Riva's Remedies

10/13/2026

It's that time of year to address our horses' parasite loads. This is especially true for the horses that are grazing - those horses on dry lots have much fewer problems with parasites.

Grass provides the moisture (dew and rain) for the L3 larvae to "swim" out of the manure and into the grass. From there they climb up the blades to maximize their chances of getting eaten by the unsuspecting horses.

Before de-worming with anything it is highly recommended to have f***l samples tested at your local vet clinic. This way you know if they are low, medium, or high shedders and if your current de-worming program is working. Or if they even need a dose of chemical de-wormer; sometimes the results can be surprising. As well, only 30% of the horses in your herd are carrying the majority of the parasite loads.

It’s never a good idea to de-worm horses at fixed intervals year-around, or to blindly rotate different classes of drugs.

But the results of the f***l egg count do not always correlate with the size of the parasite load or the health conditions that the parasites are responsible for since it won’t detect those parasite larvae in hibernation or those that have migrated to other organs where they can do a lot of damage. Nevertheless, f***l tests are beneficial and underutilized.

There are two different ways of testing for parasites:

Both the Wisconsin Method and the McMaster method can be used for small strongyles which are the most common parasites for domestic horses.

The McMaster technique uses a specific counting slide so that you will have a count of how many eggs there are per gram. It is the best method where high loads of parasites are suspected. And if you prefer knowing specific counts. This technique is more precise and more accurate.

The Wisconsin Method results come back with a general low, medium, or high without specific numbers. It is not ideal for high parasite counts and is not as accurate. However, the Wisconsin technique can be more sensitive for tapeworm eggs although it will still only pick up 15-20% of the total eggs.

10/07/2026

💚 Horses seem to love green!

Of course, it’s the colour of grass, but I’ve often noticed them taking an interest in green things in other places, too. When I wear green gloves for example, the horses come right over to inspect my hands.

Once, while watching a Pony Club Fun Day, I noticed something interesting. The little jumps that they were practicing on were each a different colour, and with horses and riders still learning, there were a few refusals. But at the green jump? Not one horse or pony hesitated!

That’s a little aside, though. What I really want to say is that we have a another new product ready!

We’ve wanted to create a Greens Product for horses for quite some time because of the nutrition these ingredients can bring to the feed bucket.

Green plants offer a variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, essential fatty acids and other naturally occurring nutrients—a lovely way to add nutritional variety when fresh pasture or other feed choices are limited, they are on a hay-only diet, or the weather is cold.

🌿 Meet Equi-Greens!

Our new nutritional blend brings together five nutrient-rich ingredients:

Moringa Leaf Powder • Organic Barley Grass Powder • Spirulina Powder • Carrot Powder • Chlorella Powder

(If you previously used our discontinued Performance Plus for its spirulina content, Equi-Greens is a welcome addition to your horse’s feed program!)

A little more green, every day! 💚

10/03/2026

A significantly important perspective.

🐴 A HIGH ACTH DOES NOT MEAN YOUR HORSE HAS PPID (“Cushings”)

There is an important difference between an high blood test result and a diagnosis.

The horse matters more than the number.

This is where pre-test probability becomes incredibly important.

Imagine we test two horses:

One is a 22yo pony with history of laminitis, delayed coat shedding, muscle loss and other clinical signs strongly suggestive of PPID.

The other is a 9yo horse with no characteristic clinical signs of PPID.

Even if both return an ACTH concentration above the laboratory reference interval, those results do not carry the same diagnostic meaning.

The current BEVA PPID guidelines specifically state that the pre-test probability of PPID is low in horses under 10 years of age. In this age group, other explanations for the horse’s clinical signs should be investigated, and PPID testing should generally be reserved for horses with multiple compatible clinical signs that genuinely increase suspicion of the disease.

This matters because the lower the probability that a horse actually has PPID before we run the test, the greater the potential for a positive result to be a FALSE POSITIVE.

In fact, using published diagnostic-performance data, the BEVA guidelines estimated that during the autumn seasonal rise, around 80% of positive basal ACTH results in horses with a low pre-test probability of PPID could be false positives.

That is a really important number.

Why do I find this concerning?

I am increasingly seeing horses under 10 years of age being diagnosed with PPID and started on lifelong pergolide treatment based on a single ACTH result, sometimes without convincing clinical signs or further investigation.

Starting a young horse on lifelong medication based predominantly on one abnormal laboratory value, when the horse has a very low pre-test probability of actually having the disease, is simply not good veterinary practice. More importantly, it’s often bad news for the horse.

