18/08/2022
Does the grass on your field look mostly brown and dead at the moment?
Is it safe for your horse?
Dry conditions don’t necessarily mean that the grass is low in sugar.
In fact, when the grass is under stressful conditions it accumulates more sugar as the plant is still photosynthesizing but as the grass isn’t growing the sugar is stored, rather than used. Fructan is the storage sugar in the grass and is mostly stored at the base of the plant - precisely what the horse is eating when cropping close to the ground. Special care should be taken with horses who have underlying insulin dysregulation issues and may be particularly prone to laminitis.
Rain is forecasted across the UK this week but when we do eventually get rain the risk is still elevated but for different reasons.
The grass can start to grow again and storage sugars are converted back to a form that the plants can use as energy to grow. This means there is a more simple sugar in the grass which can be problematic for those with insulin dysregulation. Even though the amount of grass available initially to eat is still sparse, this could still be enough to trigger laminitis in susceptible individuals. As such, for laminitis prone horses and ponies it may be best to remove them from the pasture when the grass starts growing and feed an appropriate forage based ration which contains less than 10-12% non-structural carbohydrate ideally.
This very useful advice came from Dengie Horse Feeds- one of our BETA members who is supporting BETA SOS22
For more guidelines on feeding the laminitis prone horse call Dengie’s Feedline on 01621 841188 or visit https://www.dengie.com/feed-finder/laminitis-good-doer/
BETA Summer of Safety is a campaign run from June to August!
We want to help, inspire, educate and encourage people to embrace safety in all areas of their equestrian life, to help keep themselves and their horses safer.
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