Easy Keepers are Not Easy
Every horse owner recognises the “good-doer” type, the horse who seems to live on fresh air, keeps weight effortlessly, and looks like the simplest animal in the paddock. But the quiet truth is that good-doers are not easy at all. They’re subtle, metabolically sensitive, and far more fragile than their outward appearance suggests. We call them “easy keepers,” yet biologically they are the horses whose systems require the most vigilance, precision and the most thoughtful management.
The reason lies in their insulin dynamics. Good-doers are extraordinarily efficient at storing energy, which means their bodies respond to sugar in a way that is more aggressive and less forgiving than other horses. They spike insulin faster, stay high for longer, and convert glucose to fat with remarkable speed. It’s physiology. A horse who gains weight easily is not “thriving”; they are signalling that their metabolic system is under pressure and that the balance between intake and regulation is more delicate than it appears.
Grass complicates this further. Pasture sugar levels don’t stay constant - they rise and fall throughout the day depending on temperature, sunlight, stress, and growth conditions. For good-doers, the dangerous windows are often invisible to owners: cold nights followed by bright mornings, late afternoons in spring and autumn, or any period where the pasture is stressed by drought, frost, or overgrazing. A horse with a sensitive metabolic system doesn’t need “lots of grass”; they need stable, predictable fibre and careful access to pasture avoiding high‑sugar periods. A single bad grass window can tip a good-doer into laminitis, not because the owner has done anything wrong, but because the biology is unforgiving.
Starving is not the answer either. Horses need 1-2% of their bodyweight in forage per day. Leaving the gut empty leads to a range of other complications including ulcers. Ideally, a good-doer needs access to low-sugar hay rather than pasture.
At the end of the day an easy-keeper can cost as much in feed as a hard-keeper when you supply them with all of their calories in safe forage to keep them sound.
Forage For Easy Keepers
For good-doers, the safest hays are always the ones that deliver fibre without delivering sugar, and that means choosing mature, low‑WSC grasses rather than anything leafy or sweet. Teff can be an excellent option when it’s properly cured and not cut too early; its low sugar profile and fine stems make it predictable for metabolic horses. Rhodes is also useful because it’s naturally low in non‑structural carbohydrates, though owners need to remember it’s a tropical grass and can be low in available calcium, so it works best when the mineral balance is correct.
Stalky lucerne - the coarse, sun‑bleached kind without clover mixed through - can be safe in smaller amounts because it’s lower in sugar than people expect, but it must be fed with restraint because it’s still energy‑dense.
What easy-keepers should never have is oaten or wheaten hay (or chaffs), which are consistently too high in sugar and starch and can tip a metabolically sensitive horse into trouble within days. When owners choose teff, Rhodes, or mature stalky lucerne instead of cereal hays, they give their good-doers the kind of fibre that keeps them steady, safe, and metabolically calm.
Here is more information about the qualities of different types of hay.
Here is more information about different cuts of hay.
Hard Feeds for Easy Keepers
Even the idea of “just a handful of feed” becomes complicated. Owners often assume a tiny amount of pellets or white chaff is harmless, but for good-doers, those small extras that have high sugar or starch can be enough to push their insulin higher or add calories they simply don’t need. Like a child with type 1 diabetes, even a small amount of lollies has too much sugar.
For good-doers, the bucket is not a source of extra calories, which means choosing fibre‑based carriers rather than feeds designed to “feed.” The safest “feeds” for these horses are really just carriers: a handful of soaked beet pulp or plain lucerne chaff to hold their supplements, not to provide nutrition.
Soy hulls are one of the best options: they’re a low‑sugar, low‑starch, highly digestible fibre that gives the horse something to chew without pushing their insulin around. Copra meal can also work in small amounts for horses who need a softer carrier, or fussy eaters, as it's more palatable, but it’s more energy‑dense, so it has to be used with restraint. Copra meal is a good option for easy-keepers that tend to sift out supplements, who are older or have compromised dentition.
Whatever combination is in the bin, they’re simply a vehicle for minerals, not so much nutrition in their own right. The goal is to deliver copper, zinc, iodine, selenium, magnesium, and salt in a predictable, low‑energy base. When owners stop thinking of hard feed as “food” and start thinking of it as a delivery system for micronutrients, good doers become dramatically easier to manage: calmer, safer, and metabolically steadier.
Sound Advice Trace Mix supplies copper, zinc, iodine and selenium in the correct ratios. Sound Advice Calm Mix supplies magnesium and a probiotic.
There are no fillers or flavours in any of our supplements.
We offer both of these products in 1kg pouches, which is about a month's supply, or you can buy them in larger pouches which is more cost-efficient.
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.
Controlled pasture access during risky windows and attentive hoof care round out a routine that keeps them stable without making their owners anxious or overwhelmed. You don’t need to starve them. You need to stabilise them
This is the real paradox: the horses who look the easiest are often the ones who need the most vigilance and thoughtful management, because their biology is tuned differently. When owners understand the metabolic story behind the “easy keeper,” everything becomes calmer, clearer, and kinder - for both horse and human.
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