I have seen a variety of slow hay feeders too (see https://courses.thehorsesadvocate.com/horse-farm-feeding-systems/)

However I have not seen this collapsible system in use. Of course I am partial to the Nibble Net cause I inspired the woman who makes them to make it. She lives in my town here in FL. And no, she never gave me a penny from it.

It…Slow Feeder” rel=”nofollow”> Read more

Oh GOSH! We were so concerned about the technical issues in getting this off the ground (while also traveling into a major winter storm here in the US) that I completely missed this question! Please accept my apology!

Wind puffs are an indicator that a strain has occurred to a joint. This is usually the fetlocks but it is also common in the… Read more

Here is the replay:

https://courses.thehorsesadvocate.com/ama-001-jan-17-2022/https://courses.thehorsesadvocate.com/ama-001-jan-17-2022/

I’ve been delayed with updating the web site (anyone notice?) and now driving 1200 miles (1931km) to the very cold north to work on horse teeth. My apologies for the delay on this – and there is a lot to discuss here!

Soy, soya and soybeans are not soybean meal. We need to establish the use of SBM because of the confusion caused by i… Read more

Cheek ulcers (mouth sores from abrasions / bite) heal very quickly – as fast as humans.

I’m sure he will feel a lot better! Thanks for this discussion!

Hi Karen – You are asking one of the most frequently asked questions about dentistry in horses. The answer is held in 3 thoughts: 1)Somewhere between 6 and 12 months dentistry moves from preventive to corrective, 2) It is not how sharp the teeth are but the horse’s threshold of pain that determines how frequently you float the horse and 3) not a… Read more

Thanks for this @DinahC – I did laugh as I realized that “diet and exercise” is still the solution. It is interesting that the exercise portion of this equation is filled with various techniques that often are either unproductive or very productive depending on the trainer, practitioner, owner and horse. In this case, if you are a Tom Brady… Read more

The podcast on Cushing’s was made last March. Many things have happened and I don’t want to make excuses. But life often throws curve balls that distract us from our plans. Some things just “happen” but the premise is still the same – decrease or eliminate carbs, increase high quality protein, eat only good fats (monounsaturated). Also increase… Read more

What I have learned about life is that if it is unusual then sometimes we will never get an answer. In other words, when you have ruled out all of the obvious things the shrugging of the shoulders increases. But that won’t stop curious people from continuing to look. So let’s look…

An adhesion of the GI tract is a possibility. So is an… Read more

LOL – yup!!! More importantly, she likes it!

This shows the action….

Here is a present I made for my wife. It works really well and after draining the water she can just wheel the hay out to the paddock.

@Kathy I want to add 2 things:

1) I just heard a podcast on sand accumulation and the use of psyllium and the “experts” agree that there is little evidence that it works in horses. Rather, sand accumulation is secondary to gut inflammation. While this isn’t the case with your horse, someone reading this after a search for “psyllium” needs to… Read more

Looking forward to your reports in the forum!

@AngelaM Remember you cannot build a building (muscles, connective tissue) without enough of the right materials (all the amino acids in enough amounts).

1 pound of soybean meal = 174g (approx) of high quality protein that includes the branch chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, valine) as well as lysine required in every protein. Add this… Read more

Thanks @DinahC for your kind words. It is thrilling (and humbling) to know that so many around the world are reading and applying my ideas in reducing chronic systemic inflammation and replacing lost protein with high quality protein in the diet. These notes help fuel me to keep going in the New Year! Doc T

NOTICE!! RESCHEDULED FOR MONDAY JANUARY 3RD AT 8 PM EASTERN TIME.

        Here are the notes (PDF) for this December Rounds, “The Skin Of Horses.”  PLEASE NOTE - this pdf is updated as of Sunday 1/2/2022.

@JillB Matt will get back to you ASAP but in the meantime, I clicked on the link above and got the registration page. You will need a Zoom account which is free at zoom.us

Please try again and if what they are asking is to have a zoom account then get one and try that. From what I can see here, you are a current member of THA. Let us know. I am… Read more

It is a fine “Merry Christmas” morning here in south Florida and I’m sitting outside in the cool morning air with a hot cup of Bulletproof coffee listening to the morning sounds of nature. Birds and ducks waking and chirping or honking, a dog or two barking at something, a horse snorting, a donkey crying and the occasional car tire on a lonel… Read more

Melissa and I have noticed this as well this year and we are perplexed. It is the first time we are noticing this and I have done this a long time. However it is not seen everywhere or at all barns. There must be something being added (or not added) recently but I can’t figure this out – but I have a hypothesis.

