I would like to tell you that I have been on hiatus because of winning the lottery or discovering the cure to cancer but I'm not gonna lie...life got in the way, sigh.

A lot has happened here at LG Quarter Horses.  It is now 2017 and we are expecting our first foal crop from our stallion Hotti In The House!!  We are so very excited for ours to come but even more excited for those people who took a chance on a new stallion and bred their mares!

I imagine for some its a leap of faith, but for myself, I have always chosen stallions based on their individual talent and Myles just happens to be uber talented imo...there are still many top tier stallions that I would refuse to breed to simply because i do not care for their movement. That said, I am not bashing other stallions but merely pointing out my reasons for choosing a sire for my mares.

We have been taking our time and selecting mares that we think will work well with our boy and since we also raise western pleasure prospects, we tried to choose mares that would work both with Myles and with outside western stallions.  We now have a small band of mares (5) that are either proven show horses or proven producers or both.

Keep checking back with our page and as the foals arrive we will post updates. So happy to be back!

Well hello there Myles!

Myles has been vacationing in sunny Florida since July 2013...when he started his riding career with Zuidema Show Horses!

I am hopeful that soon he will be shown under saddle as we have very high hopes for this boys future as both a show horse and possibly as a sire!

I will post again after his first show so I can share Myles's progress with you:)

Cheers! Lisa

Once again I am having to apologize for not keeping everyone in the loop on this baby...sometimes life just gets in the way.

I will give a condensed take on my observations surrounding the pregnancy of this mare as this was the first time we foaled her out.  This article will also serve as great record for future pregnancies for this mare!

Roxy was bred on May 31, 2013 and was checked in foal on June 13, 2013.  This would point to an approximate due date of May 8, 2014 'if' she carried an average of 340 days.  There were a few hiccups as the embryo appeared to be oversized and odd shaped for the age of 14 days under ultrasound, the worry being possible twinning.  At 30 days a second US was done and revealed just one heartbeat. 

All along this mare seemed to be overly large and my biggest fear was that perhaps the vet had missed a second heartbeat and that maybe she WAS carrying twins!  I should mention that Roxy stands a towering 15h (haha) and is a lot like me in the fact that she can stay 'fat on air'!

On April 18th during my daily routine check of broodmares, I noticed that Roxy had a pinpoint spot of yellow wax on her left teat.  Hmmmm, I thought it a bit strange since she was only at 319 days gestation...I took it a bit farther by expressing some of the fluid to check colour and consistency.  What this next step revealed to me was quite shocking, Roxy had white milk!  This stage was usually reserved for mares which foaling was imminent in my experience, so I hurriedly prepared the foaling stall!

So it starts...the overnight cat naps on hard, unforgiving lawn furniture.  The paranoia that perhaps a bat was nesting in the barn and would surely bite me in my sleep, this thought causing me to take my naps with my head under the covers and waking with a screaming headache quite likely caused by inhaling my own carbon dioxide! 

Oh the fun...living on snacks, fast food, coffee and sporting a shocking hairstyle who my sister insists on calling my "Madusa" look! (see image below for those who do not recognise the name).

So day after day and night after night the same routine ensues....daytime turnout for the mare in a small pen close to the house where I can both work at my full time job AND keep a close eye for changes.  Nighttime is spent by wrapping tails, washing udders, butts and legs and then hurry up and wait....and wait....and wait...and don't forget poop patrol!

Now keep in mind I am not a newbie to this foaling business but every year I start to second guess myself and for a minute I forget everything I know!  That little niggling doubt sets in and then the 'what ifs' set in... 

What if I sleep through the whole thing.  What if she has a red bag delivery or some other tragic dystocia (an abnormal or difficult birth or labour).  What if her colostrum is not good enough since her milk has been white for a while...all these negative thoughts keep my eyes well glued to her stall!

I should take a moment and touch on my family and how this process affects them...

I will start by saying that I have the most supportive and understanding husband any girl could ever wish for!  He understands that during this time I am quite neurotic and not just a bit crazy (really quite certifiable) and he quietly accepts all of this.  Although he has no equine background whatsoever, he has absorbed a great deal over the years and asks quite intelligent and relevant questions! 

My kids don't always understand as well and just really miss me when there is no food in the fridge or on the table haha....but they do like the cute babies when they are born. 

My sister who usually resides in Spain just happened to be with us this spring.  She was very excited at the prospect of seeing a live birth and decided to set up camp with me!  Well, lets say that one night of 'mare watch' cured that yearning quite nicely, further communications from her were by text message from 'inside' the house;). 

Okay, okay, back to the foaling.  So, from the initial discovery of the white milk, I spent an additional 5 nights of no foaling action.  The first 4 nights were really not very remarkable...the 5th night the mare did a lot of circling and looked quite distraught.  All the while she ate like a food shortage was imminent!  After that restless night I decided that maybe turnout should be avoided that day, I also chose to take my work laptop to the barn and sit on close duty.  I had been testing her calcium/ph levels in her milk and that morning they had made quite a jump, both up and down!

So in the evening of April 23rd on Roxy's 324th day of gestation things started to take shape.  The circling in her stall was incessant, she didn't stop for hours...I prepared her the same as always by carefully wrapping her tail, not too tight and not too loose...washing her udder, under tail and legs...picked out her stall for the 100th time that day and sat down for my vigil. 

At exactly 10:38pm on April 23rd, 2014 on Day 324 of gestation, Roxy's water broke! (I text messaged my sister at this time so she could come observe)

 I breathed a sigh of relief upon the sight of the white amnion, at the very least 'no red bag' delivery today!   The next sigh of relief was the presentation of the first foot, it was facing the proper direction with the bottom of the hoof facing down.  Then came the second foot a few inches after the first, sigh of relief.  The mare then stood up and would go up and down another 3 times in the next 15 minutes....now I am nervous. 

