Spring Fever!

Lucy Nicholas of online retailer The Saddlery Shop offers this advice on restricting grazing with a muzzle this spring, for horses prone to weight gain or laminitis:

They are something of a necessary evil for some owners, but a grazing muzzle can be a useful tool. By using a muzzle, your horse can still be moving around the field and socialising, but will be getting limited spring grass that has high levels of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC).

I am a fan of the Greenguard grazing muzzle; it has been designed with vets for effective grazing control, yet still allows unrestricted breathing and drinking, and for the horse to get sufficient exercise in a larger field that grass intake would normally allow. It also helps prevent the sweating or rubbing that’s sometimes associated with ‘bucket’ style grazing muzzles.

Introduce the muzzle gradually by starting off using it in the stable - reward your horse with a treat through the hole in the muzzle when you put it on and take it off.  Once outside, feed grass through the hole to help him understand the principle. Leave the muzzle on for short periods, gradually building up the time it is on.

Grazing considerations

1. According to natural hoofcare barefoot trimmer Steven Leigh of natureswaynhc.co.uk, overweight horses are at a much greater risk of laminitis. Steven helped produce the ‘Laminitis app,’ a grazing risk monitoring service that alerts horse owners when their horse is at a higher risk of laminitis due to a potential increase in grass sugars. Look for the app ‘Laminitis’ on your smart phone or visit laminitis-risk.com - the app will help you to assess when you need to use the muzzle to help prevent excess intake of NSC.
2. Please don’t be tempted to shut a horse away, e.g stable him excessively, to avoid the spring grass - in my opinion the social aspect of turn out with other equines is key. Plus of course, the movement is essential to general wellbeing and mobility - many people use sand schools or bare paddocks for this purpose.
3. Don’t forget that if you have a laminitis prone horse, soaking or steaming the hay can reduce the nutritional content and make it safer. Current research indicates that overconsumption of hays and pasture grasses that contain high levels of fructans and fructose can lead to bouts of laminitis. We know that grass sugars decline significantly when hay is soaked; however, soaking causes considerable mineral losses and reduces the amount of dry matter. A brand new study recently looked at ‘wetting’ methods that included steaming, soaking, steaming then soaking, and soaking then steaming. The study found that soaking followed by steaming was the most effective method for reducing both water soluble carbohydrates (WSC) and microbial content in hay intended for horses. (Ref: The Effect of Five Different Wetting Treatments on the Nutrient Content and Microbial Concentration in Hay for Horses, Scott Moore-Colyer et al, 26/11/14, Plos One.)

NSCs and WSCs

Non-Structural Carbohydrates (NSC) include the simple sugars and starches that can be broken down by enzymes and absorbed from the small intestine into the blood stream as glucose. Water Soluble Carbohydrates (WSC) are primarily the sugars such as fructans found in forages.

In addition to a comprehensive range of spring items including a wide range of grazing muzzles, The Saddlery Shop offers a selection of great spring and summer rugs, including fly rugs, all below RRP. The site offers free delivery for orders over £75. Visit www.thesaddleryshop.co.uk.