Our feedbowl recommendations

At EquiNatural, we believe in feeding horses the way nature intended.

Our philosophy centers around recommending nutrient-dense, species-appropriate forage that supports every aspect of your horse's health, from gut function to immune resilience and vitality. This guide shares our recommended feeds designed to align with your horse's natural digestive needs, promoting optimal well-being, balance, and longevity.

"We have followed your advice on the feeding of our Irish Draft Frank with the Equivita and the Agrobs' chaff and Weisenflakes. What a difference to him, his skin is amazing and he gleams with health! The vet says he is so pleased with him. My very kindest regards and sincere thanks, Lynn C."

"Just changed my boys onto your recommended feeds, so far huge improvements in all departments including a traditional who for the first time has no mallanders behind his knee. And an itchy coat is now comfortable and no flaky skin. They love the food and I’m confident that everything they are eating is natural, no fillers or nasties in it.Thank you x Lynn G"

A quick intro to the Why behind our equine feed recommendations

Reminder - a horse is nothing more - and nothing less - than a hindgut grass-forage fibre-fermenter, and should only eat multi diverse-species, stemmy grass forage (not leaf blades) for the equine gut-appropriate cellulose fibre, to be fermented by the hindgut gut biome colonies.

Why? Well, apart from this being how the equine gut has evolved over millenia (meaning what a horse is designed to eat), it's all about one magic word - pre-biotics.

This is where it's at - pre-biotics. Not pro-biotics, but pre-biotics. If you check on Wiki, you'll see the definition of pre-biotics being "compounds in food that induce the growth or activity of beneficial microorganisms. The most common example is in the gastrointestinal tract, where prebiotics can alter the composition of organisms in the gut microbiome."

(And from hereon I'll stop hyphenating prebiotics!)

Prebiotics are basically fibre - soluble and insoluble fibre, indigestible fibre-rich carbohydrates that are available in plants and plant-based foods. And it's these prebiotic fibres that feed and nurture the friendly hindgut fibre-fermenting biome microbes, so they flourish and produce some pretty vital byproducts that the body needs, i.e. the vital 'activated' forms of vitamin B6 (P5P) and B12, numerous amino acids, and three specific volatile fatty acids (VFAs) that are crucial for creating your horse's main energy source. 

This means they're really important, because it's prebiotics - those specialised fibres that hay provides in the stems, that feed those beneficial hindgut microbes, so their colonies thrive and do their vital job - producing a plentiful production of beneficial by-products. These are incredibly essential nutrients - metabolites/postbiotics - call them what you will, absolutely necessary for the innate metabolism to function optimally, which guarantees nutritional, metabolic, and immune health benefits.

Which means that prebiotics are a Very Big Deal.

So why multi-grass species? Simple - for multi-prebiotic variety! Different grasses, as well as roots, leaves, barks etc., have different prebiotic fibres, just like our human salad bowl of different salad leaves, or a plate of varied veggies, have different prebiotic fibres to feed our own gut microbes. Prebiotic variety is absolutely key, as they each have their own special benefits, so dump the mono-species hay and always head for lovely mixed meadow hay.

Literally, by feeding the hindgut right, your horse's whole body will get the best out of it. We've got this all covered in more detail in a Blog post - Prebiotic foods for postbiotic abundance.

So, lets get to it - key feed recommendations for my horse's needs

It probably won't come as any surprise that my personal best horse feed choice is a natural, preferably organic-grown, multi-species grass forage fibre diet, taking into account that I also need feed options appropriate for equine gut health, EMS/IR weight management, and senior horse feed.

This leads me to either a straight meadow chaff or a cob/flake for an easy soak. So, my feed brand preferences are Agrobs or Thunderbrook. I'm also very happy to report that Baileys - a brand I've previously steered clear from due to the bulk filler ingredients I prefer not to feed - have also recently produced a similar meadow cob to both Agrobs and Thunderbrooks.

A quick heads-up - Agrobs aren't readily available in many feed merchants so I buy it online via EquiSupermarket -https://www.equisupermarket.co.uk/c/nutrition/horse-feed. Hopefully this link will take you to the alphabetical listing of all their Agrobs' stock, but if not, make sure you select the 'Order: By Name' option in the drop-down box just above the feeds. They usually deliver within 2-3 days but can sometimes take longer so allow extra time.

A more indepth Carol feed history

These days (winter 2024) our former herd of four is now down to the two remaining retirees - my 30yo connie, Murphy, and our 18yo unridden TB mare, Carmen. Back when there were four though, three were EMS, so I fed Agrobs' Leitchgenus super-low sugar/starch as my horses' feedbowl carrier. Into this went their mineral balancer (our EquiVita/VitaComplete, depending on the time of year) and their respective supplements.

Cut to October 2022 and it was all change. Suddenly with no warning we very sadly lost our Cookie after 16 wonderful years with her. So there we were, with our two remaining EMS natives, my Murf and Mac, the YO's 23yo semi-feral native with special needs that we took on in 2017 as a rehab, and Carms.

