September 2019
Holistic Horsekeeping
How to have a healthy happy horse.
Volume 24, Number 9
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In This Issue:
- Supporting your Insulin Resistant Horse
- Is Your Algae Safe?
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1. Supporting your Insulin Resistant Horse
The challenge with Insulin Resistant (IR) horses is that they love to eat but they tend toward very slow metabolism so what they eat converts to fat instead of being burned off as energy. All the extra carbohydrates consumed by IR horses that are not burned as energy or laid down as fat are consumed by sugar loving gut microbes. These sugar consuming microbes are tougher than beneficial fiber digesting bacteria so the balance is upset. A toxic gut develops when the sugar digesting microbes overgrow and produce waste products. These toxic products put extra stress on the liver and immune system. I like the IR Horse Formula to help rebalance the gut bacteria and improve overall digestion.
So supporting your IR horse involves a combination of feeding low calorie, low iron hay at a rate of 2% of his body weight, balancing the diet so that there are adequate amounts of copper and zinc to support carbohydrate metabolism, providing exercise to build more muscle than fat, fitting a muzzle so your horse can be out some on pasture, providing nutrients to encourage good carbohydrate metabolism such as CoQ10, wheat sprouts for antioxidants, wild mushrooms for liver support and gut detoxification, encouraging circulation with NitroPro, plus meet the individual needs of your horse. If this all sounds like a full time job, it can be.
Beware of weeds! Some pastures can look barren but closer examination shows sprigs of green weeds. Your best efforts to dry lot your horses can also fail if weeds are taking the place of grass. Most weeds are harmless for a normal horse but IR horses can get too many calories from them. Weeds can also be very high in iron which is not ideal for the IR horse. Using a muzzle will also slow down weed consumption.
Homeopathy is a valuable tool to help the IR horse shift into a better level of health so that his entire micro biome becomes more balanced and his general vitality shifts to a better place. Homeopathy, in combination with diet and management, is needed to bring the IR horse to a place where he is able to process carbohydrates better and burn them as energy. Homeopathy, in combination with pain control from Hemp oil, can help an IR horse that has tipped into laminitis. Drugs to control pain are counterproductive with IR induced laminitis.
I offer nutritional and homeopathic consults to help you find the best program for your IR horse. One on one mentoring is an option for those who want to learn, in depth, how to support horses with nutrition or homeopathy. The goal for supporting the Insulin Resistant horse is to bring him to the highest level of health possible so you and he can both have a good life.
2. Is Your Algae Safe?
Bluegreen algae has been very prevalent in the news lately with warnings of toxicity causing death in animals, particularly a number of dogs swimming in ponds. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services warns that in warmer weather months, stagnant sources of freshwater are more susceptible to toxic algae blooms including some types of bluegreen algae.
So how do you know the AFA bluegreen algae supplement you and/or your pets are taking is safe? In the case of the bluegreen algae I take and offer to customers, I have absolute faith in the safety of these products that is backed up with a list of accreditations such as being registered by NSF International and the FDA’s GMPs (Good Manufacturing Practices). New Earth goes the extra mile in safety by attaining certifications for their products of Certified Kosher, Certified Halal, USDA-certified organic, NSF GMP-registered, and GMP for SportsTM-registered. GMP registration is the gold standard of the food industry and assures that every New Earth product contains exactly what it says it does on the label.
Having these accreditations is an ongoing process as the company must submit their manufacturing facility to unannounced NSF inspections where every stage of a product’s development is thoroughly evaluated. Every year New Earth undergoes an unbiased audit each year to ensure the compliance continues to be met for each of its certifications. These audits include examining ingredients, examining the watershed in order to determine that there has not been any change to the environment that could impact the watershed, and ultimately the lake from which the microalgae is harvested, examining certifications the company holds along with supplier and third-parties, tracing the product and ingredients document-flow back to the supplier to ensure everything has been correctly monitored and documented, and a thorough examination of the processing facilities.
I will be covering more of the safety practices and specifics that go into each yearly audit in my upcoming Horseman’s Health blog article so be watching for that next week. In the meantime if you need more information, go to the articles in the Sources below.
Sources:
SAFETY FIRST
THE INSIDE SCOOP ON AN EXTERNAL QUALITY AUDIT
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