When she had laid down again I decided it was time for a little help, it was obvious that she was having a bit of a time pushing this one out and 20 minutes had already lapsed in the process.  At first she was a bit hesitant about me helping but I think common sense prevailed, I gave her a soft pat and spoke to her in a calm reassuring voice.  As she bore down I gently slid my hands up above the pasterns of the foals legs, I could feel the little nose and after a tug from me and a push from her, most of the foals head was exposed.  This was still the easy part, the hardest part was still to come, the shoulders and chest!  Well between her and I, we 'got er done'...she pushed, I pulled and the result was a new beautiful colt!

Meet Axl

A few foot notes for my benefit...this mare did not present with a vee'd belly at any time near delivery.  I have no idea of when the white milk started to be present but it was present upon at check at 319 days.  I am thinking from this mares nervousness that either she was stressing about the position of the foal or she didn't like to have humans present and I am think that the latter was the case.  The mare did separate herself from the herd for some time when turned out in the general population.  This mare never broke a sweat to my knowledge prior to foaling.  She did wax up for several days prior to foaling.  She did become soft and jiggly around the tail head but did not fall away severely like some mares do.  The sign of yawning and rubbing against forelegs was present in the last 2 days but not excessive.  On the day of foaling the mares milk checked at 800++ calcium and ---6.8ph (which was the lowest rating on the scale and turned the test square to a butter yellow).  The mare did not defecate until 20+ hours post foaling.  324 days gestation, 7th foal.

I would like to apologize for being so absent with regards to my blog.  I was overrun with busy and just did not get time to fit it in.

It seems like yesterday that we were waiting for 2013 foals to arrive, now we have come full circle and that time is just around the corner once again!

Breeding season was a tough one last year, lots of money spent but not extremely successful...out of 4 broodmares, only 2 achieved pregnancy.  On top of that, I am not so sure they are both still in foal.  We will think happy baby thoughts and hope the storks will make their stops as originally planned.  

We will be in a strange land this year as the two possible pregnancies we have here are both new to our farm!  It is both exciting and daunting not knowing how long these mares carry and if they will need special attention or help.  So once again there will be many sleepless nights...sigh.

I will be adding pictures as they progress so I can carry everyone through the experience, good or bad (but hopefully good).

Ciao for now!

Lisa

I stumbled on to this site and thought this to be interesting and valuable information for the breeder!

Check it out!
http://betlabs.com/preg.html

This is the eighth and final article in the "Fix It With Feed" series. 

A series of fantastic articles taken from The Chronicle Of The Horse...a must read for everyone and especially those in the business of breeding!!!

Once upon a time, there weren’t a lot of options when it came to feeding horses. If a horse couldn’t maintain a healthy weight on grass and hay, then adding oats was one of the only choices.

Today, the variety of commercial feeds available makes choosing your horse’s diet seem quite complicated. Although you can still buy cereal grains such as oats, barley and corn, most feed companies produce various specialty-feed options, all nutritionally balanced for different types of horses in varying levels of work. But the fact of the matter is: There’s no absolute right way to feed.

“Every horse has different needs when it comes to calories and sources of energy,” said Olivia Martin of Performance Feeding in Croton Falls, N.Y. “It is most important that the owner (or person managing the feeding program) has a clear understanding of appropriate body condition for the individual horse, the calories required to maintain that body condition as it relates to the fortification level of the total ration and any medical issues that may govern the decisions made for a single feeding program.”

The Scoop On Cereal Grains

The horse’s natural diet is composed of forage and forage alone, but since we ask our modern horses to perform a variety of unnatural things, we have to provide the additional calories they need.

“The reason we started using oats is because when horses were the main source of transportation, they needed the extra calories. They’re cheap, and horses like them,” said Juliet Getty, Ph.D., of Getty Equine Nutrition LLC in Bayfield, Colo. “People often use the term ‘grain’ to talk about anything that comes in a bag. Grain is cereal grain.”

While cereal grain diets did, and still do, provide calories and energy, equine nutrition science has come a long way in deciphering exactly what horses need and how much of it. The newer commercially formulated concentrates take much of the guesswork out of trying to balance your horse’s ration.

“There seems to be a movement toward ‘natural’ horse feeding, which some people seem to think includes feeding unprocessed grains, and this could be construed as an advantage,” said Martin. “But generally, the advantages of feeding straight grains (without additional fortification) are few.”

The problem with just feeding cereal grains is that they vary in their nutrient profile. Some have adequate protein for a mature horse when paired with grass hay, but others do not. Cereal grains do not contain a balanced nutrient profile, and they must be paired with some type of additional fortification for the health and longevity of a performance horse.

Additional drawbacks of cereal grains include:

• In order to make grains digestible for the horse, they must be processed in some way such as crimping, rolling, steaming or micronizing (cooking).
• Cereal grains, depending on the rate of intake, represent a high starch meal. The horse’s digestive system doesn’t cope well with large starch meals, and digestive upset may result.
• There may not be a huge cost savings when choosing cereal grains over a commercial feed.
• Hard keeping horses may not be able to take in enough calories from a cereal grain ration; the use of fats and fibers in commercial feeds allow them to condense the number of calories per pound.
• Most horses with equine metabolic syndrome should not be fed cereal grains.

“If I had to feed whole grains, I would probably pair some oats with beet pulp, add some oil or other fat supplement, and a balancer pellet to fortify the ration with protein and minerals and vitamins my horse needs,” said Martin.

Know Your Facts About Cereal Grains

Oats – Oats are palatable and easy to chew, less susceptible to mold and are considered a safe grain since starch from oats is easily digested in the small intestine. However, they don’t offer all the nutrients needed, cannot be considered a complete feed, and processed oats have a short shelf life.

“There are times where oats can provide energy for a heavily exercised horse,” said Getty. “It’s not a bad thing for a horse that’s heavily exercised and needs the extra starch, but there are so many horses that are exercised on the weekends, occasional rides or pasture pets that don’t need to be fed oats. They don’t need those calories. Feeding oats to a horse that’s overweight will lead to laminitis.”

Corn – Most horses like the taste of corn. But it’s high in starch (70%), low in protein, may not be completely digestible in the small intestine in large amounts, and undigested starch can trigger colic or laminitis. Also, it molds easily if not stored properly.

Barley – Barley contains high energy, moderate protein and low fiber. Crude protein from barley is easier to digest than corn, and the energy is higher than oats, but barley starch has low digestibility in small intestine, it’s low in lysine and methionine, and it molds easily if not stored properly.

Why Concentrates Work

Concentrates, or commercial feeds, on the other hand, are formulated specifically for the needs of a modern horse. Sure, you could buy cracked corn at the feed store and feed it to your horse, but you’re likely better off saving it for your chickens.

If chosen and used properly, commercial feeds represent the total nutrition package beyond forage. Benefits of commercial feeds include:

• They’re easy to handle and portion out.
• They’re uniform and consistent.
• They’re generally easy to digest.
• They have an extended shelf life.
• They make use of some byproducts of the human food industry such as wheat middlings, soybean meal and hulls, rice bran and beet pulp.
• They guarantee a consistent intake of nutrients.
• They simplify ration balancing.
• They give the owner options for horses with problems such as poor teeth or respiratory tract disorders.

Complete commercial feeds can even be used to replace forage if necessary.

“The major difference between a regular commercial feed and one that is a ‘complete feed’ is the level of fiber in the feed,” said Martin. “A complete feed is designed to be fed without forage and offers the horse adequate nutrition and fiber levels to survive. There is also usually a higher level of fortification in a complete feed to account for the lack of nutrition from forage.”

Be A Knowledgeable Consumer

However, not all commercial feeds are created equal.

“With commercial feeds, you get what you pay for,” said Getty. “The less expensive feeds are generally high in oats, sugar and molasses. The more expensive feeds contain less starch, have more beet pulp, soybean meal, alfalfa meal and other byproducts. These feed sources are much more expensive, but much better for your horse.”

Different feed companies use different recipes for their concentrates. Some will used fixed formulas, while others do not. In a fixed-formula feed the ingredients will never change. No matter where you are in the country, that bag of feed will have the same ingredients all the time.

Other companies formulate their feeds based on least cost. They shop around for the ingredients that will allow them to offer a consistent nutrient profile, but in the cheapest way.

“That’s a huge distinction,” said Martin. “Typically I would consider fixed-formula feeds to be better quality because they’re far more consistent. With the national brands that you can buy anywhere, they tend to have feed mills that are located regionally. They’re going to have feed ingredients that are regional. The tag will be the same, it’ll look the same, but the ingredients will be slightly different.

“Commercial feeds have to be processed in a mill. Given different levels of quality control in local versus national mills, there is the possibility of poor quality ingredients or cross contamination between feeds for different species,” added Martin. “Least-cost formulas will occasionally have ingredient changes that may be a problem for horses that have feed allergies.”

Examine Your Feed Tag

One of the more important aspects of choosing the right feed for your horse involves knowing what you’re looking at when it comes to the feed tag.

“Law requires feed labels to include net weight, product name, guaranteed analysis, ingredient listing and manufacturer’s name. For commercial formula feeds, guarantees must be listed for minimum crude protein, minimum crude fat, maximum crude fiber, minimum and maximum calcium, minimum phosphorous, and minimum and maximum salt,” said Martin.

There should be a list of ingredients (in order of concentration) used to make the feed, but for least-cost formulas, there may be collective terms used to group ingredients rather than individual ingredients. This allows manufacturers to substitute ingredients within that defined group, such as grain byproducts, rather than changing the label every time there is a reformulation.

“If you’re ever in doubt, call the manufacturer,” said Getty. “Sometimes they’ll talk to you, sometimes they won’t. I prefer a company that has full disclosure. If you see things like ‘forage products,’ or ‘grain products,’ then no one knows what that means, and they don’t want you to know either. Make sure the label is specific.”

One of the most important pieces of information on the feed tag or bag is the feeding directions. These tell you how much to feed your horse based on his size and workload, and this information will help you choose the correct feed.

If the feeding directions or ingredient list is missing, then that’s probably a feed to avoid. “Lack of any of the required information on the label should be a red flag,” said Martin.

Read Part 1: You Don't Need A Ph.D. To Puzzle Out Protein
Read Part 2: Feeding A Hard Keeper Is All About Extra Calories And Patience
Read Part 3: Alfalfa Is More Helpful Friend Than Foe
Read Part 4: Prevent Ulcers By Mimicking Nature
Read Part 5: Dealing With Allergies Can Be A Tricky Business
Read Part 6: Trim Down To Help Prevent Metabolic Issues
Read Part 7: High Fat Diets Can Solve More Than One Problem

This is the seventh article in the "Fix It With 
Feed" series. 

A series of fantastic articles taken from The Chronicle Of The Horse...a must read for everyone and especially those in the business of breeding!!!



In the world of human nutrition, fat is usually a bad word. However, for horses, a high-fat diet can help solve a myriad of issues. Not only will additional fat aid with the obvious issue of weight gain, but it’s also a good source of “cool” energy, may improve skin and coat quality and can even help prevent tying up.  

“There are no real negatives to feeding a high-fat diet except the possibility of feeding too many calories,” said Olivia Martin of Performance Feeding. “Feeding a horse to be overweight can trigger other problems such as metabolic disorders and unneeded stress on joints and other structures. However, hard-to-keep horses and highly strung/excitable horses benefit from high fat diets. Horses suffering from conditions such as chronic tying up and Polysaccharide Storage Myophathy also benefit from a high-fat diet.”

