The Talkative Tidbit

I'm going to step into dangerous territory today and talk about beet pulp. The question that I've found most people argue about is whether or not to soak it. Then, there are some that question feeding it to begin with.

To dispel the idea that it should not be fed under any circumstance, ask yourself this: do you feed premade (nothing against premade) grain? If you do, carefully read the ingredients list. More likely than not, beet pulp is on the list. And before you say, but it's really far down, so that means there isn't much at all, you should realize this. Animal food companies for any animal are not held to the same standards as human food factories, and they legally are not required to list their ingredients in order from most used to least used. So, from a business and economics stand point, it makes sense that they would put questionable or highly debated ingredients towards the bottom. It makes them look better, and more people will buy the product.
Now that we have the idea of whether it should even be fed (Maybe some of you still say no, that's fine. Do whatever works for you and you think is best for your horse. That's all that anyone's trying to do here.), should we soak it or not? I say it doesn't matter either way, and here's why:
Arguments for soaking it frequently include 1. it will expand in the stomach if you don't and cause colic 2. it will expand in the stomach if you don't and cause the stomach to rupture 3. it will expand in the intestines and cause them to rupture 4. it will expand in the stomach and cause them to choke 5. it will expand in the throat and cause them to choke. A lot of arguments about expanding, colicing, rupturing, and choking here. These are old wives' tales. Similar to the idea that if you feed a bird rice, it will expand in their stomach and cause them to "explode." That's been proven false because we eat the same ratio and don't explode, and most cat, dog, chicken, bird foods contain a fair amount of dry rice, and we don't see our beloved pets exploding into little bits. Or having a rupture, for that matter.
Let's take care of the idea of it expanding in the throat. It's in the throat for minutes before passing to the stomach. If you have to soak beet pulp for a few hours in a  ton of water to get it to expand that much, then how would it be able to expand in the throat with far less water to beet pulp in far less time? Physically, beet pulp can't expand that fast.
But I heard/have seen/have been told by my vet that when a horse choked, it was because of the beet pulp not being soaked. That may be true. I'm not here to argue with your vet. But the horse had an equally high chance of soaking on soaked beet pulp, as it did on hay or other grains.
Basically, the horses that choke on anything are prone to choking and have/will probably choke on a whole lot more than just dry beet pulp.
 But s/he said it was because it was dry!! Ok, well, let's look at this logically. As I said way above, most premade grains have beet pulp in them, but we don't know how much. Why don't you soak your premade grain? The beet pulp has a lot of expanding to do, and it will be doing it all in the stomach and intestines. Plus, your premade grain is also likely to contain oats. Have you ever soaked oats for awhile? The expand. A lot. Also, your premade grain might contain some sort of roughage, or you might feed hay pellets. Have you ever soaked pelleted or compressed roughage? It expands nearly as much as beet pulp. Finally, have you ever soaked hay? Living here in the desert, I do that on long trailer rides to make sure my horse gets more moisture for hydration. Because hay had to be dried to prevent molding, when you soak it, it expands to about 150% its previous size. All of this expanding food not being soaked before hand... It's expanding inside your horse. So if no other food is hazardous in terms of expanding in any way shape or form, how is beet pulp when it's just doing the exact same thing?
I'm not saying soaking is bad. It does provide your horse with more moisture in its diet. I'm just saying that it doesn't matter. I feed my horses mostly dry (I add just enough water right before feeding to make the supplements stick to the beet pulp and hay pellets) simply because I don't like the idea of soaking something for hours in a hot climate, and I'm at school all day, so it would be sitting in warm water the entire day. Where I live, that's like a loud invitation for bacteria to start cultivating in it. I don't want to risk the bad kinds of bacteria. So, do what you want, but before you say dry beet pulp is bad, think of why and how that makes sense.
Feel free to post opinions and ideas below!