"When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is right, medicine is of no need."

Ancient Ayurvedic proverb

Imagine building your house out of rotten wood or disintegrating bricks

Remember the story of the man who built his house on sand? Or the Three Little Pigs? This same principle applies to the body - structure and foundation matter, whether human or horse.

Now, if we want to eat ultra-processed meals full of CRAP (Carbs, Refined, Artificial & Processed), that’s our choice. But would we knowingly feed our horse defective ingredients that harm their body, gut and immunity function, and ultimately their long-term health?

Every cell in our horse’s body - muscles, organs, bones, skin, you name it - is built from the food we provide, so maybe next time we give beloved Ned their feedbowl, should we ask ourself - "Am I okay with this feed becoming part of them?"

• Would we feed Ned something that damages hormone production?
• Or an ingredient so mutated by genetic tinkering that it’s linked to autoimmune diseases?
• Or synthetic vitamins and minerals that their gut doesn’t recognise, alongside fillers that feed the harmful gut bacteria?

Many popular brands include pro-inflammatory, gut-damanging fillers that encourage the bad gut bacteria and destroy the beneficial flora. The result? Bloat, gas, and toxins (SIBO) in the GI tract, wreaking havoc on your horse’s health and immune system. There's a reason why so many feeds are cheap as chips - some cheaper than a bag of shavings, hence why we always recommend to check the ingredients list before purchasing.

* Top tip: It's not always easy to find the list - website product pages often exclude them, and feedbags don't always show them either. You'll usually find the list detailed on white labels sewn into the top of the bag.

Your horse is what you feed them

We all know the saying - "We are what we eat," and it's the same for our horse. Think of your horse’s genes as computer software. Every bite of food you offer is like typing on the keyboard, sending messages to their system - those messages can either create health or fuel disease.

An example:

• A fast-food dinner (burger, fries, fizzy drink) sends your body a “crash incoming” message.
• Now compare that to wild salmon, broccoli, and sweet potato - it’s a “run smoothly” signal.

It’s no different for Ned. The feed we choose dictates whether they thrives or struggles. Juliet Getty put it perfectly:

"Feeding your horse contrary to their innate physiological needs makes their body scream for help."

We’ve all been there - three or more different feeds (cos he likes them!), a scoop of this, a slosh of that, a sprinkle of something else, and flip - where's the turmeric gone? And crikey - hope Ned doesn't give me 'the look' with this week's new magic feed ...

And it's no surprise as it's a minefield out there. The overwhelming number of feeds and supplements on the market leaves many horse owners confused, frustrated, and guilt-ridden when their efforts don’t pay off. But here’s the thing - it doesn’t need to be this complicated. Let’s strip it back to basics.

The truth about feeds

Most feedbags are loaded with ultra-processed fillers, byproducts, and synthetic additives. They look shiny and promise amazing health benefits, but the reality? They’re the equine version of junk food - there's a reason they're cheap.

Let’s break it down:

• Most factory-processed feeds are packed with C.R.A.P. (conveniently stands for Carbs, Refined, Artificial & Processed).
• Bulk ingredients like wheat, corn, and soya (to name just a few) - often genetically modified - are staples in horse feeds but far removed from what horses are evolved to eat.
• These feeds create gut imbalances, fuel inflammation, and leave your horse craving more, all while producers rake in the profits.

Remember, what you feed becomes the foundation of your horse’s health. Junk feed leads to junk outcomes - simple as that.

What should horses actually eat?

Horses are nothing more, and nothing less, than a hindgut grass-forage-fibre fermenter, with all that lovely - and very crucial - fibre found in the long grass stems; a horse's entire health depends on a heathy, functioning, hindgut fibre fermentation process. Their digestive systems evolved over millions of years to process coarse, fibrous grass forage - not short, sugary, neon-green grass blades, molasses-laced feeds, or synthetic additives. And our domestic horse's gut system is still no different from their ancient ancestors.

In the natural world, horses will slowly roam in groups covering 20-30 miles/day, trickle-grazing for around 23hrs/day on diverse, long stemmy grasses, with their gut system digesting the forage carbs, starches, and very low fat content (from the grasses natural EFA omegas) in the small intestine, with the forage fibre fermented in the large intestine - the hindgut. Compare this to our domesticated horses:

• Restricted movement and turnout, often with limited grass species variety.
• Often limited dried forage variety.
• Processed feeds loaded with sugars, starches, and fillers.
  
  

This mismatch between evolutionary needs and modern diets is at the root of many health issues such as laminitis, colic, and metabolic disorders.

The simple solution

The answer is straightforward: feed your horse like a horse. Here’s how:

• Grass forage first - provide free-choice hay, ideally meadow hay with a diverse range of grasses. Avoid alfalfa for metabolic horses.
  
  
• Balance the nutrient deficiencies - our UK forage is notoriously low in key minerals such as magnesium, zinc, copper, and phosphorous, plus many more. Use a forage-balancer like our non-synthetic EquiVita range to plug these gaps. For more insights on mineral balancing, see our Mineral Solutions page in the Advice Centre above.
  
