DL Equine Nutrition

05/05/2026

Had a great Q re pasture at this time of year and its posssible effects from Pixie;

You might want to share this one with your socials.

"I know you can still get sugar flushes this time of year but I've always wondered if it's more sour/acidic this time of year? My old boy always struggled in autumn more than any other time, vets never managed to pin down the reason"

For anyone else who sees this problem with their horses here are a couple of factors to bear in mind;

As I do know some history of your gelding and also what pasture you have in the Waikato, plus what you feed I can answer this with fairly good accuracy.

First we look at the horses gut- critically the hind gut runs on dry matter.
Those hind gut mircrobes ferment dry matter (fibre) and the by products are used as energy to fuel the body, especially for body condition, temerature control and immunity etc.

Your horse requires between 1.5% and 3% of its body weight in kg per day to stay healthy.
Thats per day for a 500kg horse.

As Pixie pointed out, Autumn grass flush means the pasture increases quickly in sugars, but also in energy and it dramatically lowers in fibre content. Now without a pasture anlaysis here, from databases of pasture samples collected we can say with some authority that if you took a sample right now it would be heading towards 85% water and only 15% dry matter (fibre).

A teeny bit of math shows you that if a horse is eating 10kg per day of pasture that is only 15% dry matter than it is only getting 1.5kg of actual dry matter into its body per day.
That is a short fall of @8.5kg of that precious fibre needed to keep the body in optimum condition. 😱

Another way to look at it is ; If the horse only had pasture to eat, and it is 85% water that means a horse needs to eat 66kg a day of that grss in order to get enough dry matter!
This is simply not possible to eat in a day (although some horses will tell you it is:)

Add to that work intensity and age factors (arthritis, pain) even EMS etc and a horse can start to lose condition.
Obvioulsy not all hroses will lose weight, some may take that energy and sugar rise and put on wight, but certianly not all. So feeding more dry matter in hay and chaff and feeds such as beet pulp, soybean hulls and lupin hulls will certianly help in those times when pasture is made up of so much water.💧💧🌿

If you or anyone else wants to knwo more about their pasture and how to feed your hrose without all the confusion, head over to www.dlequine.co.nz to access on line courses = for everything you need to know including how to save money on feeding your horse today! 🦄

03/05/2026

Its Autumn and the grass can cause issues with horses health.🌿🌿☘

What are your concerns?
What are you wondering is a myth vs actually a fact concerning horses and grass?🤷‍♀️

Is it why is it actually an issue?
Is it concerning sugars?
Do all horses need to come off grass?
When should you graze and why?
Do all horses need a mycotoxin binder?
Or is it something else you have seen on fb or heard???

My favourite pastime is clarifying facts, let me know how I can help!👇👇👇

19/04/2026

Do joint supplements actually help horses with osteoarthritis? 🤔

Researchers at Michigan State University have a newly published study on the effect of joint supplements on horses (Harbowy et al., 2026). Article linked in comments.

Researchers at Michigan State University studied 40 horses with chronic lameness (AAEP 2–4) linked to osteoarthritis.

Horses were carefully matched (age, weight, condition, workload) and split into:
• Joint supplement group (Cosequin ASU)
• Placebo group

To reduce bias, both groups were further split and disguised with different colours and scents—so it appeared there were four treatments. Strong design = more reliable results.

📊 Results (6-week study):
• Lameness: No difference between groups, though all horses improved slightly over time
• Forelimb vector sum: Supplement group actually showed more asymmetry
• Pelvic height: No effect
• Stride length: No difference

What does this mean?🤷‍♀️
The oral joint supplement did not improve outcomes in horses with osteoarthritis.

This lines up with previous research—while lab (in vitro) studies looked promising, real-world (in vivo) results haven’t shown clear benefits.

What can you do for your horse instead of a supplement?
✔Balance the diet to ensure nutrient requirements are met!
✔Keep your horse at a healthy weight.
✔Exercise.

see www.dlequine.co.nz for education courses and groups to gain the right information to feed your horse for optimum health!

16/04/2026

As a nutrition advisor with years of study I can honestly tell you that the biggest impact on your horses's behaviour and health will come from feeding more hay!

It is a scientifically proven fact!🧪
PLEASE PLEASE DO YOUR FRIENDS A FAVOUR AND SHARE THIS POST!📣📣

My advice (contrary to social media gorups and companies) is not to feed all those extras, its to feed hay as often as possible.

Stop wasting your hard earned $ on magic cures, buying the 3 products containing magnesium whose claims have reached mythical proportions in NZ thanks to social media marketing!!

Stop and feed hay.

Feed hay in the paddock,
Feed hay before riding,
Feed hay after riding,
Feed hay while your horse waits for the farrier,
Feed hay while your horse waits for the dentist,
Feed hay while your horse waits for the physio,
Feed hay in the float,
Feed hay while you wait for the next round at a competition...

Your horse has evolved with a gut system that needs a constant flow of fibre.
Without this a cascade of health issues occur. From colic, to ulcers to unwanted behaviour.

FACT -
Fibre feeds the hindgut microbes, keeping these microbes happy is the biggest thing you can do to induce calm behaviour! Your grass has lots of water and very little fibre at this time of year. Hay makes a difference.
Not supplements, not magnesium, not tumeric, not charcoal, not raspberry, not tryptophan, not more vitamin B (PS the horses gut microbes can aid in the making of its own Vit B if fed fibre!!!) .etc etc...

