The Well Balanced Equine

07/28/2024

06/21/2024

A recent study, conducted in Japan, compared various methods for cooling horses after exercise in hot and humid conditions. Thoroughbreds were exercised until their pulmonary artery temperature reached 108°F. The time until the pulmonary artery temperature returned to

06/14/2024

*** LENGTH OF SCHOOLING SESSIONS ***

Following my post from this morning, about Johnnie only working for 15 minutes, as he worked so well, I thought I’d give my opinion on how long horses should be worked for. This is my opinion. It is based on both my experience and understanding as a rider and horsewoman, and my knowledge as an equine vet with 12 years’ experience.

My horses are never, ever, schooled for longer than 30 minutes. This is more than enough time to achieve something, and if you haven’t achieved your goal after 30 minutes, it’s unlikely that you will by plugging on for longer. This 30 minutes includes my warm up, and a couple of short walk breaks.

I haven’t really had lessons for many years, but when I trained with Jennie Loriston-Clarke, and then more recently with Olly Barrs, their lesson times are 40 minutes. This includes warming up and warming down. Frequently, they wouldn’t go on past 30 minutes. Horses learn by repetition, not by grilling them for an hour at a time.

Horses also break easily. They damage ligaments and tendons. Yes, this is often unlucky and frequently caused by a sudden twist in the field. But it’s also frequently caused by too much schooling, especially if the surface is deep, or uneven. Proximal suspensory ligaments are not designed to take the weight of a horse in collected work for hours. Once a PSL is damaged, you are often looking at a lengthy rehab, or surgery to cut the nerve that supplies it (neurectomy). That is not to say that every horse with PSD has been overworked, before I offend anyone!

Horses break more easily when they are tired. A tired horse is more likely to trip, possibly resulting in ligament or tendon damage. Muscle needs some degree of fatigue to condition it, but not to the point of exhaustion.

A horse’s brain also breaks easily. Fatigue can also be mental. Granted, some horses’ brains don’t take much to break, but if a horse becomes stressed or can’t work out what you are asking him that day, then take a 24 hour break, and go for a hack, or just lunge the next day. Or give him a day off.

Most horses will be fit enough for their job, without being ridden 6 days a week. The main issue with lower level competition horses, is that many are fat. Exercise is a great way to get horses to lose weight, true, but not without reducing the amount of grass or hard feed they are receiving. Schooling a fat horse for an hour, will cause joint, tendon, and ligament problems in the long term. Find hills to slowly jog them up, or even walk them up, if you are wanting to exercise more to help with fitness and/or weight loss. Don’t school them more. Trotting endlessly around a flat arena isn’t really going to help with fitness.

If you are going to school, then add plenty of variety. Make sure the horse is working from behind, and not dragging himself along on his forehand. If you don’t enjoy schooling, you will be more inclined to switch off and trot endless 20m circles. So go for a hack first, and then just do ten minutes of intense schooling when you get home. That will keep both human and horse brains fresh!

This is an enormous topic, and it would take me days to cover it all, so this is really a brief summary. Keep schooling sessions short and productive, and if the session is going wrong, take a break!

Photo is of my wonderful Harold, on his lap of honour for winning the Advanced Medium Regionals, to qualify for the National Dressage Championships, a good few years ago now!

Feel free to share.

06/04/2024

Whats the purpose of a flash? To keep a horses mouth shut. Why is the horse opening its mouth? Most commonly, evasion of pressure.

Address the cause of the behaviour, not the behaviour itself because it really is counter productive and just causes even more discomfort that there is no escape from.

Why should you say no to a flash and a tight noseband? 👇 do you see that soft bone with no support? That's why. Now imagine a dropped noseband on that. 🫣

Pic screenshot from Henlea Equine Wellness

05/31/2024

It is literally ALL CONNECTED.

05/21/2024

Meet Peggy.

Peggy is the skeletal remains of a polo pony mare that was euthanized due to dangerous behavior. It was said that she, and I quote, "was trying to kill people".

The first image is of Peggy's thoracic spine. The spinous processes of her vertebrae directly under where the saddle would be not only have no space between them, but have rubbed so hard against each other that they wore holes in the adjacent bones. Attachment points for tendons and ligaments further down on the vertebrae are spiky and sharp and feature errant bony deposits where her body was trying to support soft tissue structures that were under tremendous abnormal strain.

The second picture is of the ventral aspect of Peggy's lumbar spine. This is the view you would have if you laid down on the ground on your back underneath skeleton Peggy and looked up towards the sky. Not only does she have areas where the vertebrae are trying to fuse to stabilize her back, she has an enormous 1.5" bony growth jutting out, right into a channel where long muscles of the back run and attach.

The reason I got to meet Peggy is because she was given to a friend of mine, and the reason she was given to them is because the horrific pathologies her skeleton exhibits are run of the mill at the institute her body was donated to. She is not unusual, she is the norm.

This mare did not become this way overnight - this took years and years of poor riding to manifest to this degree, undoubtedly with signs along the way. The longer I work with horses, the more I recognize that they are extraordinarily willing to tolerate immense discomfort to do what is asked of them until they simply can't anymore. They always find a way to tell us - it then becomes of matter of whether we know how (or care) to listen.

The horse that starts out stiff every ride is not "cold-backed". Something is going on.

The horse that throws a buck after every jump is not just "quirky". Something is going on.

The horse that pins its ears while being groomed, the horse that consistently can't hold the left lead canter, the horse that swishes its tail when you put your leg on...

Something is going on. If we can't put empathy before ego, we have to ask ourselves: who are we in this for, us or the horse?

Many thanks to Saxon Alexandra of Actuality Equine LLC for sharing Peggy with me.

05/13/2024

Knowing how to check this important vital sign allows you to closely monitor your horse's health. It's easiest to take a horse's pulse on his facial artery, which runs underneath his jaw. You'll find this cordlike structure about an inch behind the junction of the rounded cheek and the straight jawb...

04/27/2024

The radiographic diagnosis of kissing spines has become so prevalent that some veterinarians are making the assumption that it only matters if the horse is clinical. I’m assuming ’clinical’ means painful in the area that’s abnormal on the radiograph.
How does the body respond when things are rubbing against each other and it hurts ? It tries to stop the rubbing by contracting around the area and adding in more tension to the soft tissue structures. These will then start to pull on other areas as they work to stabilize the area that hurts.
This creates compensation.
When a horse tries to stabilize the withers they will contract lots of muscles. I just named a few on the picture - but these muscles will pull on other muscles. Soon the fascia around the lower part of the neck gets involved and the lower cervical vertebrae start to move a little ( red bones at base of neck). That movement causes the muscles in that area to contract as they must stabilize these vertebrae. Pretty soon those 1st couple of ribs also feel a tug - the second rib is red, you cannot see first. What’s in that area ? Well a giant nerve plexus. As the horse starts to press his leg into the side of his body to stabilize and he presses on this plexus and it gets inflamed and the horse starts acting girthy and short striding. At this point the withers feel fine but the horse has compensated creating other areas of pain.
This is the problem with making assumptions about how a horse feels about something. They prioritize, they compensate, they internalize and shut down, they act out.
Kissing spines are the result of too much tension in the system. Treat the whole horse when treating kissing spine.

04/12/2024

02/19/2024

“Who judges the judges?”

This question, from Carmel O’Callaghan, was one of the responses to a discussion of the power that judges have over the directions of entire breeds, and how the decisions that they make can help or harm the breed’s direction.

And it’s a good question, because in some breeds, some horse shows, there’s some pretty crazy stuff going on, bizarre conformational traits sneaking in, emphasis on ways of moving that may not have much relationship to long term soundness, unbalanced riders winning equitation classes, so many issues that a true, old fashioned horseman/horsewoman would avoid like the bubonic plague, yet here they come.

Who makes the decisions about which people are competent to judge? And what if those decision makers are themselves less than competent? Because bad stuff starts somewhere, and if left unchallenged, before long weird things are the new normal and correct practices are thrown out as “old fashioned.”

I have learned not to trust “those in power” to make good decisions, because so often those that ARE in power got into power because they LIKE power, whether or not they have much of a clue how to use it wisely.

SO---Who judges the judges?

01/25/2024

Probably the most simple thing I think about during each session with every horse is the "locked long/locked short" analogy that I learned years ago from Jim Masterson.

This directly refers to agonistic and antagonistic pairs - in order for one muscle to shorten, the muscle on the opposing movement vector must lengthen.

When we have muscular disbalance, the horse's posture will alter from neutral. To view this through a very simple filter, some muscle groups find themselves more readily in a concentric (shortened) state - AKA locked short - whereas their opposing muscle groups find themselves in an eccentric (lengthened) state - AKA locked long.

When we widen this lens, and look at myofascial chains, when one part of the chain becomes pinched (locked short) the opposing part of the chain becomes stretched (locked long).

As a very visual person, this is what I am visualising when I assess a horse. I look at their posture, I look at the deviations from neutral and I visualise the myofascial response:

Which tissues are "locked long"?
Which tissues are "locked short"?

This, combined with palpation and dynamic assessment, gives me an indication of where I need to work and what I need to target with movement therapy.

-

This is before & after of a 1 hour session with this lovely mare -

I've detailed the muscle groups which feel shortened relative to the muscle groups that feel lengthened as a fun way to train your eye.

Notice how in the after photo her forelimbs are more perpendicular with the ground and her withers have lifted.

Notice how there isnt such a steep rise up to her croup from the base of her withers.

Her body is now headed towards neutral and can now support this posture with training.

-

I'm on a mission to empower humans to make informed choices for their horses, and so I have the following offerings -

The Fundamentals of Horse Posture:

https://www.yasminstuartequinephysio.com/fundamentals-of-horse-posture

The Fundamentals of Exercise Programming:

https://www.yasminstuartequinephysio.com/fundamentals-of-exercise-programming

❤️

01/25/2024

What is the diagnosis?

This is a common question we are asked. It is a fair and expected question. The trouble is – I don’t always have an answer for you. Why? Body Lameness is complicated and is rarely clear. In order to fix the body we have to know and understand its complexity. We also must appreciate the concept of biotensegrity.

Small areas of dysfunction can cause lameness and dysfunction in completely different regions of the body. I struggle with periodic left foot pain. I randomly (i.e. no specific event, sound familiar?) get a sharp pressure and pain in my left heal or arch of my foot. It feels like plantar fasciitis. I bought the insoles, I changed shoes- I got mild improvement. I was a 2/5 AAEP lameness. It wasn’t until I saw a human physio that I had relief of my foot pain. She quickly looked at me and explained my foot problem was due to a lower lumbar mild subluxation (my back did not hurt!) which lead to a pull on my fascia and change on my medial tibia which lead to the foot pain. Within one session my foot pain was resolved. I likely would have blocked to my foot. I would have definitely had a response to hoof testers. If I were a horse I would have been offered farrier changes and coffin joint injections, likely with mild improvement. My foot was a secondary issue but a primary concern. My back was the primary source of pain and yet a non-clinical issue. Until you discover the root cause, you will never truly resolve the pain.

Horses are the same. I treat horses based on my clinical exam and diagnostic imaging (to the best of my abilities). However, the important part is treating them based on their biomechanical failure points. It’s important to recognize that the body works as a whole and not individual pieces. If there is one region of pain or dysfunction, you must treat the entire area- not one spot. You also must consider how a horse’s biomechanics and biotensegrity play into their movement, posture and overall athleticism. If they cannot sit and use their lumbar-sacral junction correctly they cannot relieve tension in their thoracic sling. If their shoulder girdle is dysfunctional, you need to treat the entire region- the neck does not work independently from the first few ribs or shoulder. It all works together and in balance of each other. Additionally we must consider things like nutritional deficiency/toxicity, diet plans, exercise routines, saddle fit, gastrointestinal issues and muscle diseases. Often horses have some combination of all of these things. To get the best results or treat the difficult cases, we have to look at all areas.

