Feeding our Horses Healthy
"The only way to fix your horse is to help them return to their natural state. Feeding your horse in a manner that is contrary to their innate physiological needs is making their body scream for help."
Juliet Getty, Getty Nutrition
Read how to dump the junk, feed your horse how they're meant to be fed, and close the nutrient gap.
"If a body is undernourished – and by that I don’t mean starved; I mean lack of actual healthy nutrient ‘nourishment’ – it doesn't matter how many herbs and tinctures we throw at them. If the body isn’t being nourished with the basics of a healthy, whole foods diet, appropriate to the species, then those herbs can only go so far in helping to resolve their conditions."
Dr Tieraona Low Dog, Herbalist
Did you know?
Modern farming practices over the last half-century have significantly reduced soil quality ...
Which has
profoundly reduced nutrient levels in plants/crops. Which means, this profoundly affects
the nutrient balance
of
what we feed our horse.
Everything starts with the gut, and how we feed our horses. Ultra-processed food, changes to soil, environmental toxins ... all have collectively caused an epidemic of nutrient deficiencies.
That’s why we’ve devoted a whole section of our site to help you understand what’s really going on, so you can make informed, confident feeding choices for your horse.
Here's what you’ll learn:
- The crops used in commercial feeds are sprayed with multiple chemical cocktails during growth — including some known carcinogens.
- After harvesting, they’re treated with chemical mould inhibitors.
- Feed producers often bulk out your horse’s mix with sweepings from the mill floor — to maximise profit, not nutrition.
- Molasses, sweeteners, and high-sugar ryegrass (up to 36% sugar) are added to make it more palatable, so your horse craves it and you keep buying it.
- And those added vitamins and minerals? Synthetic.
Meanwhile, your horse’s delicate gut is quietly going into meltdown.
This section brings together everything we’ve learned over two decades — so you can learn how to
dump the junk, feed your horse how they're meant to be fed to support their natural biology, and close the nutrient gap.
As Dr Tom O'Brien of Big Bold Health says,
"Anything that's going on in the digestive tract is influenced by what you put in the digestive tract. You put the wrong petrol in a Ferrari and we know what's going to happen there."
Our recommendations here are just our own opinion. We’re not affiliated with any feed company - no benefits, no nice lunches, no exclusive deals. Everything here is grounded in 20-years of dedicated research, and always with one clear goal – the wellbeing of the horse.
So why have we included such a long section on feed? Because it matters – a lot. So much of what goes wrong with our horses starts with their gut health and what we put in their feedbowl. And let’s face it – navigating the feed world can feel like crossing a minefield.
There’s a lot of spin out there, much of it driven by profit, and it’s all too easy to get drawn in. But it’s making our horses sick.
Agreed, there are things you can’t control – how well your horse rested last night, whether a herd squabble threw them off balance, or if unseen stressors are ticking away under the surface. But what you can control is how you feed your horse.
That’s why your feedroom is one of the most powerful places to support your horse’s health. You can fill it with either ultra-processed feeds laden with bulk fillers, pro-inflammatory gut irritants, and multiple synthetic supplements – or with clean, species-appropriate, meadow grass forage feeds that the equine gut is evolved to digest. It’s one of the most powerful changes you can make for their health.
Feed your horse as nature intended, and they’ll thank you for it. Health starts here.