Equiloutions- Equine & Equestrian Solutions

07/10/2024

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07/06/2024

🖐🏻 most common misunderstandings about forage-only diets:

1️⃣ "Forage & hay has everything my horse needs."

While a forage-only diet comes very close to meeting the needs of a horse in maintenance (one that is not being ridden, bred, or growing), all forage lacks adequate trace minerals. There is no horse that can perform or reproduce at OPTIMUM levels without trace mineral supplementation.

Adequate vitamins would also be a concern. From the moment you cut hay, the vitamins begin to degrade. The more time between cutting and feeding of hay, the more likely it is to fall short of the vitamins your horse needs. Horses with higher nutritional requirements may even struggle to eat enough hay to meet their energy and/or micronutrient needs.

2️⃣ "Hay pellets and cubes can provide the benefits of a forage-only diet."

While cubes and pellets are often an excellent forage alternative, we prefer adding these as supplemental to long stem forage.

Most of the benefits from a forage-only diet come from the digestion of long-stem forage, like hay or pasture grass. More time spent “grazing” and slower processing through the digestive tract, are just a couple of the direct benefits for your horse. Whenever possible, buy quality, long-stem hay to maximize that “chew-time”.

3️⃣ "All horses should have 24/7 access to forage."

Ideally, yes! Horses are designed to spend over half of their day eating or, rather, grazing.

Though there are many instances where this becomes a challenge such as obesity, metabolic conditions, or senior horses who may be losing teeth. If your horse has good chompers, we recommend using hay bags and slow feeders as much as possible. This will also help manage weight and metabolic conditions. If your horse is struggling to chew from aging teeth, they’ll likely need calories from a quality senior feed.

4️⃣ "Forage-only diets decrease the risks for health complications, like intestinal stones or ulcers."

The most common dietary contributor to Enteroliths is a high magnesium diet, such as feeding alfalfa-only diets. Especially when combined with the ingestion of something foreign.

It is true that multiple studies show that providing constant access to long-stem forage significantly reduces the occurrence of gastric ulcers. Daily turnout in a grassy pasture or with a hay bag/slow feeder, is one of the best ways to help ulcer-prone horses.

It’s important to note, however, that ulcers aren’t directly caused by concentrated feeds. Instead, research indicates that it’s the combination of large meals without access to forage in between, lack of long-stem forage in general, and other stress factors.

5️⃣ "A hair/mane mineral analysis will tell me if my horse has a deficiency."

Hair Analysis is NOT a reliable way to find deficiencies and has little value in assessing nutritional health. The results of hair analysis can be different during different seasons of the year. Plus, things like hair coat color and dust, can also affect the results of hair analysis.

Not to mention, that the hair that you look at was formed weeks or months in the past and will not tell today’s story. Check out Feed Room Chemist Podcast Episode #109 for more➡️ https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/feedroomchemist/episodes/109--Hair-Analysis-NOT-Reliable-e1q8q4s/a-a1qgg9m

📖 Find research references for this post and finish reading the forage blog here ➡️ https://bluebonnetfeeds.com/blog/tips-for-forage-only-diets-plus-common-misunderstandings/

Lindsay Burer MS Equine Nutrition Consultant

06/30/2024

“The Round Pen”

Alot of tools we use to train horses, are a necessity. The round pen is a necessity. A decent sized round pen, let me add. 55’+ is a favorite of mine. I’m on the shorter side, so anything bigger than 60’ and I’m working harder than the horse for my short legs to keep up. In a 60’ round pen, most sized horses can comfortably walk, trot, canter and gallop without causing too much stress on their joints.

Sometimes a smaller round pen is needed for slower work. First rides in small round pens can be helpful. Small round pens should never be used to really “work” a horse. Their joints and bodies are not designed to canter and gallop in such a small circle. Bottom line, if you plan on catering and galloping in there..don’t.

I like the round pen because I can teach direction and speed in a circle, safely..among many other things. Here I like to create my relationship, my bond with the horse. We create all these puzzle pieces while training, when the time is right..we piece that puzzle together and create a masterpiece 😍

Building a herd leader friendship with a horse can have many benefits. They will be more confident throughout daily life with you. They will be easier to train and communicate with, with less struggles. Most things will come with ease.

I teach a “game” designed by Parelli called the yoyo game. It teaches the horse to back up off you with minimal energy on the handlers part. And to come back when asked. It can be challenging to install, but once the horse gets it..it becomes second nature. It’s a VERY helpful and handy technique. Backkkkkkkk upppppppppp.