On top of these concepts, we cannot image everything. The assumption that there is only an issue if you can image it, is ignorance. Necropsies have proven this to me repeatedly. We find so many things- nerve impingements, muscle changes, fascia changes, scar restrictions, disc problems, boney changes - all can be clinically significant and not found in the live horse. This doesn’t mean they aren’t part of the problem. The body can frequently compensate with little things over time, and then with age and addition of injuries sudden decompensation occurs- leading to acute pain on a chronic issue.

So when clients ask me, what was the diagnosis? I frequently say things like shoulder girdle dysfunction, lumbar sacral dysfunction, neuritis, rib cage dysfunction. I may sometimes be able to pinpoint specifics like T16 articular facet arthritis or lumbar intertransverse joint stepping. However, I know these individual things are part of a much larger picture of dysfunction. I treat the dysfunctional segments as a whole and that’s how we can get big results, where owners have been struggling. That’s how we can take a behavioral horse, who passed lameness exams but wasn’t right and turn them quickly into a happy relaxed working horse. Results matter to me more than individual diagnoses.

Image below is the brachial plexus- cannot be imaged well, cannot be blocked out, yet can be a huge source of pain and lameness in a horse. It’s frequently affected by other areas causing incorrect pressure, pull or tension on this region. It can be treated. Until you solve why it’s under incorrect forces, you will never resolve its pain.

12/23/2023

In the horse world, it’s become a bit of a tradition to cut the tail hair of our best horses when we lose them.

We didn’t have Leo for long, just days. Truth be told, the plan was never to keep Leo. Our intention when we bought him at auction was simply to end the cycle of suffering for this big sweet horse. We knew that the end he would have faced without us was not a humane one. The gavel fell that day and he was ours, spared from the semi that was there loading others.

You see, we don’t know about Leo’s past, but his worn body told a story. Leo had two crude brands, clipped fresh for the auction in an attempt to squeeze every bit of money out of him. He had saddle sore scars across his back. He had deep lacerations across his body. His knee was large and painful, presumably from a very old injury. He could not stand without extreme pain. This horse paid his dues to his humans somewhere along the line, yet there he was at auction, failed.

So, we did what his owners before us should have done, the only humane thing for Leo. We brought him home and gave him a kind, dignified end here at the farm.

He deserved so much more, a fraction of the effort he gave the humans who failed him. While that saddens and angers us, we do feel better knowing that the buck stopped with us. That had to be good enough.

We stopped him from being bought and sold at another auction. We saved him from being loaded onto a semi.

If you take nothing else from Leo’s story, hear this:
If you have a horse, when the time comes, BUCK UP AND BURY THEM.
Have the courage and the respect for your horse to put them down in the comfort of their home with people they know.
It’s the only right and humane thing to do with our old horses at the end of their lives.
Full stop.

When your horses are old and infirm, unless you bury them, you are failing them.

Do not dump them on a rescue.
Do not take them to an auction.
Do not try to give them away for free online.
Do not send them with that guy that shows up with a cattle trailer and $100.

Give your horse the end they have earned. Bury them.

Leo is gone now, no longer in pain. While it is hard on our team, we are very grateful that we were able to do that for him, if nothing else. We see so many horses who need the same kindness and don’t get it.

Leo was a good horse for somebody, and we didn’t want him to be forgotten. Before he was buried we cut a piece of tail hair to keep, because everyone knows that all the good horses show up in horse heaven with chopped tails.

Leo was a good boy.
❤️

Bella Run Equine is a non-profit organization located in Athens Ohio.

12/04/2023

It didn’t compute for me, 70 years ago, just how little force was necessary to get a calm and well trained horse to go along with the signals/aids of a rider.