Why Feed Fat?

One of the first questions people ask about a high-fat diet for horses is: Is it natural? The answer is no, but that’s no reason to avoid fat.

In the wild, horses would get all the calories and nutrients they needed from grass and other forages. However, today’s sport horses have decreased access to forage and increased caloric demands due to exercise, so they need supplementation in the form of concentrates.

“They aren’t designed to eat fat, but they can cope with it,” said Tania Cubitt, Ph.D., a nutritionist with Performance Horse Nutrition LLC. “Horses don’t have a gall bladder, and in humans, the gall bladder stores bile, which breaks down fat. The liver in the horse can produce some bile to break down fat. We have determined through science that they can deal with fat in their diet, and it’s better than feeding high amounts of sugars and starches.”

Fat contains 2.25 times more energy than cereal grains such as corn or barley, so when you increase fat in the diet, you can feed fewer pounds of feed. However, if you’re supplementing fat to your horse’s regular feed, be careful not to cut back too much on his concentrate ration. Commercially formulated feeds only provide your horse with the nutrients he needs if you follow the manufacturer’s recommendations at mealtime.

The digestion of fats does not increase blood sugar, and horses digest fat very efficiently in the small intestine. Given two to three weeks to adjust, horses can digest up to 20 percent fat in their total diet, although it’s only practical to feed them that much in a research setting. (That’s why it’s OK for horses to eat high-fat diets and not humans—a high-fat diet for a human might consist of 60-70 percent of total calories from fat or more!)

In the past, pre-formulated high-fat feeds weren’t as readily available, but today we have many more options. A concentrate ration with 3-4 percent fat may be perfectly appropriate for an easy keeper in light work, but many performance horses benefit from more fat in their diet.

“Fat gives the horse physical energy without increasing mental energy. Feeding fat can also benefit a horse’s skin and coat condition,” said Martin. “The fat content of the ration does not affect the protein needed by the horse. Fat is an energy source only.”

High-fat diets enable horses in intense situations, such as pregnant or lactating mares, or horses working at high levels, to safely and more efficiently meet their energy requirements. In the case of hard-working horses, a horse can use fats to help keep their muscles working during stressful situations.

However, it’s important to remember that horses need time to adjust before they can digest fat easily. If you choose to switch your horse to a high-fat diet, do so slowly and well before a competition so his muscles can use the new source of energy efficiently.

The Omegas

Another benefit of feeding fat is the addition of omega fatty acids into the diet. Omega fatty acids have been shown to benefit humans and other animals in a variety of ways, and studies are just starting to come out that show the benefits for horses.

Benefits may include:

• Increased plasma and red blood cell levels
• Increased semen quality post freezing or chilling in breeding stallions
• Reduction in inflammatory response to exercise
• Improved vitamin E status in horses fed supplemental vitamin
• Reduction in inflammation caused by arthritis

Omega 3 and Omega 6 are essential fatty acids—nutrients that a horse must get from feed rather than producing internally. The horse needs a balance of Omega 3s to Omega 6s, but we don’t yet know what the best ratio is.

“The natural diet of horses—primarily fresh and dried forages—contains more Omega 3 fatty acids than diets consisting of a mixture of forage and cereal grains,” said Martin. “Domesticated horses are often fed concentrated sources of energy in the form of grain meals. Grains possess more Omega 6 fatty acids than forage, creating a balance of Omega 3 to Omega 6 fatty acids that may be inappropriate, especially when diets are high in grain.”

Omega 3s are thought to be anti-inflammatory in the body, and Omega 6s are thought to be pro-inflammatory, and both are necessary. So the idea is not to eliminate Omega 6s from the diet, but to look for ways to supplement Omega 3s, especially for horses with less access to good pasture.

Percentage Of Omega 3s And Omega 6s In Common Fat Supplements
Chart courtesy of Tania Cubitt, Ph.D


Ingredient                 Omega 3                 Omega 6 
Rice Bran Oil             1%                            39%
Corn Oil                     1%                             58%
Soybean Oil              7%                             51%
Canola Oil                 11%                            21%
Flaxseed Oil             53%                           16%
Fish oil is another excellent source of Omega 3s.

Fat Sources 101

Most commercial feeds already have some amount of fat in them, but the level varies greatly depending on the product.

Cereal grains, such as corn and oats, are high in carbohydrates but low in fat.

Oils, on the other hand, are 99 percent fat. Therefore, adding oil to your horse’s diet is one of the easiest methods for increasing fat intake.

Flax seed is another source of fat and may be fed as an oil or ground meal. There are, however, some drawbacks to flax.

“Large amounts of flax aren’t palatable,” said Cubitt. “I recommend it a lot, but more for the Omega 3 fatty acids. For sheer weight gain, you need to feed two to three cups of oil a day on top of a high-fat ration, and for some reason they don’t like the taste of it. And it can be quite costly.”

Another issue with flax is that the seeds must be ground for horses to get the benefit, as they can’t digest the seed coating. “As soon as you grind it, you expose the inside to oxidation and hence rancidity. That’s why you have to put it in the fridge,” said Cubitt. “If you’re going to buy it in bulk, keep the seed in a cool dry place and grind it as needed. Ground flax is not as potent as straight flax oil for calories because it’s got the fiber in there.”

Rice bran is another option for additional fat, and it comes in pelleted or extruded versions. However, it only contains 20 percent fat.

There are also numerous fat supplements on the market. However, it’s important to read the ingredients list. Fat can come from a vegetable or animal source, but animal fat is not as palatable to horses.  

Animal fat is only about 75 percent digestible, whereas vegetable fat is 95 percent. In small intakes of fat, the digestibility is insignificant, but when a horse consumes a large amount, such as when he is on a high-fat diet, the fat that isn’t digested can upset the balance of microbes in the hindgut.

