Content

1. The world our horses live in today
2. My story - and why EquiNatural exists
3. When everything feels wrong - you're not imagining it
4. The four common underlying drivers
5. A whole-horse approach - the sequence that matters
6. So where should you start?
7. A final word from me to you

1. The world our horses live in today

If you’ve ever wondered why horses can feel more sensitive than they used to – there’s a reason. Horses haven’t changed, but the world around them has.

Over the last 50–70 years, modern farming has transformed our soils, our pasture, our water, and even the air our horses breathe. Mechanised farming, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and high-sugar ryegrass (bred for cattle, not horses) have altered the nutritional landscape beyond recognition.

Where horses once thrived on low-sugar, fibre-rich native grasses, many are now living on pasture developed by man for maximum dairy and beef yield.

And the problem doesn’t end there. Our horses breathe air that carries crop-spray drift. They drink treated water. Their forage contains fewer minerals. Their feedbags can contain ingredients the equine digestive system was never designed to handle.

None of this is about scaremongering – it’s simply the modern backdrop our horses are living in.

Feeding horses hasn’t become complicated because we did something wrong - it’s complicated because our world changed.

2. My story - and why EquiNatural exists

I’ve had horses in my life since the late 1960s. They shaped my world from childhood and have been my greatest teachers - but in the mid-2000s, everything changed.

One by one, my horses began to struggle. Their energy, comfort, digestion, and behaviour shifted in ways I couldn’t make sense of at the time. Back then I was BHS-trained and was firmly embedded in the conventional route – but I was still left feeling completely stuck.

So I did what any determined horsewoman would do. I hit the world-wide-web and started researching, studying, and questioning everything. I learned about modern farming, soil depletion, gut health, feeding, chemical exposure, and stress physiology - and before long, the bigger picture began to make sense.

A turning point came with Kelso – my husband’s sweet, gentle cob – who arrived and quickly became extremely unwell. With conventional approaches not giving us the answers we needed, I threw myself into studying herbs and nutrition.

That experience planted the seed of EquiNatural.

I hadn’t planned a business – I simply wanted to understand what my horses needed. But the more I learned, the more I realised how many other owners were facing the same confusion.

Tumbling across Functional Medicine gave me a framework, and barefoot management taught me to look at everything differently.

Twenty years later, EquiNatural still stands by one simple belief: horses do best when we return to the foundations – species-appropriate feeding, clean ingredients, and whole-horse support that respects how the body is designed to work.

3. When everything’s feels wrong - you're not imagining it

If your horse feels like they’ve changed in ways you can’t quite explain – you’re not alone. Many modern horses show patterns that can look completely unrelated on the surface. But when you zoom out, the same themes often appear again and again.

And here’s the clarity many owners need most - these patterns are rarely random. They often reflect the downstream effects of modern feeding, modern environments, and modern stress.

The four common underlying drivers

When horses struggle long-term, it’s rarely “just one thing”. In our experience, four themes commonly stack together:

1. Silent internal load – Unwanted microbial pressure - parasites, bacteria, fungi - draining the body's energy and stealing nutrients.
2. Environmental exposure – Horses today are exposed to far more chemical and environmental toxins than horses historically evolved alongside, which block cellular energy pathways.
3. Nutrient deficiencies – Even good forage can be mineral-poor compared to decades ago – and many horses simply aren’t getting the nutritional foundations they require.
4. Emotional stress/trauma physiology – Chronic stress doesn’t just affect behaviour. It influences digestion, resilience, appetite, and the body’s ability to stay steady.

When these factors stack up, the gut becomes disrupted, the mitochondria (the body's energy producers) slow down, and the whole inner engine spirals into exhaustion.

This is why symptoms keep resurfacing, why nothing seems to work, and why you feel stuck. And it’s exactly why we take a different "functional" approach.

4. A whole-horse approach - the sequence that matters

 One of the biggest mistakes in modern horse care is chasing surface signs without addressing the foundations underneath. In our work, we always follow a simple structured sequence every time:

🌿 Step 1: Stabilise

Stabilise/alleviate the immediate issues - comfort/stress - so the body can shift out of survival mode. No stabilising can happen while the body is overwhelmed and in protective mode. Start by making life easier for the horse – address what needs alleviating, and implement calm routines, consistent forage, and gentle nutritional foundations.

🌿 Step 2: Detox

Remove the obvious stressors: overly processed feeds, unnecessary ingredients, and anything that makes the system work harder than it needs to. Detoxify, stabilise the gut, rebuild the biome and the gut:mitochondria communication, and reopen cellular pathways so energy can flow again.

🌿 Step 3: Fortify

Rebuild your horse's nutritional architecture - grass forage-fibre, minerals, clean feedbowl ingredients (grass forage-fibre - not bulk fillers), quality protein, and targeted support where appropriate - this is the missing link for so many horses.

It’s not magic - it’s simply working with physiology in the right order.

5. So where should you start?

Right here! By understanding and returning to the foundations, you’re already further along than you think.

If you're new to EquiNatural, our suggested starting point is to explore:

1. Feeding the modern horse - Have a read of our Feeding Our Horses Healthy section to understand how to choose the right forage and dump the junk.
   
2. Check your horse's chemistry - Our UK forage is significantly mineral deficient - even "good doers" can still be depleted. See our Mineral Solutions page.
3. A whole-horse approach - If your horse fits the cluster of symptoms above, start with OptimaCARE - Alleviate, Detox, Fortify, or visit our KPU, SIBO/Hindgut, or Mallenders programmes to see if they resonate.

6. A final word

I’ve been exactly where you are - worried, exhausted, confused, confidence lost - and desperately wanting my horses well again. What I learned - and what I hope you feel now - is that there is a way forward.

You aren’t failing, and you're not imagining it - the symptoms aren’t random, and you absolutely can turn things around.

Everything EquiNatural stands for - every one of our products, every website page, every blog - exists to help you bring your horse thrive again. You don’t have to do this alone - we’re here with you, every step of the way.

Carol Moreton
Founder, EquiNatural