I weighed maybe 95 pounds, wore sneakers, had a halter and a leadrope for steering and stopping, and I could ride Paint for miles and had zero need of whips, spurs, severe bits to get along with him.

But then came years of Kool-Aid, all those sayings that were so normal back then, “Show that horse who’s boss” being the essence of that training concept. And for too many decades I bought into all of that, until I gradually began to question and to think, “There has to be a better way than force to get along with horses.”

I had already known that when I was 11, but then I forgot, for years and years, something I had already experienced.

Now fast forward 7 decades to 2023 when the equestrian press is teeming with all sorts of responses to a European trainer getting captured on camera using forceful means, like that is some deep dark secret. Be real. Lots of force is employed every day, and I get it because I did it, too.

You either learn better ways or you resist learning them, because in 2023 there are enough quiet trainers, the ones like Carl Hester, Buck Brannaman, whose methods are widely available on Google to any who want to use quieter methods.

But today, December third, 2023, plenty of horses will still be ridden with big sharp spurs, harsh bits, draw reins, all that apparatus of force, and some of that will be done by the very people who are vilifying the guy who got caught on camera.

Being gentle with horses is a choice. You decide to or you don’t, pretty simple. It took me way too many decades to relearn something I sort of already knew.

10/03/2023

The dangers of paddock grass to our equine friends is not a new subject we are constantly talking about it all over the world due to it’s often catastrophic impact on our domesticated horses .

We talk about the spring and early summer burst of fresh lush grass .
We talk about the autumn flush of lush grass .
We even talk about winter frosts and sunny days with its impact on the grass .

So now it’s a year round problem for so many horses including most of mine .

How can we safely allow our horses to graze in the paddock without the worry of laminitis.

NOT EASY THAT FOR SURE. 😣and trust me I dont always get it right either.

We know that Grass that is shorter than six inches is very problematic and the shorter it is the more dangerous it becomes.

That said even if still fresh and green looking even at six inches and above can be a disaster for many .

Very Short eaten down to stubs grass is FULL of sugars as this is often called stressed grass which they love as it’s so sweet but this is extremely dangerous.

Sunlight , dew and dampness especially at spring and autumn causes this to absorb and replenish its reserves so at the end of a lovely sunny day it’s literally full of sugar and uses this over night to grow .

Early morning grazing is generally safer on this grass but certainly not full safe proof .

Adding to issues as temperatures drops over night to almost freezing or even a few degrees above this allow the grass to hold on to the sugar and not use it so early morning grazing is just as dangerous.

Mind blowing and very difficult to manage a sensitive horse , and even non sensitive types can very suddenly be affected by these spikes in grasses .

So can we help to create safer grazing by allowing the paddocks to grow to maturity before allowing any grazing , and keep moving the area so not allow short stressed grass to become a problem .
Putting in track systems are certainly the way forward and feeding ad lib hays , but again not everyone can afford to keep feeding ad lib hays or indeed it’s been difficult for many finding the right hay for horses all year round .
A combination of both track systems and correct management for the paddocks grasses and plant appropriate species may be a safer option for many .

This management should ensure lower sugars and better diversity fibre management intake plus more chewing time which is more species appropriate on their digestive system.

Any thoughts and are owners out there adapting to this practice.

Photo of one of my mature winter grass fields on the right that’s been left all summer to grow to full maturity ( verses a young lush area of growing unsafe autumn grass . 👇

03/29/2023

Sinead Halpin shares her favorite cavalletti exercise to keep your horse confident.

11/14/2022

Here’s why a horse not being strong enough through their core is not the whole picture… 💭

When we discuss a positive posture, it’s not all about core engagement. A series of musculoskeletal factors need to work synergistically to create this uplifting suppleness for positive posture.