  
• Dump the junk - always check those feedbag ingredients to avoid molasses, byproducts, and fillers, opting for species-appropriate feed carriers like meadow grass cobs/pellets or chaff.

Feeding your horse this way doesn’t just simplify your feedroom - it transforms their health, behaviour, and overall well-being.

Every bite your horse takes programs their biology - nutrient-rich whole foods turn off inflammation, boost gut health, and support immunity, while processed, fake feeds do the opposite. The choice is yours - build your horse’s body on solid, species-appropriate foundations, otherwise you risk gambling their health on shiny feedback promises from CRAP feedbags.

Pulling it all together:

1. Prioritise forage - hay is king.
2. Supplement with an appropriate non-synthetic forage balancer to address the nutrient gaps.
3. Skip the confusion of multiple feeds; keep it simple with a healthy, grass-fibre-forage-based carrier.

It’s that easy. With the right diet, your horse will thrive.

What about vitamins?

For years, scientists have wondered how wild horses managed to get all the vitamins they needed, turning to laboratories to produce synthetic vitamins which you'll now find in so many feedbags. Thing is, the equine liver doesn't recognise these synthetic nutrients and simply flushes them out - as the saying goes, "An expensive way to make urine."

And yet - nature designed it all perfectly. Horses do it all themselves, producing their own vitamins through their gut and liver. Let’s take a closer look:

Vitamins A & E

• Growing grass is rich in vitamins A and E, which are stored in a horse’s fat tissue and used during winter or when grass is sparse.
• Note: Vit. E completely degrades in hay, especially if it’s not green anymore. Horses on hay-heavy or hay-only diets (common for metabolic horses) will need a vitamin E supplement.
• Natural vit.E is eye-wateringly expensive, hence why most vit. E supplements are synthetic, which as mentioned above, the liver doesn't recognise so will send them off for excretion. To keep costs down in our mineral balancers, we include a 50/50 vit.E, balancing the ratios accordingly to match the loss in hay.

Vitamin C

• No need to supplement this one. Unlike humans, horses produce their own vit. C in the liver from the glucose found in their forage.

Vitamin D

• Just like us, horses synthesize vit. D in their skin from the UV rays in daylight - all the more reason not to rug! Hay also contains a vitamin D precursor, so deficiency is rare.
• Vit K, a key partner for vitamin D, is produced by the microbiome and also has precursors in hay.

The big guns - the B-Vitamins

The good news? The entire vit.B complex is produced by the horse's gut microbiome, and are vital for breaking down proteins, fats, and carbs - especially important for healthy hooves which are essentially proteins. Horses on a high-quality grass-forage diet generally will be rich in B-vit production, but poor-quality forage or disrupted gut health will lead to deficiencies in two of the vital B's - B6 and B12, both of which are created in the hindgut in a specific activated form, essential for their function.

• B6 (P5P)
• Activated B6, known as pyridoxal-5-phosphate (P5P), is crucial for the liver's detoxification process - without it, the horse will develop a multi-detoxification disorder known as Cryptopyrroluria (KPU).
• Important Note: regular off-the-shelf B6 supplements (synthetic pyridoxine) are pointless because the equine liver can't convert pyridoxine to P5P.
• If gut health is compromised (think dysbiosis, diarrhea, or colic), P5P production suffers, leading to toxin buildup in the bloodstream - a domino effect linked to KPU.
• We sell P5P as an individual nutrient, while also including it in our KPU blends.
  
  
• B12
• Essential for building red blood cells and transporting oxygen, B12 can become deficient in over-trained horses or those with microbiome disruptions. See our natural plant-based B12-Balance, plus it's also included in our KPU blends.

The feedbowl

So here we are - the feedbowl - and here’s where it often goes wrong. You simply can’t balance your horse’s body by adding high-quality nutrition into a feedbowl full of bulk-filler junk.

Let’s face it - there are three types of feeds:

1. Good feeds - nourishing and species-appropriate.
2. Questionable feeds - over-processed, high in carbs and sugars.
3. Bad feeds - pro-inflammatory, gut-damaging, and brimming with bulk fillers.

The aim is simple - if it's made from grass, feed it; if it's not, don't. Always use a meadow grass-forage feed, i.e. grass nuts, cobs, or a simple grass chaff. You don't need multiple feeds in a feedbowl so save your hard-earned cash - you just need a simple species-appropriate carrier that their gut knows how to process, in order to add in the supplements to balance their diet.
 
And for all those who say their horse won't eat it, keep the faith and persevere - if you've been feed CRAP to your horse, their brain's been hijacked by the junk which simply means they're addicted to the sweet taste, so you'll need to wean them over slowly. You'll get there, I promise.

To conclude

Keep it simple, keep it healthy, and watch your horse thrive. Choose a species-appropriate meadow-grass forage diet, balance with the necessary supplements, and skip the shiny marketing hype. Your horse doesn’t need several fancy feeds - just natural, species-appropriate nutrition that supports their biology. 

See the next part in this section, The Feedbowl - what's really in those feedbags? for the spin behind the spin, and a list of many of those cheap, unwelcome, pro-inflammatory ingredients in our feedbags that we should be avoiding.