Thank you Kathy

And very specifically to Doc T-thanks for the info on flabby cheeks-really appreciate that and of course SBM-my horses are so much happier. All of the brain stuff he talked about the other day works much better with the right fuel. I am very optimistic to take this information forward in the care of my horses!

Hi!

I want to give you a sincere thanks Doc T for your work and sharing it here. I am going to be doing a new course in another area of the horse world and will be devoting my time to that. I will continue to let others know about you (anyone that will listen!). Would you please cancel my membership? Thanks again,

Angela

We’re deep into a biochemical soup here…for simplicity this is how I am thinking of it…short chain fatty acids are very good for the gut and are appearing to be neuroprotective to the brain but maybe the brain just doesn’t like to burn them due to the neurons’ inability to survive the byproducts. So perhaps the benefit of the SCFAs to the… Read more

I understand that a healthy human microbiome can metabolize soluble fibre and resistant starch to short chain fatty acids as well. This I found fascinating.

I looked up why the brain only uses glucose as fuel and it seems that burning fatty acids (presumably via ketones) produces too many reactive oxygen species and neurons are not adept at… Read more

I’ll look into it as well and see what I can find about what we know from first principles. It’s been a while (read decades) since I looked at this stuff so a refresher would be a good idea. I know on some of the podcasts you have said that burning glucose is a “dirty” process but that it’s the preferred fuel of the brain so those two things… Read more

Thank you!!

Our next trim is in a couple of weeks-will let you know.

Specifically I am asking about using something that is supposed to kill the fly (which takes time through paralysis of breathing) as a repellent. It doesn’t make sense to me since the purpose of a repellent is to make the fly not land in the first place.

Most fly sprays we have seem to try to kill the fly (albeit a delayed effect), but it still… Read more

Hi Doc T

You mention that burning fat is a “cleaner” process than sugar for the mitochondria. Could you please explain that more specifically? I think you made reference to oxidative byproducts-does this mean that with each molecule of glucose that goes through Kreb’s cycle that a free radical singlet oxygen is formed? Assuming the… Read more

Hey Doc T,

I thought you might like to know how many people you are reaching peripherally through the members. I wonder if people would write in and say how many of their friends they have convinced to try the no grain challenge or in the case of folks that weren’t using grain before, just adding SBM.

5 so far for me.

Hey Doc T

could you please weigh in on this? Thanks. Angela

I just wanted to report that while we have a nice band of new hoof wall about an inch down from the coronet band, I am also noticing very significant improvement in the bottom of the foot. My gelding always had crappy bars-about half way down the length of there there was alway a depression in the bar and they were not continuous to the end. He… Read more

As luck would have it I had to use the info in the podcast this morning before work-thanks Doc T!

Wondering your thoughts about using contact lens solution to clean wounds.  There are 2 kinds: 1. peroxide (NEVER EVER squirt this in an eye or around it-NEVER)

2.  one step cleaners such as biotrue (my favourite)

I like that you can squirt them with pressure from the bottle and that any residual liquid is also antimicrobial.

Wondering your thoughts about using contact lens solution to clean wounds. There are 2 kinds: 1. peroxide (NEVER EVER squirt this in an eye or around it-NEVER)

1. one step cleaners such as biotrue (my favourite)

I like that you can squirt them with pressure from the bottle and that any residual liquid is also antimicrobial.

Hi-wondering if there could be a forum topic on discussions regarding the podcasts-I think there are many listeners and it would be fun to have a forum to discuss what our thoughts were about them. I particularly liked the one recently where you read a magazine and reported what you thought on each article. I know that we all have are areas of… Read more

So we’ve been doing ground poles in various configurations. Sometimes using snow banks as risers for my mustang cross. Hills, backing up etc. I was carefully making sure the ground poles were flat (not on snow banks) for the standie due to the OCD in the hocks. Well, the other day they started goofing around as geldings do. The standie was… Read more

We’re a couple of months in now and never going back-I will always feed SBM, or if I win the lottery, perhaps hemp meal. I did not feed grain before but I think 50% of this is getting rid of the crap in grain that actively works against people and their horses and 50% is supplying the protein they need with the SBM. I tell everyone who will… Read more

It’s explained pretty well in “Accessing the healing power of the vagus nerve” by Stanley Rosenberg. It’s only human, not equine but horses have the same cranial nerves as people. Warwick Schiller talks about it a lot on his podcasts with respect to humans and horses.

Are you familiar with the polyvagal theory? It’s interesting and a working knowledge of it can be helpful with working with our horses (an for ourselves too). I wish you well on your quest to help Praline-sounds like a tough case.

My farrier says his horse is allergic to soy. Can you try the hemp meal, is it available to you?