⭐️ LUMBAR BACK MUSCLES ⭐️
If these muscles have tension, you can often find the pelvic angle will tilt forwards. If you tilt your pelvis forwards, you will feel the contraction of your lumbar area and a kind of disinggaement of the flexibility/ability to flex the lumbar spine.
Spinal flexion is what occurs when the core engages; as the core lifts, the spinal column is in a state of supported flexion. If you round your back, and engage your core, you will feel your back lift. This is a super mobile position, and if you try and bend left and right you’ll find this easier than if you tilt your pelvis forwards.

So, pelvic position is a super important precursor to core engagement.

⭐️ INTERCOSTAL MUSCLE HYPERTONICITY ⭐️
The intercostal muscles are a part of the core muscle network that can be palpated in between the ribs. When this rib network becomes sore, the ability to have softness through the ribcage for the engagement of core muscles on curves and through transitions can be challenging. This can often occur as a secondary effect to dysfunctional pelvic position through compensation mechanisms.

⭐️ CRANIAL DISPLACEMENT OF THE SCAPULA ⭐️
This is an interesting one I have seen in horses with forelimb pathologies, likely as at least a partial result of the overloading of the forehand. But fairly often, in the more acute cases, I will see this in horses with ill-fitting saddles. The increased tone of the cervical trapezius muscles draw the scapula forwards out of the way of the saddle, and is often accompanied by atrophy to the thoracic trapezius. This can happen on a very subtle scale. I find this is quite a good example of how core engagement would not solve this horses way of going until the original pathology was identified.

I hope this will provide a little insight into why having a horse strong through their core muscles is not always the only factor as to why posture is compromised.

www.vetphysiophyle.co.uk

09/11/2022

What is the longest a horse can safely go without food?

More and more I see horses and ponies stood for long periods of time with no hay or haylage. Usually under the guise of a “weight control diet”. So how long can a horse be without food before damage is done? And what damage is done?

For those with a short attention span, I’ll give you the answer to begin with - 4 hours, maximum.

Why?

Horses are grazers. They are designed to eat constantly. They have no way of storing their acids and digestive enzymes, they’ve never needed to. They have no gall bladder to store bile and their stomachs release acid constantly, whether or not there is food in the stomach and intestines.

A horses stomach only holds approximately 8-15 litres. Depending on the substance eaten, it takes on average 4-6 hours for the stomach to completely empty. After this, the acids and enzymes start to digest the inside of the horses stomach and then the intestines. This causes both gastric and intestinal ulceration. It has been estimated that 25-50% of foals and 60-90% of adult horses suffer from ulceration. But I won’t go into detail about this, there is a lot of information around about ulcers.

So is that it? Are ulcers the only concern?

No, having an empty stomach is a stress situation for a horse. The longer they are starved, the more they release stress hormones, cortisol predominantly. Cortisol blocks insulin and causes a constantly high blood glucose level. This stimulates the body to release even more insulin, and in turn this causes fat tissue to be deposited and leptin resistance. Over time this causes insulin resistance (Equine Metabolic Syndrome). All of these mechanisms are well known risk factors for laminitis and are caused by short term starvation (starting roughly 3-4 hours after the stomach empties). Starving a laminitic is literally the worst thing you can do. Over longer periods, this also starts to affect muscle and can cause weakness, and a lack of stamina so performance horses also need a constant supply of hay/haylage to function optimally.

Let’s not forget horses are living, breathing and feeling animals. We talk about this stress reaction like it’s just internal but the horse is well aware of this stress. Door kicking, box walking, barging and many other stable vices and poor behaviour can be explained by a very stressed horse due to food deprivation (we all have that Hangry friend to explain this reaction). Next time you shout or hit a horse that dives for their net, remember their body is genuinely telling them they are going to starve to death. They know no different.

But surely they spend the night asleep so they wouldn’t eat anyway?

Not true. Horses only need 20mins REM sleep every 24 hours (jealous? I am!). They may spend a further hour or so dozing but up to 22-23 hours a day are spent eating. So if you leave your horse a net at 5pm and it’s gone by 8pm, then by 12am their stomach is empty. By 4am they are entering starvation mode. By their next feed at 8am, they are extremely stressed, physically and mentally.

