Dr Tom Shurlock is the British Horse Feeds horse nutrition
specialist. Working alongside our in-house formulations
expert, Mike Every, Tom has helped us to produce what we believe
are the best horse feeds in the marketplace. We've taken care
to formulate feeds that match your horses's particular requirements
and we use only the best quality ingredients.
We believe knowledge is important when it comes to horse
nutrition, so to help you understand more about feeding your horse,
we've selected a number of articles Dr Tom and others have
written.
There is an old maxim: “You are what you eat!” Basically this is true, except for one small detail – it’s the wrong way round!
What you are, or in the case of the Performance Horse, what you do dictates what you should eat. Traditionally it has been accepted that the more intense the exercise you put your horse through, the more “fast release” energy you should be feeding. But fast release is not necessarily the same as readily accessible and, biochemically, there are storage “areas” for energy irrespective of whether you are feeding fast or slow release energy sources. Slow- and fast- release are not terms that are applicable to a performance horse.
Laminitis, like many conditions, is a description of the effect rather than its cause. That is the condition is an inflammation of the lamellar and may be caused by a number of factors including physical damage, bacterial toxins (disease) and diet.
read articleAt British Horse Feeds we try to understand the whole of the horse and how it functions. Biochemistry, physiology, immunostasis and the environment are all factors that determine the nutrients an animal requires at any stage of its life. Having done that it would appear a simple matter to provide the correct nutrition!
read articleThe phenomenon of a veteran horse is a fairly new concept. Working and military animals had a useful, but relatively short, life and even if retired were not expected to live beyond 15 to 20 years.
read articleMore than any other domestic animal the horse has a modern lifestyle furthest away from its wild antecedants. We have curtailed its wide ranging activities to regular periods of activity, the remainder of the time keeping it stabled or in small areas for grazing.
read articleTying Up, Monday Morning Sickness, gait abnormalities, back pains, colic symptoms, stiffness are all familiar terms to the worried horse owner when their horse is in distress either during or after exercise.
read articleSugar Beet can do a whole lot more for your horse than simply dampen down his nuts or coarse mix. Sugar beet pulp is a versatile feed, because it can be fed in small quantities to overweight horses as a mixer for multivitamin and mineral supplement instead of chaff. And it can be given in large quantities to a poor doer for weight gain or a working horse for energy.
read article