Hi Doc T,

Our 3-year-old colt has what our vet believes to be a soft tissue injury and our protocol is to rest him for 6 weeks with hand-walking and rehab exercises over poles, mostly to keep him moving and keep his mind busy during this time. Then we’ll reassess. He’s about 950 lbs and gets 1lb SBM daily + soaked alfalfa and grass hay at 1.7… Read more

Teddy just turned three, and he is Meadow’s colt (she was in foal when we adopted her). We have wanted to be sure to keep him a “lean teenager” knowing his mother’s metabolic issues. I have included a picture of him today and I’m happy with his 3-year-old development on this diet. I shared his story previously, but he went from being our most… Read more

Jane is built very wide and round like a Halflinger, but her fat loss over her ribs and rump and at her tail head can be clearly felt. Though her neck maintains a bit of a cresty shape, it has decreased. She has a defined hip where she didn’t before. She has no food anxiety whatsoever, is a very peaceful and laid back horse, and she is working r… Read more

Whisper achieved her target fat loss pretty rapidly on this diet and her training is going very well. She grows so much foot between trims, that we are shortening the cycle. She had a setback in early spring with a really stubborn hoof abscess that resulted in cutting out a lot of sole to get it to drain. She has grown it all back already and… Read more

Prior to starting the challenge, Meadow had lumpy fat deposits over her ribs and rump and a rough coat with itchy skin. She had “bad feet” according to my farrier and has had intermittent soreness in her feet, and a toe-first landing, though her radiographs looked good. This month my farrier commented that Meadow’s feet are the best they’… Read more

Hi Doc T,

Have you heard of any research on fodder (wheat grass, barley grass, alfalfa sprouts etc.) fed at 6 days of growth for horses? In other species the root mat with some dead seed still attached is consumed as well. I’d be interested in your thoughts on this for horses that don’t have fresh grass as an option. Thanks!

How did it go with the collapsible slow feeder? I too have tried many of the slow feeding options that my horses have laughed at and thanked me for the short-lived and expensive enrichment activity. We have been using this system for a year now, only changing out the net at the bottom as needed. I’ve been using nag bags for the net, but I w… Read more

Sandy, thank you for your feedback and sharing your story! That’s interesting, we are doing the ACTH test for Cushings on him next week as well. He doesn’t have any other symptoms, but our vet wants to check because he also feels there could be a link. Bandit is pretty comfortable in his eye saver mask, so we just keep him in it full time now… Read more

Bandit is our beloved 30-year-old quarter horse. I was never looking to change anything about his diet or lifestyle because he’s been doing remarkably well for his age despite mild arthritis and chronic uveitis in one eye that was manageable. But this past July he got a corneal ulcer in the eye with the uveitis. It took much longer than e… Read more

Here are more hay soaking set-up details for anyone wanting to try something like this. The piping is galvanized steel (from the local home store), which was both heavier and cheaper than the other pipe in the plumbing section. It comes in every type of fitting you could want, so my son just cut and fitted it to the size of our water trough,… Read more

We are two weeks in and we have continued fat loss in the mustangs. Time will tell if its my imagination or not, but it really looks as if they are loosing at a faster rate now. We have been working at achieving fat loss for almost six months now, but the rate has been slow before the recent changes of eliminating ration balancer, soaking and… Read more

The system seems to be working well so far. We are feeding the soaked, rinsed and drained hay in 3 feedings a day to hopefully cut down on mold growth while the hay is being eaten. My son built a pipe frame to keep the hay well submerged so that it’s possible to use a garden timer to begin the soaking at times when no one is around or we are s… Read more

Thanks for the continued feedback!

We are trying out a new system this week and I’ll report back on if it works. We’re using a programmable garden watering timer to fill our soaking trough at 3:30am for a 5:30am feeding. Also building a contraption that keeps the hay submerged and doubles as a screen for rinsing and draining.

Are we concerned about mold growth if soaking hay for several hours or more, or is there a best set of practices to maintain sanitation? I’ve heard mention on the podcast of the guy who’s soaking a bale overnight.

Obviously, the early morning feeding is the most problematic because I’d rather not get up at 3am to soak the hay. 😃

I’ve been fe… Read more

We are on the 5th day of trading ration balancer for soy bean meal, soaking our hay, and implementing a longer period at night without food in front of the horses. We have five of them who all live together, four of which are mustangs who’ve struggled to loose fat (I take responsibility for making them fat to begin with). Tonight when I c… Read more

Thank you very much for your reply and clarifications! I really appreciate it.

Hi Dr T,

I wonder if you could tell me if you think I’m on the right track here, or if I’m misunderstanding anything?

Prior to hearing your podcast, which led me to your blog, and now to joining this community, this is what I was doing to try to help my horse loose weight and get healthy:

5-6 days a week of exercise, gradually increasing int… Read more

Hello, I’m Emily from California and I’ve got five horses and six children who love horses. I’ve found my way here on my search for the best way to feed these guys. Four of our horses are mustangs, just off the range, and right away they showed us that the typical domesticated horse diet was not working for them. Looking forward to more learning.