Recommended Products for horses showing signs of metabolic stress. 

We recognize having a metabolically challenged horse is frustrating for owners who are just realizing or seeing the symptoms. Chances are, the symptoms have been there for a couple of years and they are just coming to the surface and showing a thicker coat each year, a thicker cresting neck, fatty bumps around the base of the tail, or a severe lameness. For those of you who have found your horse suddenly three-legged lame with heat in 2 or all feet, we understand the need to act quickly. For those of you who are reading articles, blogs, published nutritional studies, or asked Vets and anyone you think may be knowledgeable, we are here to help in this journey back to soundness and productivity.

Blog Article coming soon.... However, today, what you need is soft cool ground, cold hosing, short term immediate pain relief, longer term natural pain relief and stop feeding what you have been giving over the last year because that is how far back the problem may have started.

NO FRESH PASTURE OR LAWN until the horse can move comfortably and only fresh pasture during the evening when the sun goes down and even then, only for an hour. The sun and heat of the day create sugars in the grass, and when the sun goes down, the sugars retreat to the roots during the cool of the night.

Your hay/forage must be known by an analysis to be less than 12% NSC (non-structural carbohydrates/sugars). If you don't know what the NSC is in the hay you have in the barn, then soak the flakes in water for 30-60 minutes before feeding it to your horse, who is hopefully in a dry lot or paddock that is soft and green grass free. To help the horse move and graze more naturally, try spreading the hay, or in many small piles.  Soaking hay in a clean wheel barrel is probably the easiest method in a time crunch.

A higher protein percentage in a hay/legume/alfalfa will be acceptable to your horses GI tract and metabolism at this time. Higher protein with less sugar. This type of vigilance may last for the next three to five years if you are not careful. Everything your horse eats from this point on will have to be analyzed by you learning how to read labels on supplements, grain rations, hay analysis and treats. Sugar is the downfall and your friend is now going to be knowledge of antioxidants and metabolic balancing nutrition.

More Knowledge Links: 

Equine Endocrinology Group

https://sites.tufts.edu/equineendogroup/

Equine Cushing’s and Insulin Resistance Group Inc.

https://www.ecirhorse.org/video.php

The following products are what we call the MetaSafe Products: