get the hydration from the beet pulp. So yes, I would need to soak it either way, and the more it soaks up, the more wear they're going to get in their system. Accordingly, it also matters that you soak it long enough to completely saturate the beet pulp. It will continue to absorb water until then, meaning if you soak it all the way before feeding, then you will be getting the most water possible into your horse's system. However, if you don't soak it all the way, it will actually absorb water from your horse, making him more dehydrated. I know some people who do this at endurance rides so that their horses will drink more because they're dehydrated and thirsty, but most vets and riders caution against that. I guess if it works and your horse stays hydrated and healthy, then do it.

It will absorb both warm or cold water, but warm water works a lot faster. Plus, it makes me feel good to give them warm food when it's cold like this and it's less likely to freeze before they finish it.


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## jillybean19

Update: Around 10 this morning, I put 2 1/2 scoops of beet pulp in my bucket, plus 2 scoops of Triple Crown Complete, then set it in my tub and filled the bucket full of water. I was thinking that this would be more than enough water, since that's how much I put in yesterday. WRONG. When I got home at 4, it'd soaked all that water up and expanded to be almost as much as yesterday's! Luckily, I still had all three buckets hanging up, so there was enough space for me to put the mixture out for them. I guess I'll cut the recipe to 1 1/2 scoops tomorrow. My "coffee can" is actually an old mineral thing I used to include in my nutrients called "Bone Builder". It says 2 1/2 lbs on the container, referring to the bone builder minerals, but I'm sure the beet pulp weighs less. I wish it gave a volume on the container! Any help here? Here's a pic of it:


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## Pattilou

jillybean19 said:


> One of the main reasons I feed beet pulp is because it absorbs so much water and then they get the hydration from the beet pulp.


The main reason I feed beet pulp is for the low carb calories, my horse loves it and it give me something to put his supplements in. I do not feed it for hydration, that is what his water bucket is for. 

There are old horse tales that dry beet pulp will absorb in their stomach and make them explode :shock: false, but like any fiber it does draw water from the intestines and probably is not the greatest for good bowel function when its dry. If I lived in a cold climate I would use hot water , just for the comfort of the whole thing. But I live in a mild climate so its not an issue. 

But no matter how its mixed or soak, beet pulp is a good thing


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## jillybean19

Pattilou said:


> The main reason I feed beet pulp is for the low carb calories, my horse loves it and it give me something to put his supplements in. I do not feed it for hydration, that is what his water bucket is for.


Yes, beet pulp is excellent for many reasons. 

As for hydration - He needs it in the *summer* because we do endurance. It's pretty much standard fare that everyone does beet pulp to help their horses stay hydrated on the long, taxing rides. The typical water consumption doesn't cut it, especially because horses sometimes don't drink because they don't realize they should be thirsty *yet*. They sweat differently than we do, so it doesn't trigger the same thirst in them that it does us. I do beet pulp daily to keep him used to it and hydrated for conditioning, and always keep it available at rides as well as a few buckets of water at all times.

In the *winter*, the water is cold and often leads to horses not drinking as much, which is why horses are more prone to colic this year. They don't get enough liquid and start to compact, then colic when they're so compacted they block up. Not to mention when the water freezes over - I board, so I can't have them under my watchful eye as much as I'd like to. We do our best to make sure the water is available to them at all times, but it's comforting to know they've gotten quite a bit of water from another source that I know they're eating.


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## Delfina

Speed Racer said:


> I use the shreds. No way am I going to soak beet pulp for hours.


Beet pulp pellets are half the price of shreds here, so we use the pellets. We use an extra heated bucket, throw the pellets/water in after AM feeding and they are ready for the PM feeding. 

*If* you have a horse that is prone to choking, the pellets soak to a much finer consistency (as they are completely ground and then pressed into pellets). 

I keep a bag of shreds on-hand for if a horse needs meds in the AM or someone is a tad thin and getting extra meals since I won't stand around waiting hours for those dang pellets to soak either! It's worth the heated bucket method though with 8 horses getting 2-3soaked qts each nightly.


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## SueNH

Figure the beet pulp will expand to about 4x the dry size. Roughly the same as minute rice swells.

I don't know about volume but you could fill the scoop, dump it in a baggie and throw it on a scale at the grocery store for a good weight.


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## jillybean19

I think I've definitely got more than 4x in expansion. That was about the amount I was hoping for. Today, though, I took pictures before and after...

This was the before, including 2 scoops of beet pulp and 1 scoop of Triple Crown. It was about 2 inches deep again.









4 hours later:









It was a little too watery today and I ended up pouring some water off. We're getting closer to the right amount of each! However, I think these beet pulp pellets are expanding well over 4x! I'll have to measure how many scoops I get out of it compared to what I put in when I do it tomorrow.


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## Pattilou

I think you got yourself some Genetically Modified beet pulp with super expanding powers  . Wish hay expanded like that , and my wallet too


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## jillybean19

Pattilou said:


> I think you got yourself some Genetically Modified beet pulp with super expanding powers  . Wish hay expanded like that , and my wallet too


Haha this is true, though I'm feeding enough of it (not on purpose), that they're not eating as much hay at the moment!


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## Saddlebag

I can't help but wonder about how much supplemental feed people do instead of feeding correctly. The horses I have owned have never had issues of gaining weight except for my 28 yr old but for years he was an easy keeper as all of them seem to be. My hay is timothy, a good grass hay and they get oats with about 1/4 of that senior pellets. Combined they get less than a pound twice daily and are fat. We have colder weather yet to come. They are outside, their choice, 24/7. During the cold months I feed large rounds. For two horses thee will be set out but spaced hundreds of yards apart. The horses move from one to another rather than focusing on one until it's gone. The movement aids digestion. And sometimes they will race to another.


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## jillybean19

Saddlebag said:


> I can't help but wonder about how much supplemental feed people do instead of feeding correctly. The horses I have owned have never had issues of gaining weight except for my 28 yr old but for years he was an easy keeper as all of them seem to be. My hay is timothy, a good grass hay and they get oats with about 1/4 of that senior pellets. Combined they get less than a pound twice daily and are fat. We have colder weather yet to come. They are outside, their choice, 24/7. During the cold months I feed large rounds. For two horses thee will be set out but spaced hundreds of yards apart. The horses move from one to another rather than focusing on one until it's gone. The movement aids digestion. And sometimes they will race to another.


My boarder has always feed straight alfalfa, but has super heavy bales somewhere in the 120# range. When she's gone, I feed for her, and her hay lasts FOREVER! Each of the horses either gets a _sliver_ or two twice a day, and they're all in great shape. Granted, that sliver (no more than 2 inches wide) is very heavy. I don't believe she grains or supplements, either.

On the other hand, one of my horses is a baby who needs as much as he can get while he's growing and the other is my endurance horse that I've been struggling to put weight on after my old boarder hadn't been feeding enough during the prime conditioning an racing season this summer. >still ****ed< He's put on a 100# or so, but he could use a little more. I made them a slow feeder out of a tire and a net, so they can have food in front of them at all times, but can't gorge themselves. At the same time, I'm still throwing a flake or two in the regular tire feeder and don't feel bad about my temporary excess of beet pulp and grain because my baby has no front teeth!

Mine are also outside 24/7 with blankets since there's no shelter, but I'm loving my slow feeder now. They get to spread their eating throughout the day, which is better for any animals (like how they say 5-6 small meals for people is ideal!). I imagine they're getting plenty of movement between each "meal" since my baby loves to play and my other humors him.

It'll be interesting to see how much they're eating once it all evens out. They've had quite a few feed changes in the last year due to boarding situations and are now on her straight alfalfa, but my hay is getting delivered today and I'm going to start mixing grass and eventually have them on straight grass plus the beet pulp and supplements.

What kind of grain and senior feed do you use?


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## gypsygirl

i havent read all these pages, but i have had great results with beet pulp.

last winter gypsy was eating 3lbs of strategy and 2lbs of a weight gain supplement whose name i cant currently recall. she lives outside and eats crappy hay all day. i try to feed her a flake when she comes in but it doesnt always happen. this year she is eating 1lb of strategy and 2 handfuls of beet pulp and shes chunky. it seems to be working for her, and its a few bucks cheaper than the strategy.


