Read the label!

It happens so often - someone is innocently feeding their horse the best possible feed, bought often at vast expense, and can't understand why the horse is footy.

They've understood that they need to focus on the horse's diet, so perhaps they are already being careful with their grazing and have tried to avoid sugary feeds. They know that minerals are important so they provide a broad spectrum supplement for their horse.

If they are VERY conscientious, they may even have sought advice via a feedline or on an internet forum.

As a result of all this research, they formulate their horse's diet and can't understand why its still not working.

HOWEVER, as soon as we drag out the feed bags and read the labels - not the bright shiny marketing blurb on the bag but the little white label sewn onto the top - it often becomes clear :-)

There was a great example of the UKNHCP forum today, but it happens all the time when I see clients too. The feed in question was a well-known "Lo Cal Balancer" - but it could just as easily have been marketed as "Ideal for Laminitics" or "Low Sugar, High Fibre".

In fact, the ingredient list included barley, wheatfeed, mollasses and soya, and only a small amount of pre-mixed inorganic minerals. The starch content was 10% and sugar 2%.

Surprise, surprise, when the horse changed to a genuinely low sugar mineral supplement, which consisted mostly of bio-available plant minerals, it improved dramatically.

We've put lots of feeding info in "Feet first" - and ALL the dietary advice in there has been approved by an independent nutritionist - but here are some reminders:

• Feed companies are there to sell feed - with the best will in the world, they rarely dispense genuinely impartial advice - only independent equine nutritionists can do that.
• What goes onto the bag is ONLY marketing, and cannot be relied on - there are plenty of "low starch, low sugar" feeds which have given horses laminitis, and there are a number of supplements which are notorious among barefoot horse-owners as so many horses are footy when fed them. You can ONLY rely on what is on the statutory ingredients list.
• Most feed companies underestimate the magnesium levels necessary for horses because its a poorly researched area, and Mg deficiency is more commonly recognised in sheep and cattle than horses (probably because it tends to kill them!).
• If your horse is not rock-crunching and you aren't sure why, be systematic and read through what is in your feed - be ruthless - exclude anything that might be causing trouble for at least a month, supplement with bioavailable minerals and the right level of MgO, and see if the horses improves.