Now I know the cob owners are reading this mortified. I can almost hear you shouting at your screen “if I feed my horse ad lib hay he won’t fit out the stable door in a week!!”

I will say that a horse with a constant supply of hay/haylage will eat far less then the same horse that is intermittently starved. They don’t eat in a frenzy, reducing the chance of colic from both ulcers and over eating. Cobs included.

However I’m not suggesting you sit your cob in front of a bale of haylage and say have at it! There is a difference between ad lib and a constant supply. There is much we can do to reduce calorie intake and control weight whilst feeding a constant supply.

The easiest is small holes nets. There are many. Trickle nets, greedy feeders, nibbleze, trawler nets etc. My personal favourite is the Shires Soft Mesh 1”. They don’t cost the Earth, they are easy to fill and they don’t have knots so are much gentler to the teeth. Now often I suggest these types of nets to owners and the owner tells me “Oh no, *** won’t eat out of those” 🙄 this is nonsense. If he was left it, he would. Remember, you can give a normal net and one of these for them to nibble at after. Better than leaving them with nothing at all.

A few other tricks, hang the net from the ceiling/rafters, it’s harder to eat out of a net that swings. Soak the hay, a minimum of 4 hours to be effective. Mix with straw but be sure to introduce the straw slowly and make sure it’s top quality and a palatable type eg Barley or Oat, otherwise they won’t eat it.

Don’t forget exercise. The best way to get weight off a horse is exercise. Enough exercise and they can eat what they want!

And lay off the bucket feed and treats! Horses on a diet require a vit/min supplement in the form of a balancer but that’s it. The odd slice of carrot or swede won’t do any harm but no licks, treats, treacle, molasses, cereal based rubbish. Even if it says low sugar or the marvellously misleading “No added sugar”! Your horse would rather have a constant supply of hay, I promise.

Written by Vikki Fowler BVetMed BAEDT MRCVS

A few edits for the critics-

Firstly, feeding a constant supply does not mean ad lib feeding. It means use some ingenuity and spread the recommended amount of daily forage so the horse is never stood with out food for more than 4 hours. I am not promoting obesity, quite the opposite, feeding like this reduces obesity and IR. This can be done whilst feeding your horse twice a day as most horse owners do. Just think outside the box for your own situation.

Secondly I am in the UK and this post is UK specific, use some common sense when reading. Yes in warmer climates, soaking hay for 4 hours is dangerous and studies show 1 hour is plenty in hot weather but in the UK’s arctic climate, a minimum of 4 hours is required. Equally the UK feed exclusively grass hay. I can not comment on other types.

Thirdly, yes every horse/pony and situation is different, but this is a law of nature and all horses have this anatomy and metabolism. How you achieve this constant supply is individual, the need for it is not.

Fourthly, the use of hay nets in the UK is very very high. I’d estimate 95% of horses I see are fed this way and very very few have incisor wear or neck/back issues as a result. Yes, feeding from the ground is ideal, but a constant supply, I feel trumps this. Again with ingenuity both can be safely achieved.

Finally, straw can be fed to horses safely, introduced very slowly, with fresh water always available, plus a palatable and digestible type of straw which will depend on your area. Again many horses in the UK are bedded on straw and most of them eat it. This is not a new concept to us.

Final finally 🤦‍♀️ and I feel I must add this due to the sheer number of people contacting me to ask, feed your horses during transport!!! I am astonished this is not normal in other countries! Again in the UK, we give our horses hay nets to transport. We don’t go 10 mins up the road without a haynet and a spare in case they finish! Considering we are a tiny island and we rarely transport even 4 hours, we never transport without hay available. I have never seen an episode of choke due to travelling with hay available. If you are concerned, use a slow feeder net so they can’t take too much in at once.

If you get to the end of this post and your first thought is “I can’t do this with my horse/pony, they’d be morbidly obese”, you haven’t read the advice in this post thoroughly.