DL Equine Nutrition

30/03/2026

Autumn Grass Flush – Is Your Horse Affected? 🌱🐴

Hello there,

As we head into another autumn flush of grass, have you noticed any behaviour changes or health issues in your horse?
Ever wondered why, despite New Zealand horse owners widely using the term “grass affected” to describe pasture-related issues, the feed industry continues to offer an ever-growing range of flashy feeds and supplements?

They promise to fix everything… yet if we’re honest, they often don’t.

Why?
Because if your horse grazes pasture and/or eats hay, this will always make up the majority of their diet.

That means nutrient imbalances—whether energy, sugars, starch, minerals, dry matter, or vitamins—are most likely coming from your forage. Even the best feeds may in some cases may add to the problem if not used correctly to balance what is imbalanced in the pasture.

Real-Life Examples

Horse A
500kg, light work
Grazed 24/7
1kg hay
500g hard feed (chaff, minerals, manufactured feed)
➡️ 87% of diet = pasture

Horse B
500kg, light work
Grazed 10 hours/day
4kg hay
2kg hard feed
➡️ 30% of diet = pasture

Horse C
500kg, medium work
Grazed 11 hours/day
2kg hay
500g hard feed
➡️ 79% of diet = pasture

Why This Matters;
Horses are hindgut fermenters—meaning the microbes in their hindgut break down fibre to provide energy and support overall health.
So when pasture is the issue everything can be affected.

That could be due to:
Low dry matter (too much water, not enough fibre)
High sugars or starch overwhelming the hindgut
Mineral deficiencies or imbalances

The potential issues from pasture are endless.

The Take-Home Message
It doesn’t make sense to spend large amounts on feeds and supplements without first understanding what your horse is eating the most of—your grass and hay.

✔️ Get your pasture or hay analysed
✔️ Then work with a nutritionist to balance the diet for your individual horse

That’s where real change happens.

Happy days!

28/03/2026

26/03/2026

Hi team, how is your grass doing?

Im betting many of you that have had all the rain this last couple of days that you will quickly see massive change from some old brown to green with new grass growth?

If you have this happening in your horses’ paddocks guess what else is happening? Got some unwanted silly horse behaviour starting?

So what exactly is happening inside your horse?

Well right now the grass has gone from feeling stressed with the heat and little moisture to having a party at the wet humid conditions and throwing everything it can into growing and turning on all its photosynthesis into making sugars.

The formerly stressed grass holds onto these sugars for dear life and guess who gets to eat them? Yup your lucky normally sane little unicorn.

Next this high sugar hits your horses foregut, the foregut yells ‘ I cant cope” and it is rushes this sugar thru really really fast compared to the old high fibre low sugar boring slow grass from last week. This high sugar stuff hits the hind gut super quickly. Plus your hind gut is also getting fructans (complex sugar) in the hindgut from the grass, double whammy!

In here the normally stable ph levels drop too quickly and conditions change too fast upsetting all balance. This condition of the microbiome in the gut of the horse then has effects on things like behaviour.

Why? because trough the “gut-brain axis” it appears that the microbes in the gut are in communication with the brain.

Think of the hindgut as a a playground of microbes on a soft ball team. When it has that long term feed of high fibre the teams playing are all in blue (all steady slow league fibre fermenters).

The high sugar rushes in and the blue team finds it doesn’t have enough players to cope and has to sub on a new team of red players. These guys hit hard and fast and are angry!

The whole playground dissolves into a brawl! Ok so I may have gone overboard on the analogy but you get the jist right?

Too much high sugar makes for one unhappy gut an one upset horse and humans asking where did my lovely pony gallop off to??

So what to do? Add more fibre, chaff, low sugar hay, old pastur, sugar beet pulp, etc (anything very low sugar).

Please see previous blog on website for your sugar and NSC terms and values. Strip graze, very slow introduction and access to fresh grass, exercise more. Add fats instead of grain for energy. Add prebiotics to the diet.

Get your diet balanced by an equine nutritionist NOW. An unbalanced diet in all your horses vitamins and minerals and nutrients will exacerbate the problems.

see www.dlequine.co.nz for a correctly balanced diet plan.

