High quality horse nutrition is a vital aspect of horse care, especially for athletes! A balanced diet provides the necessary nutrients for the horse to function properly, prevent disease, and maintain optimal health. One important aspect of horse nutrition is the inclusion of antioxidants in their diet.  Antioxidants are substances that prevent or reduce oxidative stress in the body. Oxidative stress is caused by free radicals, which are unstable molecules that can damage cells and tissues. Feeding horses a diet rich in antioxidants can prevent oxidative stress and provide numerous healt ..read more

At the Whole Horse Seminar Dr. Jami Whiting will be speaking about how all horses can benefit from body work like acupuncture and chiropractic work and how they can help your horse thrive at our upcoming event at Four Oaks Equestrian, the Whole Horse Seminar. Get your tickets HERE. About Jami Dr. Jami Whiting grew up in California and received her undergraduate degree in Animal Science from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She completed her DVM degree at UC Davis, followed by an internship at the Littleton Equine Medical Center in Littleton, Colorado, and the Goulburn Valley Equine Hospital in ..read more

Vitamin A is probably the most important vitamin for horses as it is crucial for growth, reproduction and development of a horse. Deficiencies can cause loss of vision, disturbances in bone growth and lowered resistance to disease and infection to name a few. Not only is the vitamin itself important, but it’s also crucial to evaluate the source of the supplement – natural or synthetic. Short View        Benefits    Necessary for growth    Reproduction    Proper development of a horse        Deficiencies   ..read more

Horses and old wives’ tales go together like bread and butter, and it can be hard to distinguish fact from fiction. Misunderstandings about how to feed your horse are not common, but not due to horse owners not caring. Some outdated ideas stubbornly persist, despite being disproven by modern research. Here are 7 busted myths I want to share with you!    Horses must be fed at the same time everyday    Giving water to a hot horse will cause colic    Feeding bran mash keeps your horse warm    Alfalfa makes horses hot or excitable    When you fee ..read more

Since most of the horse’s diet really consists of carbohydrates, including forages, grains and its by-products, we cannot avoid digging deeper into this to fully understand what we are dealing with. Carbohydrate is the collective term for starches, sugars and fiber in your horse’s diet. So why does the horse need them? The horse needs energy to function; to move, eat, work, breathe etc. This energy is derived from different energy sources, such as carbohydrates, fats and protein. We will take a closer look at carbohydrates in this article. READ MORE The post Carbohydrates for ..read more

In summer it can certainly become a challenge to keep cool. Other than purchasing portable misting fans or hiring a loin cloth-clad individual to fan your horses with palm leaves, what other strategies can be used to keep horses cool in warm weather? Small tweaks to your horse’s diet can reduce his internal combustion. Some horse feeds produce more heat than others while being digested. For example, cereal hays and chaff produce much more heat during fermentation in a horse’s hindgut than barley, oats, or corn being digested in the small intestine. In addition, protein digestion produces ..read more

One of the most common, but often overlooked symptoms of a Nutritional Red Flag are hoof issues. Especially given how in our community it is often looked upon as “normal” for horses to have low heels, cracks and abscesses happening frequently, and horses that “have to” wear shoes because their feet are too worn down and sore.  But this is NOT normal! Let’s break it down… In the Wild Horses are made to move up to 25+ miles in a day! And these miles are not on specially-formulated fiber arenas or on fluffy grass pastures either. Wild horses run over a variety of hard and abrasive areas, su ..read more

With spring comes warmer temperatures which allow for fresh grass to grow. For many horses, it’s finally a time to be able to be turned out again on a more regular basis. But be aware, with this spring grass also comes the danger of Laminitis in horses. This condition has several causes, but sudden access to lush forage or high amounts of sugars from grasses is one of the main dangers. What is it, and how can you prevent Laminitis in your horse? An example of a healthy hoof, no rotation An example of a laminitic hoof, bad rotation What is Laminitis?   Laminitis is literally inflammati ..read more

We don’t usually think about it as such, but the horse’s largest organ is its skin. It may not seem like an actual organ in the usual sense of the word, but it is the primary interface between the body and the environment. The skin can also tell a lot about a horse and its general health and it a very sensitive organ, housing nerve endings that respond to the external stimuli such as touch and temperature. The skin also produces vitamin D through the oils naturally present in the horse’s skin. A series of chemical reactions take place when these oils are exposed to sunlight and vita ..read more

Does your horse act like the grass is greener on the other side? They might be right, but that doesn’t mean it’s better for them to eat it! The 12 Most Common Horse Grass Types have important nutritional differences that you should know about. Here are their pros and cons!   Legumes  Legume plants, such as alfalfa and clover will grow mostly year-round and have more leafiness with less structure. They store their carbohydrates in their tap roots, which allows them to regrow better than other grasses if their leaves are eaten down too close to the ground. This translates into a differ ..read more