It’s fine to feed a small amount of fish oil in order to add Omega 3s to your horse’s diet, but look to the vegetable fats to add substantial amounts of fat.

This is the sixth article in the "Fix It With 
Feed" series. 

A series of fantastic articles taken from The Chronicle Of The Horse...a must read for everyone and especially those in the business of breeding!!!


When it comes to equine nutrition, we often stress about whether our horses are carrying enough flesh. However, the well-padded look that might be perfect for the show ring is often too heavy for excellent health.

“Horse people have different standards of what is ideal; most horses are too pudgy,” said Martin Furr, DVM, Ph.D., Diplomate ACVIM and Adelaide C. Riggs Chair in Equine Medicine at the Marion duPont Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Va. “You want your horse to be a 5 on the body condition score scale [out of 9]. That’s optimal.”

Having a horse that’s too fat can lead to all sorts of metabolic issues, including Equine Metabolic Syndrome and insulin resistance.

The poster horse for EMS is one that is obese, laminitis-prone and also insulin resistant.

“Insulin resistance is just a condition in which the body does not respond appropriately to the insulin that is present,” said Furr. “The body is producing insulin, but the cells are not responding to the insulin that’s there. There’s a range. You could have a tiny bit of reduction of response to a huge amount of response.”

No one knows exactly why some horses become insulin resistant, but factors such as obesity, lack of exercise and long-term intake of feeds high in glucose seem to be part of the equation. Horses are typically between the ages of 8 and 18 when insulin issues begin, and some breeds—Morgans, Arabians, Paso Finos, some warmbloods and ponies—tend to become overweight more readily than other horses, thus they are more often insulin resistant.

Diagnosing The Problem

“Horses that are insulin resistant tend to have some similar physical characteristics,” said Olivia Martin of Performance Feeding. “General obesity with areas of patchy fat accumulation, usually over the crest of the neck, over the shoulders, and fatty deposits over the croup and on either side of the tail head. Geldings can have fat deposits surrounding the sheath, and broodmares can have fat surrounding the udder. Horses that are insulin resistant are usually defined as easy keepers, and are often fat even though they are fed calorie-restricted diets.”

Insulin resistance can be diagnosed by a simple blood test, where the blood concentrations of insulin, ACTH (thyroid hormone) and other major hormones are recorded. A glucose tolerance test can also be performed. This test requires giving a horse a known quantity of glucose, then taking sequential blood tests to monitor the horse’s insulin response.

One of the major complications of EMS and IR is the development of laminitis.

“The insulin will be too high because the cells are not responding to the insulin that’s there, so it’ll crank out more,” said Furr. “Nobody really knows for sure what high levels of insulin do in the body. It appears that it’s damaging to the lining of blood vessels, especially in the feet. It appears there’s toxicity to those tissues. It’s also probably doing something metabolically to the cells that we don’t understand yet. It also causes inflammation, which is also damaging to the feet.”

While there are some supplements on the market to help manage EMS and IR, Furr and Martin don’t believe they are very helpful.

“There’s probably a gazillion supplements and herbal things that people are trying to sell, but we just don’t know if they’re useful or not. The key things is decrease their food, increase their work,” said Furr.

Step 1: Kill The Carbs

The first problem with overweight horses is providing the appropriate amount of calories without overloading them with starch and sugars. Cutting out sweet feed, molasses and whole grain such as corn and oats is the first step in equine weight loss.

“Often these horses cannot eat grain meals, and un-molassed beet pulp can be used as a carrier for any medications or supplements,” said Martin. “Un-molassed beet pulp can be used as a substitute for a up to 1/3 of the hay fed per day: For example, if a horse should be eating 15 lbs of hay per day, feed 10 lbs of hay per day and 2½ - 4 pounds of un-molassed beet pulp per day.”

If giving your horse a concentrate ration is absolutely necessary, then there are several low-carbohydrate feeds on the market. You want to look for a feed that has a low carbohydrate but high fat content.

“We want to get rid of as much sugar as possible. You can still overfeed, so you still have to feed an appropriate volume. Metabolic diets are typically low sugar and higher fat than the typical sweet feed,” said Furr.

Step 2: Forage And Pasture Management

Since most horses will do exceptionally well on a diet comprised mostly of forage, it’s important to feed a good quality hay, as well as maintaining your fields. However, for EMS and IR horses, pasture management quickly come into play.

“You may have to restrict their access to pasture,” said Furr. “A horse can eat roughly half of his daily requirement in three to four hours. You want the turnout to be at night, because the amount of sugar in the grass is lowest at about 4 a.m. The highest content is about 4 p.m. Definitely keep them off the spring grass.”

In addition to considering a grazing muzzle, you can also turn out in a dry lot. However, Furr cautioned against turning out in a field with stubble or patchy grass, as low quality pasture tends to have fructane in it, which contributes to laminitis.

“In addition, test your hay if possible to determine the carbohydrate level,” said Martin. “If this is not possible, soaking the hay (fully submerging soak for 30 minutes in hot water or 60 minutes in cold water) can reduce the available carbohydrate in the hay by as much as 30 percent.”

Step 3: Exercise

Once you have your feeding program up to snuff, exercise is the final and most important part of putting your horse back on the right track, health wise. Getting your horse into an exercise routine that is appropriate for his age and ability will dramatically improve his way of life and obesity issues.

“When you pull their weight down and get them exercising, lots of times the IR goes away,” said Furr. “Decrease calories that go in, increase the calories they’re burning. Most of the time they don’t need the extra calories unless they’re working hard. Horses that are working hard generally don’t have this problem.”

Other Metabolic Problems

Cushings is another major metabolic problem that owners of older horses often face. Cushings disease is a disorder of the endocrine system in which the pituitary gland is enlarged, and it excretes excessive amounts of hormones, some of those being the cortisol-based hormones. Cushings horses tend to combine weight loss with a big belly. The cortisol causes muscle weakness, long shaggy coat, association with laminitis and poor resistance to infection.

