EquiNourish - Independent Equine Nutrition, Ecclesmachan, Uphall (2026)

07/06/2026

🌾 The Science of Soaking Hay 🌾

Ever wondered why we soak hay?

The main reason is to reduce the sugar content and digestible energy, allowing horses to enjoy their forage with fewer calories and a lower sugar intake. This is particularly important for horses that need careful weight or metabolic management.

✅ What soaking does:

Leaches out water-soluble sugars, including sucrose, fructose, fructans, and glucose.
Reduces digestible energy (calories).
Does not significantly change the protein content of the hay.

💧 How does it work?
Soaking softens the plant cell walls, allowing sugars to escape into the water. The more effectively the cell walls are softened, the more sugars can be removed.

🌡️ What's the best way to soak hay?
Research shows that soaking hay for just 1 hour at 16°C can remove more sugars than soaking in cold tap water for 16 hours.

Why? Because 16°C is the ideal temperature for softening plant cell walls, helping sugars leach out more efficiently.

❄️ Using cold water?

Soak for a minimum of 6 hours to begin effectively reducing sugar levels.
Avoid soaking for more than 12 hours, as bacterial growth in the water can increase.

🔄 Top tip: Stir the hay once or twice during soaking to encourage even more sugar removal.

⚖️ Remember...
While soaking reduces sugars, it can also wash away some valuable nutrients. Feeding a suitable balancer alongside soaked hay is important.

📏 Did you know?
Effective soaking can result in up to 20% dry matter loss. This means you can increase the weight of soaked hay fed by around 20%.

For example:
➡️ 10kg of dry hay = approximately 12kg of soaked hay

Small management changes can make a big difference to your horse's health and wellbeing. 🐴💚

31/05/2026

Feeding ROR Thoroughbreds: Keep It Simple 🐎

One of the questions I'm asked most often is how to feed ex-racehorses. Having owned both racing and non-racing Thoroughbreds, two things have become clear:

✅ Every Thoroughbred is an individual.

✅ Feeding them after racing doesn't need to be complicated.

Like all horses, Thoroughbreds are designed to thrive on fibre.

Fibre supports gut health and provides a slow, steady source of energy. However, many Thoroughbreds can be more sensitive than native breeds, often showing stress and environmental changes through weight loss, behaviour, or both.

When condition starts to drop, it's easy to reach for high-energy feeds. The problem is that many of these are also high in sugar and starch, which can contribute to sharp, reactive behaviour and digestive upset.

Undigested starch can alter the hindgut environment, disrupting the balance of beneficial microbes and impacting overall gut health.

The gut-brain axis— is the connection between digestive health and behaviour. A settled gut can help support a calmer, more focused horse, particularly those that are naturally anxious or reactive.

My preferred approach is simple:
🌾 Prioritise fibre
🌾 Support gut health
🌾 Use a quality feed balancer to cover vitamin and mineral requirements
🌾 Add condition through fibre and oil rather than excessive sugar and starch

Feeds such as Alfa-A, alongside oil and a suitable balancer, can provide excellent levels of energy and protein while remaining fibre-rich and supportive of digestive health.
Whether you use chaffs, cubes, mashes, or a combination of all three, building the diet around fibre is often the key to maintaining condition while encouraging a more settled temperament.

Simple feeding, healthy gut, happy Thoroughbred. ❤️🐴

24/05/2026

Balance is key! 🔑

A visit to Robocop the mechanical horse at SRUC yesterday taught us more about balance and weight transfer in riding than nutrition for once! 😂

Fascinating to see exactly where your weight goes in the saddle… and safe to say I may need a riding physio! 🐴

19/05/2026

🌿 Seasonal Changes = Feeding Changes
(But No Need to Panic!) 🌿

As the grass becomes richer in calories, sugars, fructans, and nutrients, we can reduce—or even stop—supplementary feeding 🌱

Wild horses evolved to walk 25–30 km daily, consuming large amounts of fibrous, low-energy forage 🚶‍♂️🌾

Our domesticated horses, however, are far more sedentary due to limited space, and our modern pasture is high in energy, sugar, and easily digestible nutrients.

Much like in human diets, food has become richer and easier to consume—and, just like us, horses can become “hooked” on sugar 🍭
It may taste good but laminitis certainly doesn’t ⚠️

This time of year is one of the most challenging when trying to prevent it—and prevention is always better than cure.

So when you’re:
⚖️ Weighing and soaking hay
🐴 Watching your horse turn away from the grazing muzzle
🌱 Extending your strip grazing inch by inch
🔧 Untangling fencing for a track system

👉 Remember: it all matters.

Winter may be over, but for owners of good doers, laminitis-prone, and EMS horses, the real work is just beginning 💪

Consistency and discipline are key to preventing weight gain and, ultimately, laminitis.

Horses on restricted grazing still need to eat, groom, and express natural behaviours—so keep these essentials in mind:

🥣 Feed a balancer – Restricted horses won’t get all necessary nutrients.

🌾 Use straw wisely – Think of it as the horse equivalent of celery:
longer chewing, slower digestion, helps them feel fuller
(can make up to 50% of their daily ration)

💧 Soak hay effectively – Using slightly warmer water (~16°C) can remove up to 4× more sugars, fructans, and starch

⚖️ Weigh forage –
• 2% body weight for maintenance
• 1.8% for weight loss

😌 Manage muzzle use – Remove regularly to allow grooming and natural behaviours (never 24/7!)

🏃‍♂️ Encourage movement – More movement = more calories burned
Riding, in-hand walks, lunging, long-lining… it all helps (and boosts your step count too!)