Losing Cookie kind of made me reassess everything. It suddenly hit home to me that we were now all older and retired together, plus a recent dental had shown Murf had lost a tooth, so I took stock and reassessed, being mindful of dentition needs for Murf. Clearly I needed a shorter fibre length nearer to what a horse naturally grinds down their forage to, to save his ancient teeth having to do the hard work. As if to affirm, November also saw Carms drop a bit of winter condition for the first time. So, I upgraded Murf and Carms to Agrobs' Myo Protein Flakes for the higher protein content - see our Blog ExtraAutumn/Winter Protein for our Poor Doers. Mac stayed on the Leitchgenus.

Come Spring 2023 and the grass growing again, and still being mindful of Murf's teeth, I swapped the Myo Protein to the PreAlpin Senior chaff for both Murf and Carms for the summer, while Mac went back onto the Leitchgenus. By now we were managing him as a  KPU pony so he still very much needed the lowest sugar/carb feedbowl carrier I could find.

*Updated 2024 - I've since switched from the winter Myo Protein to Simple Systems' Sainfoin, after Carms had an unexpectedly high tapeworm and redworm count last year. Sainfoin is naturally high in tannins, which stabilise the gut where worms like to set up home. Studies with small ruminants, such as sheep and goats, also show that regularly feeding sainfoin significantly reduce worm infections. Plus, with its high protein content, sainfoin is ideal for horses that struggle to maintain weight over winter so this keeps that box ticked for me as well.

Meanwhile, here's their supplement regimen, still to this day:

Non-negotiables ...

• Minerals - they permanently have hay in their diet so during the grass growth seasons they get our VitaComplete mineral balancer.
• Salt - during summer and especially if it's a hot humid day they get extra salt.

Herbal therapeutics ...

• During spring/summer/autumn, Murf and Mac religiously get our MetaTonic with our DuoBute (as a preventative gentle anti-inflammatory). They also both get Alcar to keep leptin resistance in check, plus it helps Murf enormously with his mobility.
• From early spring to late autumn Mac also gets our SwItchTonic to support his sweet itch, which is now significantly improved since managing him as a KPU candidate since Nov'21. This has done wonders to reset his detoxification function and significantly downgrade his sweet itch.
• Now to Carms. As she was born with an inward-twisting LF hoof and pastern (officially 2/10 lame although she'd beg to differ), she gets our JSTTonic for her arthritic changes, with JointReflexa for stiffness, DuoBute as a preventative anti-inflammatory, and Alcar to support her mobility. I also always keep a 500ml bottle of TriBute on the shelf as well, in case she has a field hoon and gets a bit 3-legged for a few days, which is sadly more often than we'd like as having been beautifully bred for racing (but the twisted hoof put paid to that), she's a bit of a diva show-off!

The extras ...

Just my own personal choice:

• Every couple of months or so for 2-weeks-ish, they all get Spirulina for its' excellent gut mycotoxin binding/deacidifying talents.
• Each spring/autumn at coat change time, they get a 1-month course of LKLCARE to tonify their liver/kidneys/lymphatics for the extra protein metabolism.
• They also occasionally get our WildFed prebiotic diversity blend, and VitaGreens nourishment every couple of months for a couple of weeks, just to add in some nutrient diversity. And if I'm feeling really nice,  they might also get a sprinkle of WildVits Treat on their hay!

So there we have it! Our feedbowl carrier recommendations. I'll end on a Top Tip I give to clients who come to us overwhelmed at the minefield that is the equine feed industry these days. Keep it really simple - all you want is a straightforward 'carrier' in which to add the supplements to balance your horse's diet, so - always check the ingredients list; if it's made from grass, feed it. If it's not, don't. 😉

Finally, if you're wondering why I say we're down to our two retirees, Murf and Carms, while I'm still mentioning Mac, we moved yards back in late summer 2023 after five very happy years. As Mac was now beautifully rehabbed to perfect health, we handed him back to the YO while continuing to provide his maintenance supplements. Meanwhile, he always had a bit of a bromance with the farm's groundsman, so when we left we handed him Mac's leadrope with a big instruction list. A year on they remain the best of buddies, with Mac following him around everywhere over the farm's 40-acres. I think we call that a match made in heaven! 😉

Need more guidance on feeding your horse?

Contact us for personalised recommendations or explore our Advice Centre on the main navigation bar to support your horse’s health naturally.

PS - A human prebiotic guide

If you're looking to get a bit more prebiotic magic into your own diet to reset your gut, remember - it's about prebiotic diversity. I mean, you wouldn't want to eat kale all day, would you?

Here's a human prebiotic-rich meal plan:

• Maybe start your day with a serving of porridge oats with chopped banana, a sprinkle of flaxseed and wheat bran.
• Come lunch, a bowl of pasta with garlic and onions in the sauce with some high-fibre pulses (kidney beans/chickpeas etc), and maybe a side of asparagus.
• Dinner, and 2/3 of your plate should be a range of colourful veggies (eat that rainbow, remember!) with your protein of choice.
• Best of all?! A mug of hot chocolate before bed (for the cacao - another amazing prebiotic); easy on the sugar tho.
• That's not to say a mixed side-salad somewhere in your day, with dandelion greens and a bit of sliced chicory, wouldn't be a bad thing either, with a simple dressing of extra-virgin olive oil and ACV with the mother of course!

Enjoy!