I attended a seminar on molds in pastures and hay a few days ago. At the Q&A I asked about molds in soaked hay. The woman in the UK (Meriel Moore-Colyer) who also is a spokesman for HyGain hay steamers said that reports show that molds are actually reduced after soaking hay BUT they will increase soon afterwards (hours?).

My advice then is to…

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Hi Chaela – my heart goes out to this pony!

Laminitis and fat pads would be the primary concern as this represents Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS). Add to this depression and “swollen eye lids” and you have some added parts to this.

My question is this – how does a pony get EMS if all she eats is forage? The answer is in this. Remember that…

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I am discovering (due to an increased number of people writing me comments) that there might be some changes to the forage (both pasture and baled) that stimulate changes in gut bacteria. It is looking to be seasonal.

Just when things looked rather straight forward, curve balls are thrown causing us to re-think our programs. So I agree that…

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Soaking hay is a diffusion process that has a maximum effect followed by a lesser effect. In other words, there is an amount of time where a large percentage of starch is removed and after which, the effect of soaking diminishes the removal of starch. Think of charging your phone with an almost dead battery. It rapidly fills quickly and then… Read more

Thanks Kathy for your encouraging observation for Emily based on your experience.

I agree that “food aggression” is a common observation that the mitochondria are running solely on glucose while the improvement in this behavior indicates mitochondria flexibility is occurring. The new source for fat as fuel is the body fat.

It is helpful to… Read more

Great news! And good job notating your observations.

Glad you are seeing improvements already. The contentment and lack of meal-time anxiety is a common improvement observed on this diet. Your horses are right on schedule!

That’s a good point!

Taking into consideration your hormesis information, and that we are going into winter, I plan to try feeding all of the hay in the day and try the fasting at night, roughly 5pm to 5am, and watch for signs of stress. Does this sound like a good starting point from which to closely observe her for changes?

Yes, this is a good starting point… Read more

Thanks for finding us @Emily and becoming an advocate for your horses! Welcome!

Hi Patrica, (Would you go in and edit your user name so we all know who you are?😉). I think that this fence looks good and sturdy. I can’t see much of the back sides of the bolt but from the one pic, I think I see a length of bolt on the backside. I would get someone to hack that off. It could be a potential danger to a horse’s eye if they… Read more

Hi Emily! Welcome!