Why is my Horse Not Well? Series - Horse Health

This series is based on several concepts written by a range of scientists on health, especially equine health. We have shortened the knowledge to help you understand possible problems and what could be the cause. Its a start, to assist you in going in the right direction. Not designed to treat, you need to understand your horse so that you are able to advise an equine specialist of the problems you have seen or experienced.

BONUS : We try and give you a range of basic healthy recipes. See below

If a horse has presented with a visual symptom, or has a changed attitude, there has to be an answer as to why this is occurring. Often if can be drilled down to an imbalance in the feeding. This may be upsetting the gut flora as it is too high in proteins or GMO proteins that produce a range of lectins that are causing havoc in the horses internal systems.

So what are Lectins?

Lectins are carbohydrate binding proteins and there is a hugh range of them. Some good and some not so good. It depends in the evolutionary trail where the type of animal comes from ie ancestory of horses grazed on single leaf plants (grasses) which have different types of lectins than say what humans ancestory line ate which was double leafed vegetation (non grasses). There is a whole group of study being done on this. (The Plant Paradox by Dr Steve Gundry)

Wikipedia has described them in the toxicity heading as foods in high concentrations may cause nutritional deficiencies as when they enter the gut, if the system can't handle them they gain entry through the gut wall and cause havoc in the blood stream, nervous system and other cell structures.

It appears that the thought process above not only applies to horse but to humans also. Vitamins and minerals are the key to health. Hippocrates of Kos was the first person in 4th Century BC to believe that disease and other ailments were caused naturally not inflicted by religion or the 'Gods'. So back to the humble equine. Many owners either agist or have there horses in a small environment so soil deficiencies are a problem. A soil test will give the result. The answer for many is to supplement if you can't improve and maintain the pastures.

The best way to supplement is to use the most basic form of minerals as possible. The reason is that the more basic it is the better it digested and transformed in the body. Many products have chelated minerals in them. These were originally designed to be added to the blood system not taken orally. So chelated, highly processed minerals may cause more damage than expected.

I will leave this part of the article with a good basic mixture of minerals and cheaper than highly priced supplements.

Recipe

6 parts Dolomite (minerals Calcium and Magnesium)

1 part Sulphur

1 part Copper

1 part Seaweed Powder (mineral Boron make sure its Urea free)

Feed a 1/4 cup per day for large horse, tablespoon for smaller horses.