Reading Time: 3 minutes Equine professionals, horse owners and caregivers increasingly emphasize the significance of giving horses continual access to long-stem, high-fibre, low-calorie forages. Interwoven with this ongoing forage availability, however, is another requirement that must be met: the horse’s inherent and almost constant need to move. Horses operate as grazing athletes. Their innate eating behaviours include a spectrum […] Read more
Embracing horses’ need for near-constant movement
Don’t discount natural movement; it’s important for horse health and weight management
The benefit of bitters for horses
Bitter plants can provide a natural booster for horses’ gut health
Reading Time: 2 minutes Domestic horses are known for their preference for lush green pastures and sweet hay, yet their natural foraging behaviour intrigues equine professionals, scientists and horse owners: their attraction to a specific group of plants known as bitters. Horses, with their remarkable sense of taste and intuition, display a strong and deliberate inclination toward certain plants […] Read more
Garden-grown proprioception and your horse
Horse Health: Proprioception gardens mix different types of footing, obstacles and terrain to build a horse’s body awareness
Reading Time: 3 minutes Proprioception is a natural ability shared by humans and horses. It involves the body’s inherent awareness of its position, movement and balance in relation to the surrounding environment. In horses, this perception varies. Different lifestyles and occupations require variable levels of proprioception to navigate daily tasks without stumbling or tripping and when encountering obstacles. However, […] Read more
The ‘rescue’ horse
With the proper approach, rescue horses can prosper and be public ambassadors for horse care
Reading Time: 4 minutes Rescue horses bring great awareness to equine welfare and serve as powerful reminders of the significance of responsible horse ownership. Like equine ambassadors, they provide valuable feedback and insights into the industry. These horses showcase the powerful outcomes that can be achieved when their fundamental needs change from absent to fulfilled. The term “rescue horse” […] Read more
When horses are distressed, you need to understand the cause
Reading Time: 3 minutes Horses, like humans, can experience anxiety and become emotionally distressed. Anxiety affects their focus, behaviour and performance, and can also have a profound impact on their health and soundness. There is growing interest in the use of calming supplements to manage horse anxiety and stress levels. However, these remedies may provide only temporary relief without […] Read more
Epigenetics underscores the need of getting a foal off to a good start
Genes are only part of the story — how they’re expressed is a different matter
Reading Time: 2 minutes Epigenetics is an emerging branch of genetic science that examines the impact of the environment on an organism’s development. This field shows that genes can be switched on or off through life events without changing DNA sequences. The epigenome serves as a type of biological software that directs the genomic hardware of cells to determine […] Read more
The critical role of magnesium in horse health
Short-changing a horse on magnesium can impact both physical health and temperament
Reading Time: 3 minutes Magnesium is an essential macro-mineral that plays a crucial role in the health and wellbeing of horses. It is essential for more than 350 biochemical processes in the body of the horse, including generation of cellular energy and decoding genetic information. Understanding the importance of magnesium at the cellular level and its impact on health […] Read more
Slow and steady movement is what keeps horses healthy
Modern day horses suffer from many of the same health problems as modern day humans
Reading Time: 3 minutes Cinema portrays wild horses to be ‘running free,’ but the truth is that they spend hours and hours a day ‘walking free’ — moving slow and steady as they graze, browse and forage. Step, bite, chew, repeat. Horses were designed to move and it keeps them physically healthy and mentally content. The No. 1 function of […] Read more
Watch the whiskers and you’ll learn more about your horse
An animal’s whiskers are important sensory organs and trimming them could be a bad idea
Reading Time: 3 minutes Veterinary professionals and cat owners have recently begun diagnosing and addressing whisker stress or whisker fatigue in felines. Simply put, the theory is that a cat’s whiskers can become over-stimulated from the unnatural habit of touching the sides of standard food and water dishes, leading to whisker stress or whisker fatigue. Although there is no […] Read more
The lonely horse suffers greatly in many different ways
Horses are social creatures and social isolation is among their strongest stressors
Reading Time: 2 minutes Horses have major advantages associated with domestic life but they have also incurred disadvantages that deeply affect their overall health and well-being. Perhaps the greatest of these disadvantages is frequent social isolation. Social support in humans has been found to protect individuals from the mental, physical and emotional stressors of life and it appears that […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
