[Jenny]

This is not at all helpful but an amusing irony. Here in the UK the SBM is excellent quality, easily available and as “cheap as chips” (fries). It’s imported from the USA!

[Jenny]

Hi Angela

Re your choleric horse.

I’ve had 2 seminal moments in the last 40yrs of horse ownership. The one was discovering Dr T and this diet, which changed my horse from carrying too much fat and not enough muscle to having a body that is well muscled and athletic. The other being discovering Dr Andrew McLean and Equine Learning Theory. He and Prof Paul McGreevy are founder members of the International Society for Equitation Science and have written a book “Equitation Science”.
I’m lucky enough to have had riding lessons with Andrew. What they say on training horses is not necessary new and has been done by riders for many centuries. They just emphasis key methods which help the horse understand more easily what you are wanting, given their brain capacity. Once the horse understands and if you are always consistent with your aids and signals their life becomes predictable and they become calm. I find it hugely helpful.
As a tiny example it took me 3 x 3 minute sessions to train a 9 month old foal to lead quietly with a head collar and stand still calmly until I asked her to move.

I do hope this helps.

[Jenny]

Hi Dr T,

Another great Rounds talk, thank you. Over in the UK if we need to travel more than 2 horses we do it in a lorry, over here trailers only take 2 horses. We don’t have the big trucks you have for trailing. They would never fit into our car parking spaces. Compared to the US our parking spaces are tiny! Most of the trailers, including mine travel the horses facing backwards as your questioner said they seem to stand that way when left loose. Personally I like it as I’ve never had to accelerate suddenly when trailing but have had to brake hard by the bad driving of other road users. If the horse is facing backward hard braking just means he leans his bum against the wall as opposed being thrown forward onto the breast bar.

I so agree with having to look ahead and notice road and traffic conditions to avoid any sudden adjustments of speed and direction. I wish other drivers paid more attention to it.

One tip I was given when I first had my trailer apart from practice reversing the empty trailer quietly on my own, was the back of the trailer will always go in the same direction of the bottom of the steering wheel. So I reverse with my hand on the bottom of the steering wheel and turn it in the same direction I want the trailer to go. 😀

[Jenny]

I’m sorry I couldn’t join the live webinar but I have thoroughly enjoyed listening and learning from the recording.
I am a keen soaker of hay but what do you think of feeding oat or barley straw to horses? The horses will always eat their hay in preference but it can be mixed with some of the hay ration to reduce the over all starch content.

[Jenny]

Hi Matt,

Thanks, I found the it all very interesting. I’d never heard of EOTRH until I found your website. I’m amazed that something that has such a profound affect on the incisors doesn’t affect the molars and that no-one knows the cause.

Do horses in the wild get it?

Thank you for these talks and podcasts, it’s giving me a much better understanding as to how best to care for my horses.

[Jenny]

Hi Matt,

Was the talk recorded?

[Jenny]

Ahh, I thought that was you! I’m hugely impressed. I’m lucky enough to have a trainer who teaches all her pupils and their horses as if they were aiming for GP. Her daughters are both FEI GP riders and have ridden Internationally. Although we all mostly manage the movements that is a world apart from putting them all together in a test!

[Jenny]

Thanks for your helpful replies. I now feel I have a good response to people’s concerns. In the UK we all get our water from the water companies very few people will have a well. Our local water company gets the water from deep underground aquifers. I went on their website and looked up our water analysis, it was packed full of minerals!

Kathy I remember you posted you did a full blood profile for your horse which showed all was well. Are you the same person who put a video of riding Grand Prix on Facebook? If so as a fellow dressage rider it was hugely inspiring.

Having done the Nutrition course and knowing what I know now I find it so disheartening when I see misinformation banded about. This weeks ‘The Horse.com’ has an article on Essential Vitamins and Minerals your Horse Needs actually says;

“Modern horse diets are commonly deficient in some vitamins and minerals.”