In general, Cushings is managed with various forms of medication, but keeping an affected horse on a strict diet plan is also helpful to his health and soundness.

“Each horse is individual, but in general, those guys can be given medication to shrink the pituitary gland,” said Furr. “Those horses tend to require some management help. You have to pay attention to their feet, clip them in the summer. If they’re thin, they’ll require a feeding program that increases the amount of energy they get, but you don’t want to give them too much carbohydrate and soluble sugar, because that will worsen their insulin resistance and put them at an increased risk for laminitis. You want to give them more total calories but less from carbohydrates.”

“If a horse has been diagnosed with Cushings, feeding it like a horse that is insulin resistant will not be harmful and can be preventative of future metabolic conditions,” said Martin.

However, horses with Cushings do not always have insulin resistance, so it’s important to consult with your veterinarian and a nutritionist before throwing your horse on a new diet.

This is the fifth article in the "Fix It With 
Feed" series. 


A series of fantastic articles taken from The Chronicle Of The Horse...a must read for everyone and especially those in the business of breeding!!!


One morning when you go to feed your horses and turn them out for the day, you notice your gelding appears to be wheezing. He happily eats his breakfast and is otherwise normal, so you turn him out anyway. When you bring him back in that night, he seems his normal self.

However, the next morning, he’s having trouble breathing again, and he has soft, flat, swollen lumps all over his body. The hives indicate an allergic reaction, and in hindsight, his wheezing the previous day was also a clue.

Deducing and treating allergies can be quite difficult. Where do you even start?

“Allergies are an interesting problem. Sometimes you’ll do the allergy test, and they’ll come up allergic for everything,” said Melyni Worth, Ph.D., P.A.S., of Foxden Equine, Stuarts Draft, Va. “It’s not possible to cure allergies; it’s an immune system problem.”

What Exactly Is An Allergy?

An allergy, by definition, is a hypersensitivity to one or more allergens, resulting in a markedly increased reactivity by the immune system after repeat exposures.

“People get really confused about the difference between an allergen and a bacterial response,” said Worth. “The bacterial infection you can fix. Allergies you cannot. Sometimes they come hand-in-hand, and you have to treat the bacteria first.”

Essentially, allergies are just an over-reactive immune system. If your horse has a healthy immune system, he will be able to handle all of the allergens present in the air and in the environment in which he lives. In general, equine allergies are either respiratory or skin related.

“The two primary complaints are either skin-related—skin lesions, lumps and bumps and itchy skin, or the other more common one is respiratory problems,” said Martin Furr, DVM, Ph.D., Diplomate ACVIM and Adelaide C. Riggs Chair in Equine Medicine at the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center, Leesburg, Va. “The skin allergies, for the most part, are contact allergens; something is getting on the horse. The respiratory ones usually come from feed. As they’re eating, they inhale it, and they start to get breathing problems. That’s the more common one. In humans, they have intestinal allergies, and we haven’t really defined those really well, whether they occur or not.”

An allergy can decrease performance, be painful and unsightly, and can be expensive to diagnose and treat. Secondary issues such as self-trauma like tail rubbing can also become an issue.

Diagnosing An Allergy

The first step in diagnosing an allergy’s source requires two different tests.

In the intradermal skin test, the veterinarian will inject minute amounts of allergen in the skin and monitor the reactions over a 24-hour period.

Blood testing is much more prevalent and involves testing the blood with different allergens to see which ones cause a reaction.

Another way to diagnose allergies, especially feed-related issues, is to use a little deductive reasoning.

We look to see if there’s a common factor when the symptoms appear,” said Worth. “You work your way through logically until you narrow down the cause, then you eliminate those things from the diet and see if it goes away. You do your best, try to work your way to the problem, and see what the horse tolerates and doesn’t. It can be a real pain!”

Most Common Equine Allergens

• Insects
• Mold
• Grasses
• Tree Pollens

“From a digestive perspective, two-thirds of the immune system is housed in the walls of the gut,” said Joyce Harman, DVM, MRCVS, of the Harmany Equine Clinic in Flint Hill, Va. “The gut becomes extremely important in the immune system and allergies. If you’re putting food into the gut that the horse is sensitive to, you’re affecting the immune system.”

Tackling The Problem

Once you figure out the cause of the allergy, it’s essential to remove it from the horse’s environment.

“The cornerstone of treating allergies is to minimize exposure. You have to do all of the environmental management issues to minimize exposure,” said Furr. “The second thing is usually to treat with an immunosuppressant, minimize the reactivity and the response. That can be short term or longer term. Hopefully you identify what it is, use the drugs and get things quieted down so you can adjust the environment.”

Since dust and mold are major contributors to allergy-prone horses, one of the easiest ways to manage allergies is to keep the horse outside.

“It’s dusty and moldy inside, and the air circulation is less,” said Furr. “We want them out as much as possible. When it is inside, it needs to be in a stall that is well ventilated. Leave a window or something open, if possible. Make sure they’re not in a barn where hay is stored, especially in a loft over their head.”

As one can imagine, the problem with hay is that it is a professional dust collector. Bedding can also cause a dust problem.

You can spray down the hay with water, or dunk it, immerse it in water and let it get really saturated,” said Furr. “Change their bedding. There are low dust and dust free type beddings. Pine shavings tend to be lower dust than pine sawdust or straw. Don’t feed round bales outside. It can be moldy and moist, and they stick their heads right in the middle of it.”

In addition to changing their hay and bedding, you may need to change your horse’s feed, as well. Some feed products are going to be dustier than others, and while there isn’t a good way to diagnose intestinal allergies in horses, there’s evidence that they can be sensitive to things like corn and barley.