The problem isn’t simply that the horse may receive pergolide unnecessarily.

Once we attach a diagnosis of PPID to that horse, there is a risk that we stop asking the more important question:

If it isn’t PPID, what is actually going on?

An incorrect diagnosis can mean that another disease or management problem responsible for the horse’s clinical signs is overlooked or treatment is delayed. This concern is specifically raised in the BEVA guidelines, which note that false-positive PPID results may lead to unnecessary lifelong treatment and failure to identify and treat a potentially important alternative diagnosis.

ACTH is an extremely useful test when investigating PPID, but a high ACTH concentration on its own does not confirm that a horse has PPID.

ACTH is a biologically variable hormone. Its concentration can be influenced by many factors completely separate from PPID, and this needs to be considered before interpreting a result.

ACTH is a diagnostic tool. It is not a diagnosis.

An elevated ACTH should prompt us to look at the whole horse: age, clinical signs, history, breed, season, concurrent disease and the circumstances surrounding the blood sample.

Sometimes all of those pieces fit together beautifully and PPID is the logical diagnosis.

Sometimes they don’t.

When the laboratory result and the horse in front of us don’t match, the answer shouldn’t automatically be “start pergolide.”

The answer should be “let’s investigate further.”

🩺 Contact us on 0427 072 095 or book an appointment online: https://avonridgeequine.com.au/book-an-appointment/

10/02/2026

09/25/2026

Vitamin E deficiencies in horses have been receiving a lot more attention in the last few years. Horses that don't have access to any fresh green grass or forage are more likely to need Vitamin E supplements since hay or winter pastures don't have adequate levels. This is especially an issue in those areas with long winters. And horses don't have the ability to synthesize their own Vitamin E.

What to watch for: Muscle weakness and soreness, stiffness, muscle tremors, fatigue, poor exercise recovery, weight loss, and neurological symptoms.

Always supplement with natural source Vitamin E which can be identified by d-alpha tocopherol, rather than the prefix "dl" which is synthetic. Natural source Vitamin E has superior bioavailability.
One tsp = 2,010 IU.

Vitamin E combines well with Selenium which is also a common deficiency and important for muscle function.

09/21/2026

Glyphosate is one destructive chemical. It's hard to believe that the world is okay with poisoning our food, and the food of our animals.

To make matters worse it's often combined with 2,4-D, another powerful w**d killer for broad leaf w**ds that have become resistant.

Glyphosate is so toxic that the crops have to be genetically engineered to survive exposure. In fact, glyphosate is used to kill off crops that are not genetically engineered.

Glyphosate is sprayed on all crops: hay, alfalfa, grain, wheat, barley, soy, canola, beets, and corn.

Symptoms from chemical toxicity vary from diarrhea, colic, FWS, low energy, skin problems, respiratory issues, hair coat changes, weak or deformed hooves, laminitis, nervous system issues, and even behavioural problems such as increased stress, cribbing, and depression.

But ongoing research has found that it causes oxidative stress in the liver which disrupts sugar metabolism and alters insulin action in the liver which causes insulin dysregulation. In other words, glyphosate sprayed on our crops has a direct link to weight gain and Insulin Resistance. Along with everything else.

That's why horses can really benefit from regular cleanses to detoxify important organs - liver, kidneys, intestines - and rid the body of accumulated toxicity resulting in better health.

Spring and fall are popular seasons for cleansing programs.

09/21/2026

Ever wonder how fat cells cause Insulin Resistance?

Subcutaneous fat (i.e., the fat under the skin) acts as a storage depot. But once the capacity has reached its limit, fat is forced into the liver and muscles, organs and tissues which are not supposed to store fat. They are supposed to store sugars in the form of glycogen and use it for fuel.

These ectopic fats then create toxic substances, and the enlarged fat cells release inflammatory proteins into the blood. These proteins damage and block the insulin receptors which means that the cells can no longer respond to insulin. Blocked receptors can no longer allow sugars entry (so sugar stays in the blood), they impair nutrient use, and disorganize metabolism.

But the pancreas keeps producing insulin in an attempt to open up the sugar receptors but this eventually burns them out.

While it seems destructive, it is actually all a well-organized defense mechanism to protect vulnerable organs and tissues from sugar damage. But it creates quite a cascade of problems at the same time. The body is always trying to self-regulate a stable internal environment no matter what is going on externally.

That's why the best treatment for any health condition is to change the external problems first.

