Maintaining weight on your horse during winter can be tricky as horses use additional energy to keep warm, combined with the lack of pasture with nutritional value. Follow our tips to keep on top of your horse’s condition this winter: Assess your horse’s body condition It is important to remember to remove your horses’ rugs…
Dr Nerida McGilchrist PhD Equilize Horse Nutrition Pty Ltd It is a widely held myth in the horse industry that lucerne is unsafe for laminitics. But the myth couldn’t be further from the truth. Lucerne is valuable in the diet of laminitics AND it is one of the safest forages we can feed to these…
Roughage should make up 85% of a rabbits diet. Roughage is the most important part of a rabbit’s diet – Did you know, roughage in the form of hay or grass should make up a massive 85% of their diet? Feeding MultiCube Hay Cubes is an easy and convenient way to include more roughage into…
This article is not only aimed at the older horse it is also aimed at that horse with bad teeth. As a horse ages, it can become increasingly hard for them to eat hay, however some young horses have dental issues that make feeding hay hard also. Ensuring your horse gets enough fibre in their…
When you hear horse “dental health” it’s natural to think “tooth health”. But did you know dental health extends much further than just the health of your horses’ teeth? Dental health, or oral health, in horses, is currently a hot topic, with many owners now trying their best more and more to improve the oral…
Go Green – and think GREEN before you ride. The incidence of “ulcers” (gastric ulceration) amongst performance and leisure horses is very frequent. Meaning that likely >50% of owners reading this article will have a horse that has been diagnosed and treated for “ulcers”. The common management practices to help prevent and treat ulcers is…
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…
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…