News & Features

With Halloween only a short time away there are many posts and videos appearing on Social Media about feeding pumpkins to horses. How safe is it to feed pumpkin to horses and what do you need to consider before offering pumpkin as a treat to your horse?

Forage provides at least half of your horse’s diet, so it’s a good idea to know the facts –and fiction- about forage.

Feeding your horse can seem like a minefield, but one mantra that every horse owner should start with is “feed according to your horse's bodyweight and workload” but how do you know how hard you are working your horse?

Achieving weight loss is certainly not easy and, with horses and ponies, there are a number of additional factors that make it particularly challenging.

Some horses do not maintain their bodyweight easily and it can prove a real challenge to keep them in tip-top condition. Dengie nutritionist Tracey Hammond, MSc (Dist), provides some handy advice to help keep your horse looking its best.

In part two of our 'Summer Feeding Solutions' series our nutrition team look at feeding leisure horses and ponies that are prone to carrying a little extra weight in the summer months.

Although laminitis is potentially a problem at any time of year, autumn often sees a seasonal spike in the incidence rates and so extra vigilance is required. If your horse is prone to laminitis, there are two main pieces of advice that are given – maintain your horse at a healthy weight and restrict his intake of sugar and starch.

Leisure horses are not immune to gastric ulcers and on the Dengie Feedline we have regular enquiries regarding managing gastric ulcers in horses that manage their weight very easily. This in some ways can actually be more challenging to manage, especially if the horse also needs to lose weight!

The most definitive benefit of feeding oil is that because it is so energy dense it can reduce the reliance on starchy feeds in the ration for horses with high energy requirements. But what type of oil is best for horse's with ulcers?

Traditional racehorse diets are high in starch and low in fibre, which has an impact on the health and efficiency of the digestive tract. Here the Dengie Nutrition team talk you through how to create the right nutrition plan for your ex-racer.

One of the key concerns of performance horse owners when choosing a feeding regime is whether it will provide enough energy for the work being done. Dengie nutritionist, Tracey Hammond explains below how to condition score your horse to gauge the effectiveness of their feeding program.

Your horse or pony needs plenty of chew time to keep him happy and healthy. Dengie nutritionist Tracey Hammond, MSc (Dist), explains why.