Another “game” I teach is also from Parelli, called the Circle Game. But, I have added and taken away, what works for me and the horse.

I’ve developed acouple personal techniques that I just adore. One is “touch it”. I’ve found that if the horse can see it, inspect it and touch it with our positive encouragement, they learn to not be so fearful and reactive. It works. My second technique I teach is “head down”. Horses are able to learn voice cues, and reasons to them well. A horse’s head position says alot about that they thinking. A low headset, similar to grazing..is a relaxed position. By teaching our horses, to put their head down on que, helps them calm down. To not be so reactive and on alert. Do you have any idea how helpful this is? Trailer loading…horse is so tall, her ear tips touch the roof…by teaching her to keep her giraffe head and neck down..I’m preventing an accident.

I am not a “whip” person. Simply because the whip creates more pressure onto the horse. I usually don’t have a problem getting the horse to move. But, like any other tool, they have their place. I prefer the “carrot stick” style when I do need one in the round pen. I do twirl the end of the line at the horse’s shoulder and flank, to create extra driving pressure. It usually works for me and the horse.

There is so much the horse needs to achieve and learn before we back them. Direction, speed and whoaaaaaa are three great starters. Personally, I try to keep the horse’s feet as quiet as possible. When a horse is flailing around and acting like a fool, they aren’t thinking. They are reacting and most likely responding to something we are doing! When you chase a horse around in the round pen in the beginning, you’re fueling his fear to run away.

What if, we keep the feet as quiet and calm as possible? By doing this we keep the mind quiet and open, ready to learn. Ready for class! I’m not saying tip toe around them..I’m saying encourage walking. Lots of walking. Then the trot. If all that is going great..ask for the canter. You will always be able to ask for more speed…learning the slow stuff first, is key.

Round pen work is a staple in my foundational teachings. It creates a safe place to learn, exercise and ride. Which just follows suit as you progress down your path. I haven’t learned any of this overnight. I’ve been round penning horses for over 20 years. It’s usually trial and error. What works, we keep using. What doesn’t, gets dropped.

06/29/2024

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.

06/26/2024

06/24/2024

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06/09/2024

https://zeroeggcount.com/blogs/news/which-is-the-best-horse-dewormer

Best cheapest dewormer for your horse. Factors to consider when selecting a dewormer for your horse. Deworming, also known as worming, is an essential part of your horse's healthcare program. Deworming is used to control your horse's internal nd some external parasites.

06/08/2024

Tomorrow is one week together. We’ve had two official sessions to date.

It’s. Been. So. Hot. 🥵 We keep it short and sweet.

We had our first mane pull and bridle path trimming today. We worked on wearing horsey items. The saddle pad. Splint boots (the Velcro noise was scary!). And the hose 🤣, which she loved to bite and chomp at and ended up loving. We tried on several different halters and decided on the purple sparkly one. We touched many scary items today, including a very scary pallet (she’s still not a fan) and a kiddie pool that almost ate her whole 🤣 We ran around and harassed the camera during our round pen sesh and threw a tantrum when I pushed her forward away from it 🤣 We even practiced picking up our feet in preparation for the farrier! This horse is going to be so much fun to ride. She’s fancy, very agile and throws a ton of sass around like confetti. I’m counting down the sessions until she’s ready to be backed 😍🙏🦄

06/03/2024

Well, here she is…the newest project. Everybody meet Lilith. She’s a TBx that’s going to be dabbling in dressage, endurance and eventually jumping! She’s opiniated, sassy and goofy. And super athletic. Standing above 16h as a 4yo, she’s the complete package.

We had our first session yesterday..boy was it eventful (and all caught on video!) I got stung by a super wasp, it hurt so bad. Then one of the pasture horses stuck her head through the fence and pulled a board off. Good times.

05/19/2024

Occasionally someone will ask me, "What is dressage?" To this question I say, dressage is the correct gymnastizing, careful training and development of a horse using the Training Scale. Dressage empowers a horse to become more athletic and beautiful in his natural movements, and to learn to carry a rider in a more healthy and balanced way. Classical dressage training will result in a horse that is stronger, more flexible and better able to use his whole body in a supple and powerful way, but at the same time will feel light and adjustable to the rider. It is the fundamental training needed for all varieties of the horse sports, and is also an Olympic sport in and of itself. A well trained dressage horse is a joy and privilege to ride.

Dressage training should be free of force, with the goal that movements can be summoned in any place at any time because the horse is in proper self-carriage and in harmony with the rider. As the horse's training progresses, he will respond to the most subtle aids of the rider, which are invisible to the observer but clearly understood by the horse.

