Most of us have heard at some point. "Just put free choice minerals out and the horses will take what they need." It's an appealing idea. We like to think our horses have an inbuilt nutritional wisdom that tells them exactly what their bodies require. If they're short of something, they'll eat it. If they don't need it, they'll leave it alone.

Hay isn’t something farmers can produce on demand. It’s tied tightly to the rhythm of the season. Grass and legumes must be seeded at specific times of year, and the crop only grows when temperature, daylight and soil moisture line up. A farmer can’t simply “make more” in winter or during a dry spell. The plants won’t grow, and the quality would be poor even if they tried. Every cut of hay is the product of that season’s rainfall, heat, and timing.

Even when gait abnormalities or old injuries have created weak zones, a well‑fed hoof grows out with far better integrity, giving your farrier more to work with and your horse a stronger, more stable foundation. You can’t control every force acting on the hoof, but you can control the quality of the hoof your horse grows in response.

Owners often underestimate how much hay is required when pasture moisture declines, especially when there is still “green” visible. The horse’s digestive system doesn’t measure colour; it measures fibre quality, water content, and digestible energy. Dry grass simply doesn’t deliver what it does in a spring with adequate rainfall.

Horses are herd animals whose nervous systems are built around safety in numbers, and when we ask them to leave their group, we’re asking them to override millions of years of evolutionary wiring.

Managing a good doer shouldn’t feel like walking a tightrope, and it doesn’t require fear or extreme restriction. What it does require is predictability. These horses thrive on consistent access to low‑sugar fibre, daily salt, a mineral supplement that doesn’t add calories, and regular movement to improve insulin sensitivity.

Old hairs, old oils, and old skin cells all need help clearing, and the right grooming and nutrition routine makes the transition comfortable instead of itchy, greasy, or patchy. Horses transitioning coats are under quiet biological pressure, and you can give them the nutritional foundation to shed cleanly, grow a healthy spring coat, and keep their skin resilient as the weather changes.

Salt is one of the simplest ways to protect gut health in cold weather. Electrolytes keep a horse’s cells, nerves, muscles, and hydration systems working. When a horse doesn’t get enough sodium It robs potassium from the tissues to compensate. The solution isn’t fancy electrolyte mixes, it’s salt.

Weight gain has to come from ingredients horses' bodies can actually use: fibre that supports the hindgut, protein that rebuilds muscle, fat that fuels without chaos, and forage that keeps the whole system steady. When you feed for biology instead of urgency, the weight comes back cleanly, the topline rebuilds, and the horse’s whole posture and comfort shift in the right direction.

A horse’s joints are nourished by motion. Cartilage has no blood supply of its own. It lives off the ebb and flow of synovial fluid. Every step your horse takes creates a tiny compress‑and‑release cycle that pushes nutrients in and waste products out. Thousands of those micro‑cycles a day are what keep cartilage healthy.

For many horses, the pattern with squamous ulcers (which means the top part of the stomach - glandular ulcers is the bottom part) looks deceptively simple: the horse scopes with ulcers, the vet prescribes omeprazole, the ulcers heal, the horse looks better… and then, a few weeks after stopping the drug, the symptoms creep back. Owners often feel like they’re doing something wrong that is preventing ulcer recovery, but the truth is that this cycle is built into the biology of

Sole grows slowly - but it does grow when the conditions are right. Quality nutrition is the earliest, most powerful lever you can pull, and it’s one owners can control without waiting for a crisis.

There’s no single “correct” way to care for a horse - only the best set of trade‑offs for your horse, in your environment, with your resources and your budget. Most of the long‑held beliefs that get argued to death on forums and social media share one flaw: they promise a universal rule in a world where horses simply don’t operate on universals. Nutrition, husbandry, behaviour are systems, and systems are shaped by context.

Dirt‑eating can be a perfectly normal part of equine behaviour, but it can also be a quiet signal that something in the diet or environment needs attention.

Selenium problems are sneaky because both deficiency and toxicity produce vague, overlapping, “not quite right” symptoms. Selenium has very small margins between too much and not enough - which is why it's a 'Goldilocks mineral'. That means owners - and sometimes even professionals - often chase the wrong diagnosis while the real culprit is a mineral imbalance hiding in plain sight

Discover the benefits of anti-inflammatories for horses. Compare pharmaceutical vs natural anti-inflammatories for long-term support and relief for horses that are stiff, sore or just showing signs of wear and tear.

Feeding gets complicated, and the differences between complete feeds, ration balancers, and targeted supplements matter. Bodyweight is not the only factor.

When the forage is good (whether that’s pasture or hay, or a combination), everything else becomes easier: weight stays steadier, behaviour is calmer, digestion runs smoothly, and you’re not constantly chasing problems with extra feeds or supplements. But because hay varies so much between cuts, species, and even paddocks, choosing the right batch can feel like a moving target. That’s why a little knowledge goes a long way in helping you pick hay that truly suits your horse.

PPID (Cushings) is one of the most common hormonal issues we see in older horses, but Australian data shows many cases are still slipping past owners. With around one in five horses over 15 affected, it’s far more widespread than most people realise. The challenge is that PPID doesn’t show up all at once, you need to keep a close eye on symptoms of problems with insulin and metabolic health to catch it early and keep these horses safe.

Here’s a look at the horse health topics you have wanted to know about most.