“Horses are mostly allergic to proteins, so that’s what you look for: protein spores,” said Worth. “When you look in the diet, you zero in on the protein first. Your fats usually help keep the immune systems from firing.”

“There are certain horses that you can use fully pelleted feeds and take them off hay altogether,” added Furr. “There are some hypoallergenic feeds that have all the hay pressed into the grain. Dengi, for example, is cleaned and steamed and chopped short.”

Traditional Fixes

In general, when a horse is diagnosed with an allergy, your vet will probably have you start them on corticosteroids to help slow down the immune systems reactivity. This sort of drug therapy can be short or long term depending on the severity of the allergy, but it’s not a cure.

“There can be problems associated with the steroids, but it varies with the type with how long they’re on it, and the dose,” said Furr. “The more powerful the steroid, the less you want to be on it. We want to use steroids that aren’t dangerously potent and can be safely managed on them, but that are effective. Laminitis is the big concern with corticosteroids.”

Horse owners have another option with allergy shots, but they aren’t used very often as they are expensive and a management issue.

“Most of our allergy problems are respiratory associated, and the allergy shots don’t seem to be as affective in managing the respiratory problems,” said Furr. “Sometimes it works OK, sometimes it doesn’t work at all. It’s hard to justify it too much.”

Feed Flax!

One of the best solutions to allergy issues is a simple addition to your feed program: flax seed.

“Flax is excellent for all types of allergies,” said Harman. “Flax contains Omega 3 fatty acids. We can get them from flax, hemp and from chia seeds. The Omega 3s are anti-inflammatory, so they help decrease inflammation; they help regulate the immune system. They strengthen the immune system, and they actually help balance the white blood cells and help improve the integrity of the cell walls. They are particularly effective in the skin, as it helps protect the skin from reacting to other allergens.”

In addition to its immune boosting properties, flax is very easy to incorporate into the diet. Thanks to modern advances, there’s no need to boil it anymore, and it is available in stabilized forms. However, it’s important to make sure the flax is naturally stabilized.

“If you grind flax, the Omega 3s will oxidize almost immediately. We take anti-oxidants to make ourselves live longer. If our supplement oxidizes, you have to use your anti-oxidants to digest it. You have to grind flax fresh and make sure you thoroughly clean your grinder after each use. You can also feed it whole or feed stabilized flax,” said Harman.

The Orange Effect

Vitamin C can help boost the immune system and provide allergy relief, as well.

“One of the great, inexpensive, successful regulators of the immune system is vitamin C,” said Harman. “The key with allergies is that the immune system has kind of gone haywire, so it’s overreacting to proteins or things in the environment that the normal horse would not. Vitamin C can help balance the immune system.”

Harman said that vitamin C is “so safe you can’t overdo it,” but that adding 3-5 grams to their diet is a smart addition to allergy prone horses. It’s important, however, to purchase pure forms of vitamin C, like ascorbic acid, as the filler used in buffered vitamin C could be allergenic as well.

Harman said homeopathic or natural therapies are often helpful with allergies, but people shouldn’t try these remedies without advice from a knowledgeable homeopathic veterinarian.

“There’s a million things out there that can be fed to help stabilize the immune system,” said Harman. “Allergies can be one of the most difficult things to treat. If you just open a book and try to throw a remedy at a horse, you may confuse his body even more. In western medicine we tend to run out of choices, so if they aren’t working we don’t have anywhere to go. The nice thing with the natural medicine, for things like allergies, is that we have a huge toolbox. If one thing isn’t working, there are many other choices.”

This is the fourth article in the "Fix It With 
Feed" series. 

A series of fantastic articles taken from The Chronicle Of The Horse...a must read for everyone and especially those in the business of breeding!!!

While the stress of riding and competing is often to blame for the development of ulcers in horses, feed programs are another factor behind Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome.

We try to tailor feed programs to provide our horses with everything they need, but maintaining a healthy gut requires more than the right nutrients. Feeding only a few times a day, while easier on us, has been proven to promote the growth of ulcers. One of the easiest ways to fix ulcers with feed is simply to feed more often.

“There are several factors that contribute to the development of gastric ulcers, but dietary management is key,” said Olivia Martin of Performance Feeding Inc.  “Limiting fasting periods—keep hay in front of the horse throughout the day if possible, limited feeding of high soluble carbohydrate meals and the inclusion of alfalfa hay as all or part of the horse’s forage ration, along with pasture turnout can help reduce environmental stress and help prevent gastric ulcers.”

Why Are Horses So Ulcer Prone Anyway?

Horses are susceptible to ulcers for several reasons, but the guts of the problem lie in the horse’s stomach structure.

A horse’s stomach is very small compared to the rest of its digestive tract (about four gallons at maximum capacity), and it functions best with small, frequent meals, just as he would eat in the wild. The stomach also has two different sections, the glandular epithelium and the squamous epithelium. The glandular portion contains all the glands that produce the digestive enzymes and other factors that help protect the stomach, and the squamous portion serves as a place to contain food.

One way to think about the glandular epithelium is that it’s the protected section of the stomach. “It has a mucous coating that protects the tissue from acid that is secreted by cells that are also located in this protected region,” explained Tania Cubitt, Ph.D., a nutritionist with Performance Horse Nutrition LLC.

The squamous portion is the unprotected section. “These regions are divided by a line called the margo plicatus. Most gastric (stomach) ulcers are found directly above this line into the non-protected region of the stomach,” continued Cubitt. “Unlike dogs and cats, which secrete acid into their stomach based on a meal response, horses and grazing animals should be constantly nibbling on forages, which would therefore keep a constant supply of food and saliva in the stomach. Therefore, horses secrete acid constantly. If we do not supply forage constantly in the form of pasture or hay, then the acid will build up and splash onto the non-protected region and cause ulcers, or it will simply wear away at the protective coating and cause ulcers.”