Dressage training should never be limited to the dressage arena. Dressage should be taught in conjunction with trail rides, small jumps, turn outs and free jumping. In the fall, fox hunting behind the hounds and ground work are wonderful additions to dressage training. Proper dressage training will create a sustainable and rewarding relationship between horse and rider. "Airs above the ground" such as Levade, courbette, Capriole, ec. are special movements of the High School.

Dressage is a journey - one to be enjoyed at every stage. A good dressage rider never skips a step in the horse's training in an effort to reach a specific goal, but instead relishes in the daily work, the daily discoveries and tiny bits of progress that the horse generously offers. The rider should ride to the horse's limit, but never over, so that the horse learns, but does not lose confidence and trust in his rider, and therefore the horse gives his whole heart to his rider.

That is why I am, and always will be in love with dressage. Walter

05/14/2024

Welcome to Trainer Tuesday! Each week we ask trainers a question and gather their answers for you. These trainers have a range of experience, backgrounds, and focus points of their programs, so the answers have as much variation as you would expect and also probably much more similarity. This week....

05/10/2024

Decoding the Language of Horses: Recognizing Their Voices Beyond Our Assumptions

In her new book "A Better World for Horses and Humans", Stormy May sheds light on a profound disconnect that often plagues our relationships with horses – the tendency to misinterpret their attempts at communication as mere "vices" or undesirable behaviors.

As May writes, "Attempts from horses to communicate with us are likely misinterpreted as vices like unwillingness and disrespect."

This insight speaks to the heart of a deeper challenge that May believes we must confront if we are to forge truly harmonious, mutually-beneficial partnerships with these magnificent creatures. All too often, she argues, we approach our interactions with horses through the lens of our own biases, assumptions, and deeply-rooted beliefs about what constitutes "acceptable" or "desirable" conduct.

When a horse exhibits behaviors that fall outside of our preconceived notions – whether it's hesitation, resistance, or even seemingly "disrespectful" actions – our default response is to label them as "problems" to be corrected, rather than as legitimate attempts at communication and the expression of their inherent needs and preferences.

"We are so quick to judge the horses' actions through the narrow frame of our own human agendas," May writes, "that we fail to truly listen, to seek to understand, and to honor the vital messages they are trying to convey."

This, in turn, has profound consequences not just for the wellbeing of the horses themselves, but for the very nature of the human-equine bond. By failing to recognize and respond to the horses' authentic voices, we undermine the foundation of trust, respect, and mutual understanding that should be the bedrock of our relationships.

May herself has experienced this dynamic firsthand, describing how her own journey of deepening her capacity for presence, empathy, and the genuine honoring of the horses' autonomy has unlocked profound breakthroughs in her ability to forge truly collaborative, consent-based partnerships.

"When I let go of my own preconceptions and biases," May explains, "and instead commit myself to truly listening to the horses, to decoding the nuances of their communication, a whole new world opens up. I'm able to respond adaptively, to co-create solutions that serve the wellbeing of all, and to forge connections characterized by trust, emotional attunement, and the mutual flourishing of our spirits."

Crucially, May suggests that this principle of compassionate, open-hearted listening extends far beyond just the realm of human-horse relationships. She argues that by cultivating this same capacity for empathy and the willingness to challenge our assumptions in all of our interactions with the natural world, we unlock profound opportunities for the creation of a more just, regenerative, and harmonious future.

"Attempts from horses to communicate with us," May reminds us, "are likely misinterpreted as vices like unwillingness and disrespect." But by heeding their voices, by letting go of our own agendas and preconceptions, we just may discover the keys to unlocking a more beautiful, interconnected world – one defined by the genuine honoring of all beings and the collective flourishing of life.

To see many exclusive videos and other content please subscribe to her Patreon account. https://www.patreon.com/StormyMay
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"A Better World for Horses and Humans" is available here: https://a.co/d/izrGPXs

05/08/2024

I've been asked many times on Rosie's page and page if mules can reproduce. While it's not unheard of, it's extraordinarily rare and ALMOST always an accident. It comes down to chromosomes. In order for a new DNA strand to be made to form viable life, you have to split the parents DNA 50/50. For horses, this means 32 (mare)+ 32(stallion) = 64. For donkeys, 31 + 31 = 62. But mules??? 63 is not a number that is evenly divisible by 2. So no matter the combination, the DNA strand will have an uneven number of chromosomes and not be able to form viable life. Mules still contain all necessary reproductive organs, but it's in the DNA for them to be 1 of a kind 🦄

Molly mules do make excellent recip equines! And have fierce mothering instincts.