22/03/2026

To promote calm behaviour and keep the horse gut happy, always feed less digestible energy on your horses days off exercise.⚖

Feed less calories.
= cut down high energy feeds such as grains and fats.

If you are not sure what the energy of your feeds are check the lables on the back of feeds and supplements.📑

If you need help balaning your horses diet so that you are feeding for optimum health and not wasting money on things your horse deos not need see www.dlequine.co.nz

20/03/2026

Hey are you out and about competing this weekend?🐴

Tell us where you are going? What is your event?👇👇👇

12/03/2026

If you are wanting weight gain in your horse follow the steps for increasing these types of feeds.
Fibre the most and always first!
Grains always last, the least and extruded or micronised.

See equine nutrition advisor for the right feeds in the right amounts for your horse!
www.dlequine.co.nz

10/03/2026

Hey there following on with circulating current feeding myths here is one I have seen on no less than 3 separate posts on fb today! Please please share this with your friends and fb groups it is important.📣

** Feel free to send me in more weird nutrition claims and I will share the truth with you!

Situation = Your adult horse is underweight, so you are told to feed a lactating mare/ young horse/ growing horse feed.
You read the label (of course) and it is made from the following maize, barley, oats…

Fact:
These feeds are specifically made for the requirements of young growing horses. The very high digestible energy content mainly comes from grains and minerals are all very high as is necessary to meet the requirements of these horses.

Fact:
1.The first way a horse gains weight is via FIBRE fermentation in the hindgut!
Then by using protein and then use of fats.
The very last way of adding to the diet for weight gain is by digestion of the starch from grains in the small intestine.

2. Overloading the hindgut with starch means increasing numbers of lactic acid loving bacteria.
This means drop in ph level of the hind gut = acidic environment.
These lactic acid loving bacteria can kill off the beneficial bacteria. These good bacteria normally produce a Vit B1, critical for appetite.
The lactic acid bacteria also produce a compound thiaminase, an enzyme that destroys Vitamin B1.
= Horse has further loss of appetite!

ALWAYS feed fibre first and most!🌿🌿🌿

08/03/2026

Monday Myths 🌟

Tell me what is a strange thing you have heard/ been told about horse feeding???🙋‍♀️
Lets try and bust some myths this week!!

04/03/2026

Are you concerned about the rapidly approaching high sugar Autumn grass?🌿🌿
Do you worry about issues like laminitis or obesity?

Let me know if you need some help in understanding what is going on with the grass and your horse at this time, what to feed and why?🙋‍♀️🦄

comment below and share with your friends 👇👇👇

02/03/2026

Things nobody tells you about being self-employed in the equestrian industry...

Nobody tells you it’s not just pretty bridles and clean horses in golden hour light.
Nobody tells you that “living the dream” still comes with invoices. Lots of them.
Nobody tells you how heavy it can feel.

They don’t tell you about lying awake at 2am wondering if you ordered the right stock (You probably didn't)
About refreshing your website hoping someone, anyone checked out (They found it cheaper overseas..)
About pouring thousands into inventory and hoping it doesn’t sit there for months.

They don’t tell you that loving horses enough to build your entire income around them means your passion now has to pay your bills.

They don’t tell you about posting on social media when you feel exhausted.
About trying to stay “on brand” when you feel anything but polished.
About answering messages nicely when your nervous system is already stretched thin.

They don't tell you that your clients will become your friends before your friends become your clients.

They don’t tell you about watching other businesses thrive and quietly wondering if you’re just not good enough.

They don’t tell you about the guilt.
The guilt when you’re spending time with your own horse because you “should” be working.
The guilt when you’re working because you “should” be riding.
The guilt of never really switching off.

They don’t tell you that if it fails, it doesn’t feel like a business failing. It feels like you failing.

There’s no sick leave.
No guaranteed pay.
No safety net.

Just you.
Your ideas.
Your bank account.
And a whole lot of pressure.

Some days it’s empowering.
Some days it’s exhausting.
Some days it’s incredibly lonely.
This industry can look glamorous from the outside.

Behind most small equestrian businesses is just one person wearing every hat; marketing, ordering, packing, customer service, problem solving - while still trying to ride their own horse and hold it all together.

It’s not all rainbows.
And some days, it’s really bloody hard.