>>> Actually, not all grasses are created the same, and warm weather tropical grasses are usully better, like bermuda for instance......and of course not overfeeding, and keeping up on the trims so the white line never streches, etc etc etc....Foundered horses are A LOT of our farrier business, unfortunatley we have found that it is a human issue more than grass.....Every foundered horse we have Ever seen in our business foundered because of humans......either overfeeding with no exercise, or put on full feed on rich cattle grass that is for cattle to fatten up on before slaughter.
No, that's not right. That's not what current research points to. Yes, feeding is a big part of the management of a horse at risk for laminitis, but the root cause of laminitis seems to be an internal cause. Some horses simply seem to have low risk, while the others have such high risk that it's almost impossible to prevent - at least with the current knowledge base. Some horses can be fat and live on lush pastures forever and not develop laminitis. Some thin horses will also develop it. If there is anything that makes me angry, it's when people make it sound like stupid owners are the only cause of it. No wonder Icelandic owners denied that it occurs in this breed for so long. Who wants to be branded a careless, uncaring or stupid owner? Sometimes, it's simply going to happen. We do the best we can with management, but sometimes that's simply not enough. Bad enough to have a beloved horse get sick - it's salt in the wound to go blaming people who did nothing wrong. I've had two horses that've had laminitis. One was overweight - not as bad as many Icelandic's I've seen, but she was fat. The other horses in that very same pasture were not fat. None were getting any grain at all at that time. Why did she founder, and not the others? I'm sure if I tested her, we'd find she's insulin resistant, while the others aren't. We didn't know about IR then - thank god for the ongoing research that has since isolated it. My other horse who had laminitis was thin - was never an easy keeper and he lost even more weight the week or so before his attack. He had Cushing's and laminitis is a very common symptom of Cushing's, possibly one of the most common causes per the research I've read. Just how would you blame an owner for giving his/her horse Cushing's disease? You can't. My farrier says that a notable percentage of foundered horses he treats are thin. Maybe 20-30%...sure, many are fat, but certainly not all. Some are even normal weight. Let's not just blame the owners, and keep people ashamed to talk about problems they didn't cause. That sort of thinking is not in the horses' best interest. Karen Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED] No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.16.0/1136 - Release Date: 11/17/2007 2:55 PM