09/18/2026

🐴 WHY ISN’T MY HORSE KEEPING WEIGHT ON?

Not every horse is struggling with too much weight. In fact, many horse owners are facing exactly the opposite problem—trying everything they can think of to put weight ON their horse.

Underweight horses can be particularly challenging, especially our beloved seniors. We increase their feed, try different supplements, change their hay…and sometimes that scale still seems to be moving in the wrong direction.

And it isn’t only older horses.
Weight loss can happen to horses of any age, breed or type.

When a horse begins losing weight—or simply can’t maintain a healthy weight—the most important question isn’t:
“What can I feed to help my horse gain weight?”
The first question should be:
“WHY is my horse underweight?”

There are many possible reasons. The problem may involve the amount or quality of forage, dental health, digestion, parasites, nutritional deficiencies or imbalances, increased energy requirements, stress, metabolic changes, illness—or a combination of several factors.

Once we have a better understanding of why the horse is losing weight, we can make much better decisions about how to help. The goal isn’t simply to put more weight on your horse. It’s to help your horse achieve and maintain a healthy weight by addressing the root cause.

So before simply adding more calories to the feed bucket, let’s step back and look at the whole horse in this comprehensive blog which includes:

🐴 A practical Weight Gain Checklist
🌾 What to feed—and what not to feed
🌿 Nutritional and supplement recommendations
🔎 Common reasons horses lose weight or fail to gain
❤️ Practical strategies for seniors and hard keepers

(Link in the Comments)

09/16/2026

🌿 ANNOUNCEMENT – *NEW* PRODUCT!

EASY KEEP BALANCE HERBAL BLEND

We have a new Herbal Blend formulated to target weight issues, glycemic imbalances, and Insulin Resistance. As well as all the symptoms that accompany these conditions including low energy, hangry behaviour, more weight gain, poor immunity, infections, general inflammation, vision changes, and increased thirst and urination.

Feeding them differently with more exercise is one part of the equation but is often not enough for many horses; a lot of horses still need help finding their balance to maintain normal blood sugar levels, reset their metabolic hormone levels, and promote optimum liver function and immunity.

That intention was behind our development of EASY KEEP BALANCE.

We wanted plant medicines that were all about Metabolic Care specific to the Easy Keeper.

Ingredients: Chia Seeds, Elderflowers, Hawthorn Berries, Irish Moss, and Sage

*All of our Herbal Blends are pure and natural with no fillers or additives. Just the way horses like it!

09/15/2026

🔎 WHY DOES MY HORSE SEEM HANGRY ALL THE TIME?

You feed them what seems to be enough food, they always seem to be eating, but they are always acting hungry. Or cranky. Or pushing other horses out of the way. And/or biting.
Sound familiar? 😊

While horses are supposed to spend most of their day eating to optimize their energy and sustain their unique digestive system turning into a bear around food or being briefly without food is not the norm.

Feeling HANGRY is a symptom of other issues.

1. Unstable blood sugar. A horse's brain relies on glucose for energy and proper function and mood. When the brain gets hungry the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol are released in an effort to get the blood sugar up again.

2. At the same time another hormone called neuropeptide Y stimulates the appetite; neuropeptide Y is linked to aggressive behaviour.

3. If a horse's brain doesn't get enough fuel it can't regulate high-arousal emotions like frustration, impatience, and anger.

Easy Keepers, overweight, or Insulin Resistance horses most often suffer blood sugar crashes and spikes because the insulin signaling pathways are disrupted. This mostly occurs with a high sugar diet but horses on a controlled diet, especially overweight horses, may still have out-of-control insulin and sugar levels as the insulin can't find it's normal set point.

Getting your horse's brain back:

Increase fibre: soaked beet pulp, wheat bran, rice bran, h**p seeds, etc.
Increase protein: A cup or two of alfalfa pellets or 5-6 soaked alfalfa cubes.
(Both fibre and protein help to even out blood sugar levels and control excessive appetites.)

Vitamin B6: 1 tsp daily (= 750 mg)
The best B-vitamin to support insulin and sugar levels, as well as mental health and hormone balance.

Metabolism Drops (homeopathic): One dose (5-6 oral sprays) daily to support sugar metabolism, a normal appetite, and weight issues.

*NEW!* EASY KEEP BALANCE HERBAL BLEND
Our NEW Herbal Blend for Metabolic support normal weight and metabolic balance. Promotes and maintains normal blood sugar and insulin levels. Supports the immune system, liver function, and hindgut health.