Is your horse eating junk food? The lessons of Paddock Paradise
Your doctor asks you to stick your tongue out because it reveals so many things about your health.
In much the same way, the state of your horse’s health can be read from the hooves. That’s one reason when you shift to barefoot this can alert you to dietary problems.
What if you found weak, peeling hoof walls, practically zero white line integrity, or even laminitis?
It doesn’t matter how long the shoes are off. It doesn’t matter how much exercise you give them. Your horses’ hooves (and general health) will never improve on a poor diet.
For most horses this comes from their grazing. Consider, for instance, how many horses you see on lush green pastures. Those pastures are often high in sugar. No necessarily a good thing
And how many times do you see horses standing still, in a vast expanse of space? Many pastures allow the horse to eat with minimal movement. How can this be right
Often our horses are overloading on carbohydrates and not burning it off. Meanwhile, their wild cousins graze on low quality pastures. They rely on constant movement. They walk for 18-20 hours a day.
Former farrier Jaime Jackson took note of this when writing Paddock Paradise. Jackson suggests using a circuit shaped pasture.
Along the track, vary the terrain; offer food, water and shelter. And be sure to space this out evenly around the edges.
The longer and narrower (within reason) you make the track, the more movement you’ll encourage in your horses.
If only every horse owner read this book and applied what they learnt. They’d enjoy healthier horses, free up more land, and save money.
Wouldn’t they all convert to natural horse care?
I’ve always wondered if my horses got enough exercise while in pasture if they stayed in one spot to eat grass or hay, e.g., in winter. Now, from your article, I see it makes alot more sense to have a longer rectangular pasture with grass. When eating hay, I usually put the three horses’ piles of hay in numerous small piles so they MUST move around more. GREAT IDEA!! 🙂
Our horses are blessed with a long pasture shaped like large check mark. The long side of our field is at least 2200 feet long! They all run and play together; foals, mares, sire. We try to raise our thoroughbreds in as natural environment as possible as we feel it makes for stronger and more durable athletes later on. When we feed supplemental hay or grain we always spread it out quite some distance out in differing locations so as to have them move around more. We can do this of course only in the spring, summer and early fall before the cold, heavy wet rainy season begins. Our philosophy is to provide our horses with wild horse environment without the dangers and with domestic horse advantages such as shelter in well ventilated barn that is dry and out of the wind and rain. Fred and Joan.
My 28 yr old horse has arthiritis in his hips and a poss spinal issue according to the vet. When he lays down it takes multiple people and max assist to get him up but then he is fine and even lopes around after sometimes. I need a natural alternative to his anti inflammatory medication that isn’t good for his liver but is keeping me from putting him down. I rub his leg joints down every night with absobine gel. He is well nourished and get senior wt builder, digestive enzymes, senior grain and limited alfalfa plus grazing most days.
I have heard of traumeel working very well. It is used as a non-steroidal Anti-Inflammatery.
Hi try a Back on Track rug = far infrared radiation thru the ceramic rug,
Devils’ claw and hyaluronic acid (brand name Conquer if you are in the US).FREE CHOICE MOVEMENT 24 HOURS A DAY AND WARMTH!!!A small pen/yard area does it.
Feed less grain, if possible, certainly free choice hay + 2-3 lbs of alfalfa. Add sugar beet pulpe,rice bran or rape seed oil if he can’t keep up condition.
Lots of grain makes the body acid and more prone to inflammation, anyway as he’s not working usually no need for grain.
Hi, try turmeric, linseed oil and black pepper. Works very well.