Thank you Dinah-I think I am on the right track then-I use the dirt bike jumps that my husband made for little hills. And we hand walk over different surfaces-I should add the ground poles though. It will be 5 months with the diet before I try riding again (just based on winter here) so I am very interested to see how that goes-of course… Read more

I have been wondering a while now about whether having insecticides in fly sprays make sense. (I realize there are sprays made of essential oils only and this is what I now use) It seems to me it makes sense to repel the flies only as trying to kill them with a chemical when they land on your horse is not likely going to be successful-they will… Read more

Welcome Dinah! I wish you well on your journey with Praline. We are travelling a similar path here in Canada! I would be interested in your perspective as a bodyworker on the changes you see after a few months of this way of feeding. I have our chiropractor/cranial sacral therapist booked for later this month. Although I’m not riding at the… Read more

Well that was quick-I let her know and she ordered it right away-thanks again.

Thank you Jenny!! I will let her know.

The reason I ask is my husband was going to the farm store and I asked him to pick up a couple of bags and now I have 160 lb of the 44% with hulls in the shed. It’s a potential ooops situation.😂.

And I think my friend in the UK has entirely the wrong thing as well (but worse as it still has the oil in it).

Well I don’t know but we are quite a large country so it’s a bit of a perplexing comparison. I would say it depends where it came from in Canada, soil, harvest time, weather, is it newly seeded or in need of reworking the field, how it was processed etc so there would be a lot of variables. There is a supplement company here in Canada called Mad… Read more

What if it does have hulls but oil is extracted? Is it ok to feed? My understanding is if it is 44% it does have hulls, 48% CP does not.

Also I have a friend in the UK and her farm supplier gave her soybean meal with a label that says 33% protein and something like 18% fat which I think means the soy beans have just been heated and ground, no… Read more

Ok so I think I have the wrong SBM as it is the 44% and although the young person at the farm store did not know if it was dehulled, this is what they had so not knowing it was possible to extract the oil without dehulling, I bought it. Is it ok to use? I understand it is heat treated but I am wondering if it is not dehulled, should I be feeding… Read more

I had no idea that temperature swings were a factor in colic. I read your post yesterday and thought “hmmm…maybe it’s particular to their region”. Then today I learned of a horse that died from colic in my area (north shore of Lake Ontario) this week and we have had a lot of temperature swings. There may have been other factors but thank you… Read more

Is it fair to say that much of the OCD seen in young horses that are competed early in life is epigenetically induced by feeding extruded grains?

Welcome Liz!

I am a beginner as well and as such don’t have specific answers for you. However, I would suggest you to listen to the podcasts and really get a handle on the material that way. It is a bit complicated, there is a lot to it but I think it will help you and I think it’s important for us horse owners to understand from the basics up.… Read more

Thanks Karen-glad to hear your experience. I am happy that by adding the SBM although we may have a challenging personality to deal with we’re removing the obstacles that don’t need to be there.

So my gelding has been doing this about 2 years and it has perplexed me a lot. It cannot mean nothing. He had what the vet thought was a secondary wolf tooth and this was removed which I thought would stop it. But it hasn’t. I had his teeth floated twice this year but it is not different. He also takes the reins if we stop and stretches way… Read more

Thanks, I’ll try a few different things. I have a Himalayan salt lick and a blue salt lick (not the kind with molasses but I think there is some sort of other component, possibly cobalt?) but I am also giving a mineral/vitamin called omenity. It’s a powder and doesn’t have any starches or oils or other unwanted ingredients but I am beginning to… Read more

Thank you Jenny-I ordered the book you recommended.

So we’ve had our first snowfall and I was out cleaning the paddock this morning and I remembered that in late winter (ie not now) I have seen pee spots that are dark orange which is weird and I have never been able to figure out why. Well it can’t mean nothing and I don’t think it’s the temperature having an effect on the urine or it would also… Read more

Any concerns about using rainwater as the primary drinking source with respect to minerals? It’s stored in a cement cistern. (After freeze up we carry water from the house which is from a well and would have minerals).

Thank you. I am inclined to agree with you. I’ll be interested to hear what you think about this book.

I enjoyed reading your findings Emily! I found my mustang cross laying down napping when I thought he would normally be demanding food as well. I really enjoy seeing that. Also when I lead him out to hand graze for a few minutes (grazing paddocks shut down for winter here in Canada) he now walks calmly beside me. He used to trot trying to get… Read more

I do have a more willing horse for sure and he seems more content and not constantly hungry. He also seems a better pasture mate to our standardbred. I used to rush out in the morning to feed because he would start running the standardbred which I thought was frustration and hunger. Well it was but the solution was not adding more hay at… Read more

Thank you for your reply. I wonder if you would be willing to read a book called Mastering Diabetes- by Cyrus Khambatta and Robby Barbaro-it’s about humans only and insulin resistance. At first glance it seems entirely contrary but it actually isn’t (I don’t think anyway). They are saying IR is actually initiated by high fat and that by eating… Read more

Thank you so much Jenny. I will check to see if I can get that book. I am finding after 2 weeks that my gelding is less crusty with his diet change. I never did give grain but hay (and apple/carrot treats). But I did notice he doesn’t seem as hungry now which is making him more pleasant for sure. And I am working on consistency (we think we… Read more

I am wondering if anyone has any comments on what changes they noticed with the no grain challenge/SBM and which category they would put their horse in regarding personality.

Also wondering if there are any suggestions on training/horsemanship tips with a choleric horse (hoping to dampen down some of the less desirable traits with the nutrition… Read more