Horse owners are turning to hay cubes as a more nutritious alternative to chaff. Horses are designed to continuously consume small amounts of roughage throughout the day and they can’t have a healthy gastrointestinal system without it. This means when pasture is low, your horse is stabled, you are travelling, or your horse is prone…
Teff Hay is gaining popularity within the horse community and it’s no wonder with its low sugar / low starch qualities suitable for horses suffering from laminitis or other metabolic conditions. But what exactly is Teff, and where does it come from? Teff is an annual, warm-season grass that is native to Ethiopia. It’s considered…
Ella started riding at age 4 starting at Pc then progressed to show jumping and eventing. Despite having great success in Show Jumping Ella found herself looking for more and four years ago found Rodeo. After a visit to local western horse trainers and competitors Tamlin Osborne and Andrew McQualter-Whyte, Ella knew what she wanted…
Dr Nerida Richards PhD Equilize Horse Nutrition Pty Ltd SPRING! For those of us with laminitis prone horses and ponies, this season can strike fear in our hearts. With the cold nights and longer sunny days, pastures can spike as much as 30% (or more!) non-structural carbohydrate and THAT can spell disaster for our metabolic,…
Maintaining weight on your horse during winter can be a tricky balance as horses use additional energy to keep warm, combined with the lack of pasture with nutritional value. Horses need more roughage over winter to maintain weight as forage is digested in the horse’s hind gut via a fermentation process which generates the heat…
We all want what’s best for our horse. Low sugars and starch plus high fibre has long been known to be the cornerstone of a healthy equine diet. Many hard feeds are grain based, highly processed and not many contain much fibre. Teff hay though ticks all of the boxes mentioned above – it is…
Quidding (“dropping feed”/ “balling hay”) It is well known that horses who have significant dental disease (such as missing teeth) struggle to chew hay. It often balls up and falls back out in tufts (known as quidding) or poses a significant choke risk. The fibre length in our cubes is reduced (but longer than chaff)…
Feeding your horses in a drought can be a great source of anxiety and stress. Unfortunately periodic drought is a way of life here in Australia and it always pays to be prepared. With hay becoming harder to find and secure you want to make sure that the hay you do have goes as far…