Laminitis is an inflammatory condition of the hoof that can be very painful and potentially fatal for horses. It is usually caused by overfeeding, incorrect feeding, and lack of exercise. Many horse owners are unaware that their horses may already have the beginnings of laminitis. To prevent laminitis, horse owners should follow a natural diet of mixed grass hay and avoid grains, legumes, and supplements. Increased exercise is also important to prevent laminitis.

1. Preventing Laminitis
We as horse owners have a huge responsibility to keep our horses and ponies happy
and healthy. The bewildering arrays of horse feeds available to us are many and varied and we
are often persuaded to buy new, different or unnecessary horse feeds and supplements, for our
equine friends. Colorful packaging and enticing advertising can lure us in and lead us to buy
unnecessary additions to their diet. We can be doing far more harm than good if our horses are
not getting the right diet, in fact killing our equines with kindness.
Laminitis is a painful inflammatory condition of the tissues (laminae) that bond the hoof
wall to the pedal (coffin) bone in the horses hoof. It can affect any horse , pony or donkey, of any
age or sex, at any time of the year. Laminitis is usually caused by over feeding, incorrect feeding
and insufficient exercise.
Many horse owners are unaware that their horses already have the beginnings laminitis. It
can quickly become very painful and debilitating for horses, when it the condition becomes
obvious it causes the horse great distress and can even be fatal.

2. Once a horse has had a case of laminitis it will need to carefully managed for the rest of
its life. So prevention really is better.
Barefoot specialist Nick Hill says: “Laminitis is a totally preventable condition, equine
naturalisation rather than equine humanisation is the key to prevention. A natural high fibre diet
made up of mixed grass hay, avoid mono cultured grass, try and avoid chemical treatments,
additives, legume grasses and grains. And give horses freedom to move and socialise”.
Horses by their very nature are grazers designed to eat for a lot of the time and their
digestive system should be constantly processing small amounts of food, so starving an
overweight equine is not the way to go. Instead allow access to short grass which has been
previously grazed down by horses or by sheep, and hay which is of lower calories i.e. older hay
(not poor quality or mouldy) , if you can save or buy some of last year hay. Hay can also be
soaked if it is a little dusty. If you are concerned that hay is too high in sugar then it can be
soaked to reduce the calories.
Mixes that contain cereals such as grains such as oats, barley and corn as well as sugary molasses
are not suitable for the average good doer and happy hacker. Lucerne or alfalfa is a legume and
too high in protein for many equines. A good quality unmolassed chaff may be better.
Another way to avoid problems with laminitis is by exercising more. The more
movement and exercise the better. If you have your children’s pony to exercise and you that you
are too big to ride them there is always lunging or long reining, it does not have to be boring. Use
plenty of transitions and change the size of the circle to keep it interesting.
The Musical Ride Companies ‘Workouts’, are ideal for keeping schooling sessions
interesting. There is one specifically for ponies too. Great for light weight adult or ideal for an
after school ride. Most equines will benefit from an improved fitness regime.
Source: http://www.musicalridecompany.com/preventing-laminitis/