Even on unrestricted grass access my horses will eat hay.
Its the handsdown number one nutrition impact on their behaviour and health!🐴

Do your horse a favour - FEED HAY!

12/04/2026

I hope you survived the storm this weekend.
Where do you live? How did your horses cope?⬇️

06/04/2026

If your horse needs to gain weight here is what you need to feed in order and why 👇👇👇

Your horse has a unique hind gut that contains microbes that run on DRY MATTER obtained from forage
Hind gut microbes ferment fibre
Results in Energy to run the body and gain weight ⚖

A horse needs to eat DM to gain enough energy it needs for all the body processes
@1.5% - 3% of its own body weight (kg) in DM/ day

If your horse is losing weight then it is not eating enough energy = calories

To gain weight feed more high energy fibre!
Lucerne, sugar beet pulp, lupin hulls, soybean hulls

Then feed more protein
Soybean meal, lupins, peas, lucerne

Then add fats
Oils, copra meal

LAST IS GRAIN!! - READ YOUR FEED LABEL - oats, maize, barley, cereals...
Must be extruded or micronized.
Must be fed in small amounts

If you feed more grains feeds than anything else you risk upsetting the hind gut, acidosis, lactic acid builds, good bacteria die, production of vit b1 declines, the appetite declines with it!

Be mindful of what you are feeding!

01/04/2026

What topic do you want me to cover in the April newsletter??⬇️📠

30/03/2026

Autumn Grass Flush – Is Your Horse Affected? 🌱🐴

Hello there,

As we head into another autumn flush of grass, have you noticed any behaviour changes or health issues in your horse?
Ever wondered why, despite New Zealand horse owners widely using the term “grass affected” to describe pasture-related issues, the feed industry continues to offer an ever-growing range of flashy feeds and supplements?

They promise to fix everything… yet if we’re honest, they often don’t.

Why?
Because if your horse grazes pasture and/or eats hay, this will always make up the majority of their diet.

That means nutrient imbalances—whether energy, sugars, starch, minerals, dry matter, or vitamins—are most likely coming from your forage. Even the best feeds may in some cases may add to the problem if not used correctly to balance what is imbalanced in the pasture.

Real-Life Examples

Horse A
500kg, light work
Grazed 24/7
1kg hay
500g hard feed (chaff, minerals, manufactured feed)
➡️ 87% of diet = pasture

Horse B
500kg, light work
Grazed 10 hours/day
4kg hay
2kg hard feed
➡️ 30% of diet = pasture

Horse C
500kg, medium work
Grazed 11 hours/day
2kg hay
500g hard feed
➡️ 79% of diet = pasture

Why This Matters;
Horses are hindgut fermenters—meaning the microbes in their hindgut break down fibre to provide energy and support overall health.
So when pasture is the issue everything can be affected.

That could be due to:
Low dry matter (too much water, not enough fibre)
High sugars or starch overwhelming the hindgut
Mineral deficiencies or imbalances

The potential issues from pasture are endless.

The Take-Home Message
It doesn’t make sense to spend large amounts on feeds and supplements without first understanding what your horse is eating the most of—your grass and hay.

✔️ Get your pasture or hay analysed
✔️ Then work with a nutritionist to balance the diet for your individual horse

That’s where real change happens.

Happy days!

28/03/2026

26/03/2026

Hi team, how is your grass doing?

Im betting many of you that have had all the rain this last couple of days that you will quickly see massive change from some old brown to green with new grass growth?

If you have this happening in your horses’ paddocks guess what else is happening? Got some unwanted silly horse behaviour starting?

So what exactly is happening inside your horse?

Well right now the grass has gone from feeling stressed with the heat and little moisture to having a party at the wet humid conditions and throwing everything it can into growing and turning on all its photosynthesis into making sugars.

The formerly stressed grass holds onto these sugars for dear life and guess who gets to eat them? Yup your lucky normally sane little unicorn.

Next this high sugar hits your horses foregut, the foregut yells ‘ I cant cope” and it is rushes this sugar thru really really fast compared to the old high fibre low sugar boring slow grass from last week. This high sugar stuff hits the hind gut super quickly. Plus your hind gut is also getting fructans (complex sugar) in the hindgut from the grass, double whammy!

In here the normally stable ph levels drop too quickly and conditions change too fast upsetting all balance. This condition of the microbiome in the gut of the horse then has effects on things like behaviour.

Why? because trough the “gut-brain axis” it appears that the microbes in the gut are in communication with the brain.

Think of the hindgut as a a playground of microbes on a soft ball team. When it has that long term feed of high fibre the teams playing are all in blue (all steady slow league fibre fermenters).

The high sugar rushes in and the blue team finds it doesn’t have enough players to cope and has to sub on a new team of red players. These guys hit hard and fast and are angry!

The whole playground dissolves into a brawl! Ok so I may have gone overboard on the analogy but you get the jist right?

Too much high sugar makes for one unhappy gut an one upset horse and humans asking where did my lovely pony gallop off to??

So what to do? Add more fibre, chaff, low sugar hay, old pastur, sugar beet pulp, etc (anything very low sugar).

Please see previous blog on website for your sugar and NSC terms and values. Strip graze, very slow introduction and access to fresh grass, exercise more. Add fats instead of grain for energy. Add prebiotics to the diet.

Get your diet balanced by an equine nutritionist NOW. An unbalanced diet in all your horses vitamins and minerals and nutrients will exacerbate the problems.

see www.dlequine.co.nz for a correctly balanced diet plan.