Interestingly enough, EGUS is considered a “man-made” disease. Unlike human ulcers, which are associated with the Helicobacter pylori bacterium, EGUS has no correlation with the bacterium, and it has never been found in horses. Instead, ulcers in horses are linked to the way we have forced them to change their natural grazing instincts and disrupted the natural digestive process.

Other Ulcer Factors

• Infrequent, low-roughage/high-concentrate feeding
• Infrequent turnout
• Intensive training
• Increased stress levels
• Overuse of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. (NSAIDs interrupt the production of prostaglandins, which decreases blood flow to the stomach. NSAIDs can rapidly break down the mucous protective coating in the stomach and therefore leave it open to the acid and in turn ulceration.) 

Factoring In Feed Problems

While we know that infrequent feeding is definitely a culprit, there’s also research that suggests a diet high in soluble carbohydrates may contribute to ulcers as well.

“Diets that contain large amounts of cereal grains and low fiber content have a few different detrimental effects,” said Martin. “High carbohydrate/low fiber diets are consumed rapidly, allowing for minimal saliva production and longer periods of time between meals. They also pass through the stomach quickly and leave the stomach environment without any buffer.

“Buffering capacity generally means the ability of a substance to resist changes in pH,” explained Martin. “An example in the horse would be: The pH of horses that have had feed withheld for several hours has been measured to be 2.0 or less. Because of the buffering capacity of hay, horses that received free choice timothy hay for 24 hours had gastric pH readings that were significantly higher than fasted horses.”

Another issue with high carbohydrate/low fiber feeds is that because they pass rapidly through the stomach, large amounts of soluble carbohydrate may reach the hindgut where rapid fermentation may cause colic or even laminitis.

So What Do I Feed?

Since creating a diet that is low in soluble carbohydrates and high in fiber is ideal for ulcer-prone horses, it’s important to decipher just what’s in the feed you’ve chosen. In general, sweet feed, corn, oats and barely top the list as the grains highest in soluble carbohydrates, whereas wheat bran, beet pulp, alfalfa and rice bran contain much lower percentages.

Nutrient Content Of Horse Feeds And Forages


Feed           Protein       Fat       Crude       Calculated         Estimated Digestible                                 (%)          (%)       Fiber (%)   Starch/Sugar   Energy 
Corn               8              4           2                 67.7                    1.5 
Barley             11             2           5                 65 1.                   6
Molasses       6.6           0          0                 62.8                    1. 3
Oats               12             5           12                53                       1.3
Dehydrated  18            2.6        25               23.9                     1
Alfalfa

Timothy        9              2.5        30              17.8                      0.8
Hay

Example        12             6           8                8                          1.5
Grain Pellet

Chart courtesy of Alliance Nutrition Equine

“The ideal diet is a pasture diet where the horse is eating small amounts of grass throughout the day, chewing the whole time and digesting slowly,” said Martin. “However, in the life of the modern performance horse, constant pasture turnout is not always possible. Free choice hay and limited fasting periods between meals—frequent concentrate meals if needed—are important.”

There is also strong evidence that feeding alfalfa hay, even as a part of the hay ration, will help avoid gastric ulcers. Alfalfa contains higher levels of protein and calcium, both of which buffer gastric acid. Also, the cell wall of alfalfa contains certain indigestible compounds such as lignin that gives it a greater buffering capacity than grasses.

Managing The Hot And Hard Keepers

While ulcer management seems fairly straightforward for your average horse, it becomes a little trickier for the high-anxiety horses or hard keepers. How do you provide the appropriate combination of calories without contributing to ulcer formation?

“Maximizing the fat content of the ration can offer cooler calories to the horse that has a lot of energy but also suffers from gastric ulcers,” said Martin. “Again, feed hay as frequently as possible and choose a concentrate that maximizes energy sources such as fat and fiber. There are many good quality beet pulp-based, high fat feeds available today that are ideal for the ‘hot’ horse that needs calories beyond just hay.”

Similarly, when you’re managing a hard keeper, it’s essential to maximize calories from fiber and fat. Adding fat is an easy way to boost calories in a horse’s concentrated ration, and ounce for ounce, fat provides more energy than grains.

“Switching to a high-fat feed or replacing part of the grain measure with a cup or two of vegetable oil will significantly increase energy intake,” said Martin. “One of the easiest and most palatable ways to introduce extra fat is by adding up to two pounds of rice bran to the grain ration. Rice bran products such can safely be fed to a wide range of horses, and feeding rice bran does not overload the digestive system with carbohydrates.”

Martin recommends a feed that has 8-12 percent fat and a beet pulp portion of 15-20 percent as a good choice to encourage weight gain without exacerbating ulcer conditions.

What About All Those Ulcer Medications?

Ulcer medications fall into four categories—proton pump inhibitors, H-2 blockers, sucralfate and antacids—and while all of them are effective, they are not necessarily a cure.

“There is definitely a place for ulcer medications, but long term use, particularly of acid pump inhibitors, is not recommended if we can avoid it and use feed and management,” said Cubitt. “Acid is produced in the stomach for a reason. It is the second (teeth are the first) line of breakdown of food so that it can pass through into the rest of the digestive tract and be digested further and absorbed accordingly. Ulcer medications block acid production, which is necessary in some cases in the short term so that we can heal the stomach lining, but long term I think they are interfering with the natural digestive process.”

A Universal Problem

While there are no particular breeds that are more susceptible to ulcers than others, any horse that has a nervous disposition or operates in a high-stress environment is prone to EGUS. Some researchers estimate that 93 percent of racehorses have ulcers, and 63 percent of non-racing performance horses develop ulcers during their careers.

“It is hard to rule out one feed ingredient that a horse with ulcers should never have,” said Martin. “Preventing and treating ulcers is a process of managing the different risk factors that a performance horse experiences while allowing them to maintain an active performance career.”