On a lighter note, Dr T I loved your webinar on Sunday, 5pm is a much better time, thank you. My husband, a retired surgeon, is in total agreement with you about the quality of some research papers. He asked me to pass on to you that one paper he was asked to review for the British Medical Journal had some obscure German references. He took a German speaker along to the library (this was pre internet) and looked them up. They were all on totally different subjects!

[Jenny]

Thanks for the webinar, it was really interesting. I’m glad it was recorded as I needed a second listen! I knew exercise is important but had no idea just how important.

Years ago I stumbled across a TED talk by Prof Lustig called Sugar The Bitter Truth. This was during the time of ‘low fat’. He was illustrating just how ‘toxic’ too much sugar in the diet is. Interestingly back in the early 70s, when heart disease began to be more of a problem some Professor, I can’t remember his name, put it down to too much sugar but governments and the food industry went with fats. Ironically it may have made things worse as in order to make low fat foods palatable they added salt and sugar!

Looking forward to your next talk.

[Jenny]

Hi Caroline, that sounds like an excellent idea.

[Jenny]

Hi Chrissy, welcome, we are a truly international group of like minded horse owners. 😀

[Jenny]

Thanks for the article, it has given me the nudge I need to increase Jordao’s SBM. He was on 1lb for a couple of months and I’ve gradually increased it to 1.5lbs and was wondering if I could up it some more. He has lost his excess body fat and loves his SBM/ Alfalfa feeds. If he has 2lbs a day that brings his daily protein up to 835gms. The only unknown is his exact weight, I’ve been using a weight tape which puts him at 455kgs. I have a friend with some horse scales so can get him weighed once we are out of lockdown…………..whenever that will be!

I’ll keep you posted with how it goes.

[Jenny]

Hi Kerry, welcome from a fellow Brit. 😀

[Jenny]

How about the horse’s gut biome as a topic, or a particular aspect of it?

Jenny

[Jenny]

Thank you both for your responses. I’m in for the longterm. I have already noticed his stomach muscles looking tighter.

I’m shocked that in all the time I’ve had horses I never new about the BCS or TLS. Between them I have an objective assessment of the amount of fat and muscle on my horses.

I hadn’t knowingly been feeding grain, just a simple Balancer, although there may well have been grain in it. What a good marketing word “balancer” is. It implies without it your horse’s nutrition is unbalanced. Jordao has always been good behaviourally, although I have noticed recently he is less likely to anticipating me and take over when I’m schooling him, now he waits for my aid. 😀

[Jenny]

Hi Kathy,

It’s good to hear your experience of the diet. After doing the Nutrition Course I Body Conditioned Scored (BCS) my horse, Jordao a Lusitano, found him to be 6.5 with a Top Line Score (TLS) of D! I swung into action, started soaking his hay, took off his rug, increased his exercise and sourced some SBM. It’s easily available in the UK and as cheap as chips (French fries). 2 months in he is losing his fat but maintaining what topline he has. He is attracting comments about him looking thin. His BCS is about 5.5 now. I think his obvious chronic protein deficiency is more marked now he hasn’t the fat to disguise it and also people’s perceptions have changed. A fit horse is seen as thin and a moderately fat horse is seen as the ideal body condition. There are a lot of over weight horses in the UK.

Jordao’s mini companion who I thought was always a bit fat actually has a BCS of 5.5 and a TLS of A! I’m thinking I need to deploy a treatment plan of my husband’s, a retired doctor, of “Masterly inactivity with cat like observation” and wait for the new feeding regime and do it’s thing. Any advice would be welcome.

[Jenny]

Great, let me know how she gets on!

[Jenny]

Hi Angela,

I’m in the UK, do tell your friend that I get my SBM from a company called Burnhills. It’s 44% CP, hulls extracted, really good quality and arrives in a couple of days. What’s more it has done wonders to my dressage horse’s topline and over all muscling.😀