Do you hear yourself saying any of the following…
‘He’s always been like this’
Yes but that doesn’t mean it is his true self, it means, in essence that he’s always been on the ‘wrong forage’ (too high proportion of short or lush green grasses/clovers/added lucerne.
‘His sire/dam was like that’
They spent their life on less than ideal pasture too.
‘All the other horses are fine’
Yes but are they really? Many people attribute ‘quirks, idiosyncrasies, sensitivities, personality traits, bolshiness, spookiness, wariness etc to 'temperament' and the way they were brought up and don’t realise how much better they can be with some adjustments to diet.
Other horses can be fine for years, but most eventually do reach ‘tipping point’. Their metabolism can only cope for so long.
'She’s just a typical mare’
When you remove all the legumes; especially clover and lucerne, out of the diet you will hardly notice your mare coming in to season. They can (and should) be just as 'even tempered' as geldings.
‘He’s a right brained extrovert’
’RB Extroverts’ are really just Grass Affected Horses
'He must be allergic to pollen’
Allergies are a secondary outward effect of internal metabolic disturbances
'He just exploded out of the blue’
In actual fact there would have been a lot of small signs that were missed
'He’s not on any grass’
Yet his living area looks green....
'He has ulcers’
He may well do but the same lifestyle changes are necessary
'He’s just being naughty’
Horses are never ‘naughty’, they are just trying to tell you something. We like Dr Deb’s saying - "There’s no such thing as resistance, only the desperate need for communication!"
'He needs to go to the trainer’
Not while he is grass-affected – when his brain and nervous system are not functioning normally he is not in a learning frame of mind, it puts the trainer at risk and it is not fair on the horse
‘I can’t lock him up because he likes his freedom too much’
The idea is to create a ‘living environment’ that allows the horses a wonderful life where they always have company and can make their own choices of shade and shelter and that is big enough for freedom of movement – room to run and play, lie down and roll. See tracks and dry lots...
'I can’t take him off grass because he won’t eat hay’
The transition ideally takes 1-2 weeks over which time they settle and their taste changes
'This is the same diet his previous owner had him on’
His metabolism, which was coping before, can no longer cope – he has reached the ‘tipping point’. If you don’t make changes now you won’t get any improvement.
'He just needs more work (wet saddle blanket)’
Only true when it’s a case of using up excess energy – when horses are ‘Grass Affected’ they become worse with exercise and some will keep going until they drop
'I fed GrazeEzy (or some other supplement) and it didn’t work’
It’s not a matter of adding a ‘magic bullet’ supplement – the total diet needs to be examined, there may be items in the diet that need to be eliminated eg: Lucerne and clover, to enable that supplement to work. It is as much about taking things out of the diet as it is adding things in.
'I gave him a toxin binder and it made no difference’
That tells you it is not the mycotoxins that are causing the problem, the next most likely cause is mineral imbalances
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