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## Delfina

Saddlebag said:


> I can't help but wonder about how much supplemental feed people do instead of feeding correctly. The horses I have owned have never had issues of gaining weight except for my 28 yr old but for years he was an easy keeper as all of them seem to be. My hay is timothy, a good grass hay and they get oats with about 1/4 of that senior pellets. Combined they get less than a pound twice daily and are fat. We have colder weather yet to come. They are outside, their choice, 24/7. During the cold months I feed large rounds. For two horses thee will be set out but spaced hundreds of yards apart. The horses move from one to another rather than focusing on one until it's gone. The movement aids digestion. And sometimes they will race to another.


Instead of feeding correctly? Just because you lucked out in the easy keeper dept. doesn't mean the rest of us did. 

I have a 6yr old Morgan, he could plow his way through a hay field and lose weight. 8 horses in the barn all eating the same hay, 7 are fat and mine.... ribby as all get out. BO upped his hay, decided that even though he's definitely the top of the totem pole that maybe he was too busy chasing off everyone to eat and separated him, he lost even MORE weight. Upped his hay more, started him on grain and called the Vet who ran every test known to man, deemed him healthy and suggested grain/beet pulp/alfalfa.

I currently feed him unlimited grass hay (not rounds, rounds here are all crap CRP hay, 3x4x8 bales of 2nd cutting that is tested) 1-2 flakes of Alfalfa if it's really cold, 3 qts of soaked beet pulp, 1 1/2qts of Strategy, a vitamin/mineral/probiotic supplement, he has his favorite turnout buddies (couple ponies that he either is loving up or chasing around) and he finally is maintaining a decent weight! 

It's not supplemental feeding vs feeding correctly. Sometimes that supplemental feeding IS part of feeding correctly.


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## jillybean19

I think that beet pulp will always be a part of my feeding program. I love it, and my horses love it. Plus, since I'm using pellets, it's cheap - and I'd say I'm definitely getting my money's worth lol. I can also add whatever other nutrients to the mash and I know my horse is going to get it and enjoy it!

Not to mention the benefits I've seen on endurance rides. Our lowest scores at the end of the ride are always for dehydration. It's not that he's terrible, but he's not great either. He's still learning to drink and, though he usually takes a little, he sometimes doesn't drink like I want him to. However, I've NEVER had a refusal for super soaked beet pulp! He'll dig around in that bucket until he's licked it clean - something I truly came to appreciate when I made the mistake of tying the bucket to the trailer overnight at a ride and having him banging it against the trailer (I've never made that mistake since!). Anyway, that's why beet pulp is a staple in his diet. He can be picky, but his beet pulp is something he truly loves.


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## Pattilou

One can not help the hay that is available in the area. In my opinion California hay is of really poor quality. You can't judge someone's feeding program unless you consider the quality of hay. 

I don't use beet pulp for weight ( I use to when my horse was growing) I use it because he loves it ! He gets a multivitamin/omega 3/ and high dose Vitamin E (He is recovering from EPM) .


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## jillybean19

Experiment completed!

Today, I put a measly 1 1/2 scoops of beet pulp in the bucket by itself. I added hot water, and let it sit. An hour later, there was no standing water, but there were still hard bits, so I added enough water to make it sloshy and waited. By the time I was ready to take it out to my horses, it was completely soft and a little sloshy. I drained off all the excess water without losing hardly any beet pulp, and then counted the scoops (same container) that I put back. Since I'm using an actual container, it's easy to make sure I'm getting a pretty accurate comparison, and there was no extra water in the bucket when i got to the bottom.

So how many scoops of soaked beet pulp does 1 1/2 scoops dry beet pulp create?

12 1/2!!

That's just over 8x expansion!!

It ended up being just about the right amount to feed in the buckets I want to use without overflowing and I can add a half scoop of the TC Complete to it. Of course, it wouldn't all fit if I did it all at once, but I have two eager mouths eating at the same time that I'm putting it in, so by the time I'm giving them the last bit there's just enough room 

Hmmm.... Next time I should weigh it to find out exactly how much water they're getting. This is a very interesting science!


