01/09/2026
Happy first day of Spring to all our horse owners. Here are some important words from one of our featured listings The Horse Herbalist on keeping your horses safe and healthy this season.
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Laminitis: The 8 Hour Window That Can Save Your Horse
Happy first day of spring. Now for the most important post I will write all season.
That flush of fresh green growth looks wonderful, but new spring grass, and short frosted grass too, is loaded with sugars called fructans. The liver is the body's primary clearing house for fructans, so a liver that is sluggish after winter has a real job on its hands.
Add lush clover, rich pasture and a horse who has been standing about all winter, and you have the perfect recipe for laminitis.
Laminitis, or founder, is the cruellest of conditions. Imagine your feet disintegrating so you were forced to walk on your ankle bones. That is what it feels like for a foundering horse.
Here is the bit every owner needs to know. The development stage of founder occurs 8 to 12 hours BEFORE acute pain presents. Recognise this early stage and you can take immediate action and stop laminitis in its tracks.
Watch for these early signs:
⚠️A worried look around the eyes
⚠️Looking uncomfortable
⚠️Unnaturally spooky, unlike their normal self
⚠️Just not himself or herself
If you spot them, act fast, even if you are not sure it is laminitis:
Whack those ice boots on. You need boots that come up to just below the knee and extend down over the feet. Icing the lower leg is the only scientifically proven way to prevent acute laminitis, shown by the research of Australia's own Dr Chris Pollitt.
No boots? Stand your horse or pony up to their knees in a flowing river or a dam.
Handy on a budget? You can even make your own ice boots. Just remember, for laminitis the whole hoof and lower leg must stay properly cold, so keep topping up the ice.
No grazing muzzle? Put one on your shopping list today. Same goes for ice boots if your pony has foundered before.
If your horse or pony must have grass time, make it night time. Grass burns off its sugars overnight, so sugar levels are at their lowest from late night through the early hours of the morning, and horses tend to eat less then too. Bring them off before sunrise if possible, or as early as you can, because sugars climb once the sun is up and peak on sunny afternoons. And keep them right away from frosted grass; frost locks the sugars in and makes it just as dangerous as a lush spring flush.
Vigilance before the usual signs appear is your best defence. Save this post, share it with a friend who has a good doer, and keep your eyes open this spring. 🐴💚
