Avoiding laminitis
While horses and ponies love eating grass, too much of it can have health implications, unfortunately. Telissa Blowers BSc (Hons), equine nutritionist at Allen & Page Quality Horse Feeds, explains
IT’S THAT TIME of the year when the lush spring grass is coming through thick and fast, temperatures are on the rise and horses are staying out for longer. As much as grass is a natural feed for your horse, too much can lead to weight gain, which will have a negative impact on his health. It’s thought that horses who are overweight are at greater risk of developing laminitis — so always remember: prevention is better than cure! Laminitis is rife during the spring and summer, so making sure that your horse has the correct management is vital.
Watch his waistline
Providing your horse with a low-calorie feed (8-9 MJ/kg) such as Allen & Page Fast Fibre or Veteran Light will help those horses who normally survive off forage alone to maintain an ideal body condition score. It will also provide a fully balanced diet (when fed at recommended amounts). Keeping a correct body condition score and providing a suitable diet is particularly important for laminitics, as horses with a history of the condition are more predisposed to a recurrence.
Laminitics should be given a diet that is high in fibre and low in starch and sugar. Cereal grains and added sugars such as molasses should be avoided. Research into the condition has shown that feeds with a combined starch and sugar content of below 10% are the most beneficial so, in light of this, Fast Fibre and Veteran Light are free from cereal grains and added sugar, and have a combined starch and sugar level of less than 10%. This makes them suitable to feed to horses prone to laminitis.
Tempting and tasty
With a range of herbs — mint, fenugreek cloves and garlic, to name but a few — added for their natural flavour and wellknown properties, Veteran Light is a highly palatable feed to tempt even the fussiest eaters. Allen & Page feeds also contain no artificial flavours, preservatives or aromas. It’s very common for horses suffering from laminitis or related blood sugar conditions to go through an appetite change, so a tasty feed is key! Not only this, but Fast Fibre and Veteran Light (as with all feeds in the Barley & Molasses Free range) are completely free from added sugars. This means they contain no molasses or anything similar, such as syrups. Check the labels to ensure that this is the case with anything else you are feeding.
The effect of sugar
Grass contains ‘simple sugars’ and fructans (the storage form of sugar found in the stem). These sugars will only be produced during daylight hours when photosynthesis occurs. This is the process by which plants harness energy from sunlight to produce chemical energy, fuelling the plants’ growth. During the spring and summer months, this process is heightened.
Sugars and fructans are also known as water-soluble carbohydrates (WSCs) and if the horse consumes high amounts, this increases their risk of weight gain, digestive upsets (such as colic), fizzy behaviour, and laminitis.
Changing routines
For those horses and ponies who are known to hold weight too well, and/or are prone to laminitis, implementing preventative measures can help to reduce the risk. Techniques that can be put into day-to-day practice include turning out your horse overnight (when the sugar content of grass is reduced) and stabling him during the day.
When he’s stabled, your horse’s forage source should be hay, rather than haylage, to reduce the calorie and sugar content. Soaking the hay will reduce this still further. For maximum calorie and sugar reduction it should be soaked for 12-16 hours, but if this isn’t possible, soaking it for just a short amount of time is better than not soaking at all.
Turnout time
Horses are grazing animals who are designed to be foraging for 18-20 hours a day, so spending time in the field or paddock is healthy, even for laminitics. Be mindful of the amount of grazing your horse is having, however. It may be beneficial to introduce strip grazing to limit his grass intake.
Alternatively, depending on the amount of land available, a paradise grazing track system could be put into place. This involves fencing a track around the outside of the field so that your horse moves around the track while grazing.
Unfortunately, some yards will not have the grazing facilities for either of these methods, so in this instance a grazing muzzle might be a good option to minimise grass intake. Make sure you check the fit before turning your horse out to avoid rubbing and/or sores.
Remember that you can boost any weight loss by increasing the amount of exercise your horse does — so long as he has no soundness issues, of course.