There are significant Differences Between Feeding Horses on Warm Season vs Cool Season Grasses...

Recent cases where things have gone ‘pear-shaped’ have prompted us to post about this subject again.

There is substantial published evidence plus our own experience that highlight the flaws in the argument that hay is all they need...

24/7 turnout can work for people who have large acreages and are not over-stocked and can keep long, more mature grass ahead of their horses, as can those who have a track for the horse to be on over spring while the grass is left to grow.

Horses need YOU to ensure they are getting sufficient of all the amino acids which tend to be inadequate in both green grass and hay.

Locking Stifles is common in young big horses...

There are actually TWO possible causes of Grass Staggers...

Are Hoof rings a sign of inflammation laminitis? Not necessarily...

ALL tissues are made of protein as are the enzymes which perform the trillions of chemical reactions going on every minute of the day that k

‘Grass-related’ edemas appear quickly and generally should resolve quite easily. Swellings called ‘Edemas’, are due to fluid becoming trapped within various tissues.

The moral of the story is if all is well with your horse then no need to change anything but when horses have 'issues' lucerne is the first thing to eliminate!

When we point out aspects of lucerne/alfalfa that can adversely affect horses it becomes obvious there are two camps! There are people...

Did you know that when you get forage analysed it has a Dry Matter (DM) Content? This is what is left after water is removed. DM is fundamentally the FIBRE content.

As with any feed item, it is not the item itself that is the problem – the overriding issues with lucerne/alfalfa stem from the fact...

Nitrates affect mono-gastric animals like horses DIFFERENTLY to ruminants. In ruminants the Nitrates are rapidly converted to Nitrites which cause oxygen starvation and sudden death.

HOW the individual horse is affected depends on the interplay between the changes in nutrient composition of the grass over the previous few days and the nutritional/metabolic status of the individual horse at the time...

For serious issues like laminitis, head-shaking/flicking our advice would be NOT to let him back out on ANY green vegetative grass. ‘Keeping an eye on them’ is a very risky strategy.

Sodium has several major roles including that of delivering nutrients into cells also for ridding the body of nitrates.

Unsuitable pasture will cause metabolic (health, movement and/or behaviour) issues in any horse.

IF you are thinking about resowing your pastures, thoroughly consider the following information because it is not as simple as it seems and will not be the solution to all your problems because even ‘Horse Friendly’ grasses need to be at a mature stage of growth before grazing.