Content

1. The world our horses live in today
2. My story - and why EquiNatural exists
3. When everything's wrong - you're not imagining it
4. The four hidden drivers
5. From symptoms to solutions - the path back to balance
6. So where should you start?
7. A final word from me to you
8. "Start here" FAQs

1. The world our horses live in today

If you’ve ever wondered why your horse suddenly can’t cope with grazing, or why laminitis, ulcers, metabolic issues, allergies, and anxiety seem to be everywhere… 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 crops, our pasture, our water - even the air our horses breathe. Mechanised farming, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, GMO crops, and high-sugar ryegrass (bred for cattle, not horses) have altered the nutrient landscape beyond recognition.

Where horses once thrived on low-sugar, fibre-rich native grasses, they’re now grazing neon-green, carbohydrate-heavy pasture developed by man for maximum dairy and beef yield. Almost all conventional crops — including corn, wheat, soy, and alfalfa — are sprayed repeatedly with chemicals, sometimes genetically engineered, and often significantly depleted in minerals compared to decades ago.

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 often contain “junk fillers” the equine digestive system was never designed for.

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

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

It's the system that's failing - not us.

2. My story - and why EquiNatural exists

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

One by one my horses became desperately unwell - laminitis, colic, allergies, metabolic chaos, and behavioural changes I couldn’t figure out at all. Back then I was BHS-trained yet my comfortable conventional route wasn’t helping - after throwing everything at them I was still clueless, completely empty of answers.

So I did what any determined horsewoman would do - I started researching, studying, and questioning everything. I learned about modern farming, about soil depletion, about gut health, feeding, chemical exposure, and stress physiology. And before long, everything I’d been living through made sense.

A turning point came with Kelso - my husband’s sweet, gentle cob - who collapsed into a respiratory crisis just a week after arriving. With every conventional treatment failing, and a vet suggesting putting him to sleep, in desperation I threw myself into researching herbs.

Within days of trying a simple herbal blend, Kelso began to recover. That blend would later become our BreathePlus, and Kelso's crisis planted the seed of EquiNatural.

I hadn’t planned a business - I just wanted my horses well, but the more I studied, the more I learned. Tumbling across Functional Medicine gave me a framework, and barefoot management taught me to look at everything differently.

Each of our six horses started revealing a missing piece, and some twenty years later, EquiNatural stands by one simple fact: horses thrive when we return them to their natural state. Not through fads, trends, symptom-chasing or quick fixes - but through understanding the whole horse, inside and out.

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

If this sounds like your horse:

• Tired, flat, or lacking sparkle
• Footy, abscess-prone, or struggling with laminitis
• Girthy, bloated, reactive, or showing ulcer signs
• Allergic, itchy, coughing, or flaring up seasonally
• Moody, anxious, or shutting down
• Losing topline or seemingly aging overnight

…you’re seeing the downstream effects of our modern world your horse is living in.

But here’s the clarity you’ve been needing - these symptoms aren't random - they're all connected.

The four hidden drivers

The root of most chronic issues comes down to four hidden drivers:

1. Silent infections – parasites, bacteria, fungi - draining energy and stealing nutrients.
2. Environmental toxins – blocking cellular energy pathways.
3. Nutrient deficiencies – the body becomes depleted.
4. Emotional stress & trauma – locking the nervous system into fight/flight.

When these stack up, the gut becomes inflamed, the mitochondria (the body’s energy producers) slow down, and the whole system 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. From symptoms to solutions - the path back to balance

You don’t fix chronic issues by masking symptoms - you fix them by supporting the whole system, and at EquiNatural we follow the same structured sequence every time:

🌿 Step 1: Alleviate

Alleviate pain, inflammation, and stress, so the body can shift out of survival mode. No recovery can happen while the body is overwhelmed and in protective mode.

🌿 Step 2: Detoxify

Clear the toxins, stabilise the gut, rebuild the biome, restore the gut:mitochondria communication, and reopen cellular pathways so energy can flow again.

🌿 Step 3: Fortify

Rebuild resilience with species-appropriate forage-fibre, balanced minerals, clean feedbowl ingredients (grass forage-fibre - not bulk fillers), quality protein, and targeted support - this is the missing link for so many horses.

It’s not magic - it’s physiology, and once the root causes lift, horses often transform quicker than owners expect.

5. So where should you start?

Right here! By understanding what's going on - and just by reading this page, you’re already further along than you think.

Here’s your guided starting point:

1. Learn about 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 forage + mineral balance - Have a read of our Modern Day Horse Feeding page - modern UK forage is significantly mineral deficient - balancing your horse's nutrient chemistry changes everything.
3. Explore our Reset Programmes - If your horse fits the cluster of symptoms above, start with OptimaCARE - Alleviate, Detox, Fortify, or visit the KPU, SIBO/Hindgut, or Mallenders reset programmes if those 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 - the symptoms aren’t random, and you absolutely can turn things around - horses are extraordinary healers when given what nature intended.

Everything EquiNatural stands for - every product, every article, every programme - exists to help you bring your horse back into balance. You don’t have to do this alone - we’re here, every step of the way.

Carol Moreton
Founder, EquiNatural

7. "Start Here" FAQs