It’s hard work—but it’s worth it 💚

16/05/2026

🌱 Spring grass is nutritious, we know that — but how rich is it? 🌱

At peak growth in spring, grass can match the energy content of a high-calorie conditioning feed in every bite ⚡🌾
Protein levels are nearly double what they are at other times of the year, while water content rises to around 75–85% 💧 (compared to the usual 60–70%).

This means horses need to consume a larger volume of this lush grass to meet their dry matter needs — a bit of a double-edged sword ⚖️🐴

Vitamin and mineral levels also surge, sometimes reaching up to FOUR times their usual levels 💥 While that sounds beneficial, it’s not always straightforward. Soil type, fertiliser use, pH levels, grazing patterns, and grass species can all create significant imbalances in nutrient availability 🌱

So, we’ve got spikes in energy, protein, nutrients… what else?
👉 The sugar hit! 🍭

Spring grass is SUPER high in sugars — simple sugars like fructose and glucose — and fructans.

❓What are fructans?

Simply put, fructans are complex carbohydrate sugars that cannot be digested in the horse’s small intestine. Instead, they pass through to the hindgut (large intestine), where fermentation takes place 🔬

Ever wondered why your horse’s behaviour changes so much on spring grass? 👀🐎

The fermentation of fructans in the hindgut causes GAS… lots of gas 💨 It also changes the pH, causing neighbourhood warfare amongst the gut microbes ⚔️🦠 Some die, some leave, some take over.

Combined with the surge of high energy intake, this helps explain our horses’ famous “JOYS OF SPRING” behaviour 🤪🌱

The horses who benefit most from spring grass:
✅ Youngstock
✅ Poor doers
✅ Lactating mares

The horses who can struggle during spring:
⚠️ Good doers
⚠️ Horses prone to laminitis
⚠️ Horses with EMS or Cushing’s disease

The good news? As the grass shoots away into summer, it becomes more fibrous and less nutritious ☀️🌾 Spring grass is short term.

Offering hay, soaked hay, or straw helps horses get more dry matter into their diet, making them less likely to gorge on grass 🧺 It also supports the hindgut and can help reduce gas production 💚

Gradually introducing horses to new pasture — building up grazing time over a couple of weeks — gives those superstar gut microbes time to adjust ⭐🦠

So we can all (hopefully!) look forward to the joys of spring! 🌸🐴

11/05/2026

Wow, what an insanely busy start to 2026 we've had! 🤯

From moving the EquiNourish HQ, to a plenty of consultations with some lovely horses and ponies, we've also been down to a Grass Sickness conference at the Moredum Institute as well as doing a full nutritional analysis of Horse Scotland's performance squad.

We love being busy, but it's been lovely to have enough time to breathe (and write some social media posts!) more recently 😆

We've got an exciting announcement coming very soon, so watch this space! 🤩

21/02/2026

As the delicate snow drops 🌱 pop through the cold soil and the light nights slowly creep in so does the optimistic feeling that spring 🌼 is on its way. Then bang, March will bring cold 🥶, snow ❄️ and wet 💦 weather…as if we haven’t had enough of that. It’s like Mother Nature’s way of smacking your fingers for licking the bowl 🥣 before the cake 🧁 is ready.

Like Mother Nature, I’ve just set up that optimistic feeling of a spring 🌼 like post…..and bang I’ve reminded you that we have this weather 🥶❄️💦 for several months yet!
This time of year, is a gift to the horse owner that has the good doer, using the weather to reduce your horses weight in anticipation for the abundance of nutritional overload the spring grass brings. 🌱🌿☘️🌾
On the flip side this time of year is tough for the horses that aren’t doing so well and need extra support; The golden oldies 🐴 , sprouting young stock, 🐎 or the naturally anxious 🐎🐴. Whose owners eagerly await the relief the abundance of nutrition that the spring grass brings. 🌱🌿☘️🌾
Whatever side of the coin your horse lands EquiNourish can help your horse flourish in weight gain or weight loss. In person visits or phone consultations available, just get in touch.

02/01/2026

Frozen water what a nightmare!

I must admit although this weather brings its challenges, seeing the ponies dry, clean and happy is worth it!

Keeping the ponies hydrated and their water drinkable and unfrozen is one of those winter challenges.
Forward planning is key!

❄️ Always have water containers filled ready for the weather. ❄️ ⛄️ ❄️🥶

❄️ Insulate taps and water troughs; this won’t stop freezing completely but it will prevent it for longer. 🥶 ❄️ ⛄️

❄️ Break and remove the ice from water troughs 🔨. Kitchen sieves can be handy to get the ice out without your hands freezing 🥶 ✋🏻 ❄️⛄️

❄️ Add tepid water to feeds.

❄️ Add a few 🥕 🥕🥕s to feeds; 85% water, they can help hydration and encourage eating.

A 🐴 digestive tract needs movement to help them 💩 so don’t scrimp on the turn out.

As feeding hay increases due to the cold weather the importance of hydration and movement becomes even more important to keep your horses digestive tract health and moving. 🐎 ❄️ ⛄️

31/12/2025

As 2025 draws to a close and we reflect on the year gone, Equinourish would like to wish you all a happy prosperous New Year.

November and December were personally hectic months hence why the page has been so quiet but my New Year resolution is to be better, much better at social media!

Goodbye 2025, see you all on the other side.

24/12/2025

What an incredible start to Equinourish in 2025.

We would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and thank you for your incredible support.

What ever you are doing over the festive period I hope you enjoy and I’m sure your equine friends will enjoy an extra carrot or two that Santa’s reindeer leave behind. 🎅🏻 🎄 🥕 🥕 🐎

EquiNourish - Independent Equine Nutrition

07/06/2026

31/05/2026

24/05/2026

19/05/2026

16/05/2026

11/05/2026

21/02/2026

02/01/2026

31/12/2025

24/12/2025

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