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## BBBCrone

Okay so do you guys soak your other pelleted feed too? Like say Strategy/Safe Choice? Or are the beet pulp pellets different in hardness from them so that's why they are soaked? I've never seen it except the pictures you all showed. Since I've never fed any of this type of feed, I'm trying to expand my knowledge on it.


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## gypsygirl

i only soak the strategy because im too lazy to get the BP,soak it, get then get the strategy separately. i just put them together and soak the whole thing.


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## jillybean19

BBBCrone said:


> Okay so do you guys soak your other pelleted feed too? Like say Strategy/Safe Choice? Or are the beet pulp pellets different in hardness from them so that's why they are soaked? I've never seen it except the pictures you all showed. Since I've never fed any of this type of feed, I'm trying to expand my knowledge on it.


If I didn't feed beet pulp, I probably wouldn't soak it because it's already moist and/or the pieces are smaller, so they're not all that dangerous. However, now that I know what I do about choke, I'll have to think about it.

Since I do feed the beet pulp, I just throw the other feeds in with it and it gets soaked too. It makes things easy. Or, if I don't soak it with it, I throw it in and mix it up afterward just so it's all mixed (some things tend to float), so it gets a little wet anyway.

The vet I spoke to said any dry food can be dangerous, but the pellets are bigger so they're the most prone to cause choking.


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## jillybean19

Today, I am going to find out exactly how much beet pulp and water I'm giving my horses....

I already know that my beet pulp expands in volume 8x when allowed to fully soak. I just weighed my "coffee can" of dry beet pulp - almost exactly 2 1/2 pounds (2 lbs, 8.4 oz). So we're just going to say it's 2.5 lbs. I've gotten a pretty good guess for how much water I need to add to let it soak all the way, and it takes about 3-4 hours to fully soak. So, in 3-4 hours, I'm going to drain any extra water off, fill my scoop, and weigh it. Then, with a little math, I should be able to determine how much water and how much beet pulp I'm actually feeding each day.

(I'm not adding my Triple Crown until I actually feed it)


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## jillybean19

So, just to get some of the math out of the way - I feed a scoop and a half of beet pulp each day, so that comes out to 3.75 lbs of beet pulp total.

I get 12 scoops of soaked beet pulp out of it (I'll count today just to make sure), so I'll multiply the weight of my one scoop of beet pulp by 12, subtract 3.75 from that, and I should have my total water weight.

And of course, divide by two assuming each horse eats about half


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## jillybean19

I just used a measuring cup to find out how much my "coffe can" holds, and the result is 6.5 cups. Since I'm feeding 1 1/2 scoops per day, that comes out to just under 2.5 quarts of beet pulp for two horses (or 1.25 quarts each). In weight, as I mentioned in my previous post, each horse is getting about How does this compare to what other people are feeding.

So... I feed my horses:
1.25 quarts/1.9 lbs of dry beet pulp each. For me, it's perfect, because they eat it all, I can afford it, and, most importantly, it fills their buckets perfectly. How does this compare to the amount everyone else feeds?


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## Delfina

I soak senior feed and beet pulp for a nearly-toothless pony. Since she has less than 10 teeth (and no the Vet won't give us a discount when floating her teeth... we jokingly asked) she's extremely prone to choking. 

All the horses where I board get soaked beet pulp but only the choke-prone pony has her grain soaked. If anyone else was prone to choking, I would soak their grain too. It's not hard to soak grain and much better than a choking horse + Vet bill!


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## jillybean19

Ok so beet pulp is now soaked, and one coffee can weighs 2.4 lbs. Assuming I have 12 cans like last time, that means I have 28.8 lbs of soaked beet pulp. Now, taking into consideration the original dry beet pulp weight, that means there's 3.5 lbs of beet pulp and 25.05 lbs of water! That's 3 gallons! Assuming that my horses are each eating about half, that means each is getting 1.5 gallons of water just from eating their beet pulp.
This site (How Much Drinking Water Does Your Horse Need? — Equine — Penn State Extension) says horses drink between 5-10 gallons of water per day, so I'd say I'm putting a pretty good dent in that from beet pulp alone!


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