If you keep your horse barefoot, or are thinking about it, you're probably aware of the importance of diet when it comes to keeping hooves healthy. Start researching what food is 'good' and 'bad' for hooves and you'll likely have fallen down a rabbit hole of information. Every blog, news article and forum post has … Continue reading Should you feed soya to your horse?
This is a question that a lot of horse owners who are interested in taking their horses barefoot end up asking themselves. Google it and you will find countless articles and forum threads, and most of them will come to different conclusions. All of this makes it very confusing when you just want a simple answer as to why your horse isn't comfortable and what you can do about it.
Carbohydrates are a vital part of the diet, and not just as a source of energy. They make up around 10% of the organic matter of a cell, and they can be used as both an energy store and as a structural unit. Carbohydrates themselves are a group of molecules including sugars, starch, glycogen and … Continue reading Carbohydrates: the primary energy source
In order to provide your horse with the best possible diet, it is vital to understand the basics of their evolution. While domesticated horses live a very different lifestyle to their ancestors, the six thousand or so years that humans have been using horses is not enough to have changed their dietary requirements. Horses still … Continue reading An introduction to equine dietary requirements.
This post was inspired by the article Speed Kills on Hooves. Although the article in question focuses more on conformation, it touched on feet very, very slightly. I’m about to go into that in more detail. If I say ‘thoroughbred feet’, what’s your first thought? Is it ‘weak’? Is it something along the lines of … Continue reading Did you know that thoroughbreds have good feet?
PART 2 Here's an advance warning: this post may dissolve into a tiny bit of a rant. I'll try to keep it calm and measured, but feed companies annoy me. So, your horse is on his nice green grass. You want to give little Skippy a bit of extra oomph so you need to give … Continue reading The Diet Debate: Hard Feed
PART 1 I've long since agreed with the idea that diet has an impact on hoof performance; I've actually seen it with my own eyes the last time my horses went for a holiday at my friend's yard. My friend has about seven acres on that yard, all of which are ryegrass. Ryegrass is the … Continue reading The Diet Debate: Pastures
The Barefoot Horse 