There was no mention in my text b… Read more

HAY

This is a very interesting question and maybe I should stay out of this only because I will disrupt things – as usual 😉

AngelaM raises some good points that I want to add to. The forage used for producing hay has gone through a lot of selection by agricultural scientists to provide varying amounts and ratios of things (sugar, minerals,… Read more

Thanks for becoming the advocate for your horses!! Welcome!

I have not written much about feeding the foal though I have mentioned it in podcasts and in replies. I may need to add hash tags for the search engine.

The most important thing about feeding foals is to NOT over feed them. Forage is the basic form of feed and it looks like you are… Read more

See if there is a contact phone for the manufacturer on the bag. If not ask for it from the feed dealer and call them. Most manufacturers will say “dehulled” on the tag but on the other hand, the word “meal” may imply it.It should also say “oil extracted” and indicate if it was pressed or solvent extracted. Again, the word “meal” may imply it. O… Read more

With temperature swings come changes in barometric pressure and I think that is the culprit- or both. Either way, when a horse is balancing between feeling good and feeling bad (ie, chronically inflamed, bad people, bad environment, hates their job, etc) it doesn’t take much to go over the edge. In other words, the catch phrase “colic” may appea… Read more

I, and many others, feel your pain. Remember the ancestry of TB’s are from a mix from deserts and the UK. I have asked before, how do you feed a Paso, an Icelandic and an Arabian all living in Biloxi Mississippi?

Horses are nomadic – they migrate seasonally much like New Yorkers drive south to FL in winter. When we become responsible for a f… Read more

I think that most DOD diseases including osteochondrosis dessecans (OCD) develop in utero or early after birth in horses overfed with feed in excess of their daily needs. This leads to rapid growth of the bones from which OCD, epiphysitis and contracted tendons occur. These are secondary to the over feeding which causes the genetic expression… Read more

Kathy and I knew of the research and the researchers doing the growth studies at Cornell. They were actively working on the cause of developmental orthopedic diseases of foals (DOD). The bottom line is that foals will achieve their genetic potential for growth but pushing it to occur faster (or increasing their size) only led to DOD. Restricting… Read more

1) Do we want any fat on the horse’s body? Like do my “skinny” horses (which I would say is 2 of them) need more muscle or fat or both? What I’m seeing on why I think they are skinny: More ribs visible, hip bone, top of butt. Only one of these horses has been a “chronically” skinny horse and the other one I think is growing. Th… Read more

https://courses.thehorsesadvocate.com/horse-lymphangitis/

@Kerry I know this doesn’t add anything to what you can read online. I decided to make it a little different based on experience rather than repeating what the others say. Let me know if this helps and if you know a ka-zillionaire willing to research this.

Thanks for the reminder…. And now there is a reminder in my reminder system for this weekend.

I would often get phone calls from horse owners worried that their horses were urinating blood after some snow had fallen. In every case there was a trace mineral salt block available. Removing it would clear up the dark red urine spot in the white snow.

When I collected during from ponies in metabolism stalls, the colors of using stratified in… Read more

Here are the notes (PDF) for this November Rounds, “Equine Dentistry Seen Through 75,000 Floats”

What a fascinating question provoking me to read some to understand what rain water really is. And as usual I found conflicting answers depending on what part of the world it came from. And all involved humans.

From what I can tell, drinking collected rain water has no ill effects in humans and assume in horses. Rain water is more alkaline… Read more

Thank you for this reference.

I am starting to realize that a flexible diet is what works. A bit of this and a bit of that. Take down a bison and eat it and then go without meat for a long time. The natural ebb and flow of the seasons. Lush pasture then dormant pasture plus miles of migration. Give the digestive tract and metabolism a chance to… Read more

Thanks @AngelaM – it is amazing to think that what we eat can affect our disposition. Oops. I mean what our horses eat….

🤠👍

The information on FFA’s in horses is limited to agenda driven bias from what I can see. This information is lean in horses as well versus what is known in humans. Because of this we need to step back and look at the general picture.

What should horses eat? They evolved eating ground plants and they migrated to find these. Today there is no… Read more

🤠👍