Equine Mediation

01/06/2026

OVER WEIGHT HORSES AND PONIES - IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT LAMINITIS!!

With all the talk of insulin, laminitis, sugar, non-structural carbs and suchlike I just wanted to post a very important reminder...

Insulin problems and laminitis are not the only reasons we should be keeping our horses and ponies at a healthy slim body weight and condition.

(And some over weight horses and ponies do not have insulin issues or laminitis, regardless of what they eat, possibly because they are not genetically predisposed).

Excess condition i.e. weight from adipose tissue (f4t)/obesity increases the risk of a number of other health issues too, including:

> strangulating lipomas (balls of fat on strings of gut tissue which can literally wrap around the gut, creating a tourniquet, and can cause fatal colic)
> hyperlipaemia, which can be fatal
> disturbed/abnormal appetite
> whole body inflammation, which might contribute towards a range of health issues including osteoarthritis, equine asthma, heart conditions
> arthritis and other joint disease
> exercise intolerance
> potential increased risk of liver, kidney and other organ disease (if we extrapolate from human research)

F4t is an active body tissue, not just a store of energy, and it secretes pro-inflammatory hormones as well as being associated with insulin dysregulation.

Some of you may have read information that you don't need to worry about obesity if you keep your horse on a low sugar diet because it's the sugar intake only that causes insulin issues and laminitis, BUT that info has missed out the VERY important factor that it's not just insulin and laminitis we should be concerned with !!

It may take some years of chronic obesity for health issues to surface, so don't assume that your obese horse or pony is safe because they don't have any obvious health problems right now.

Feel free to share
🐴🍏

25/05/2026

21/05/2026

How you know your physio gets you and what your body needs to achieve post surgery 👌😁 (awful picture of me 🙈)

12/05/2026

So proud of little Crumpet, I may not be training horses right now but keeping my hand in with my puppy. Safe to say she is learning lots and being amazing, Put my brave pants on in an open playing field, trusted her, she was amazing 🥰

11/05/2026

Want to know more about bridle and bit fit, this a wonderful free resource from the APBBF, have a good rummage around x

https://apbbf.com/hub

28/04/2026

I’m still a few more weeks off being fit to work with your beautiful horses. I haven’t been doing nothing (well maybe the first week or two was completely written off) I have been chipping away at my Intelligent Horsemanship diploma and submitted all my video assessment work, I had hours of video that I had prepared before surgery, I had to sit down with Mr Google (once I was off the codeine 😜) and learn how to edit, up load to somewhere on tinternet and finally submit it all. I found out this morning I PASSED 🙌🏻. Huzzah! I am rather chuffed.
Now just getting my teeth back into my horse psychology project plan. Getting there 😁
Thank you to all the humans that have trusted me to borrow their horses and all the horses who have taught me loads, and all the humans that have helped lugging poles and wings about, listening to me verbalise what’s in my head even though it made no sense to them and generally gave me a pep talk when I was overwhelmed with the amount I needed to do for the diploma. I am getting so close, I’m truly grateful to you all 😘🥰###

(Can you spot my little helper?😂)

26/04/2026

URGENT APPEAL TO HELP AVOID LAMINITIS !

The grass has gone mad lately here in the UK, with the moisture in the ground and now the sun and temperatures warming up.

Sadly the same old dangerous nutribaloney has been circulating....

PLEASE do not believe that sprinkling a bit of this or that (e.g. salt, magnesium oxide, green clay, pre/probiotics, metabolic-supporting herbs) will stop your horse or pony getting laminitis.

Care for your horse or pony and reduce laminitis risk by what you REMOVE from their diet, NOT what you ADD.

Keep your horse healthy and help avoid laminitis by:
1. keeping them slim with low body fat covering (can you feel their ribs easily?)
2. taking action NOW if they're too fat, by reducing calorie intake (grass restriction, soaking hay/adding straw weighing forage etc)
3. RESTRICT their grass intake by area, strip grazing, grazing muzzle or any other strategy

And feed them a well-balanced diet with appropriate salt, minerals and herbs of your choice if you wish.

You will NOT make lush (or long) free choice grass safe by adding minerals or anything else to their diet.

Please help me share the word. Thank you
🐴🍏

17/04/2026

Always good to share hay soaking regularly

HAY SOAKING TRUTHS 🟨💧

If I had a pound for every time I get asked about this, I'd be rich!

There always seems to be nutribaloney circulating about soaking hay - for example whether or not it should actually be soaked.

(I'll post about length of soak time tomorrow - there's a simple method to work that out - keep your eyes peeled!).

Some Q&As to help...
__________
Q: Does soaking hay strip it of nutrients?
A: Yes - that's the whole point (unless you're soaking for 10-15 mins for respiratory health) - we're long- soaking to reduce BOTH calories (energy) & water soluble carbs (sugar & fructan)
___________
Q: Can we replace the useful nutrients lost e.g. minerals?
A: Yes - that's why we add a balancer or vitamin & mineral supplement to the diet, because soaking may reduce some mineral levels
___________
Q: Do we soak for just sugar reduction?
A: No No No No!!!! For overweight horses & ponies or those with insulin dysregulation we soak hay to reduce calories (energy) as well as water soluble carbs (WSC) = sugar AND fructan!!

(Fructan is not sugar. It's made up of sugar units joined by bonds that are not broken by digestive enzymes, but fermented by gut microbes.
The reason some may get confused about fructan is they either think it's a sugar or they think it doesn't affect insulin response... both are incorrect).
________
Q: Is it safe to test hay for just sugar & starch and then feed it to laminitis / ID / EMS horses & ponies if it's under 12%?
A: Absolutely, categorically NO!! This is really important. Both calories and fructan (WSC) can be highly variable in hay and you could cause laminitis by feeding unsoaked hay of unknown energy (calorie) and WSC content. Furthermore, analysing hay is only an estimation of what that particular sample contained and results should be used with care.

To focus solely on sugar and starch and insulin response and forget calories (dietary energy) and body fat level for all horses and ponies - especially laminitics - is plain bad advice and shows a complete lack of nutrition knowledge and understanding.
______
Q: Do I need to be worried about soaking hay, about mineral losses??
A: Absolutely not. We just need to balance soaked hay with suitable products. Soaking hay is sometimes the only way we can get unhealthy overweight, laminitis-prone, EMS/ID horses & ponies to lose weight without half-starving them.

I hope this helps to calm the worry about soaking hay and clarify some nutribaloney.

Feel free to share 🐴🍏🟨💧