WEIGHING HAY
It is important that you WEIGH your pony/horses hay nets and DO NOT go off the size of the net or number of slices! Digital
luggage weigh scales are ideal and are not expensive.
SOAKING HAY
Hay should be soaked for a minimum of 3 hrs (3-12hrs) in plenty of cold or lukewarm water out of direct sunlight. This allows
a significant percentage of the sugars it contains to leach out into the water. Do not soak in a bucket the same size as the
hay net. It needs to be soaked in a bath or large container.
If soaking hay is not possible, you can feed a low sugar/starch chop hay replacer, such as TopSpec TopChop Lite, which
contains no more than 3% sugar and starch combined. Research has shown this is more effective than feeding non soaked
hay.
Because we are soaking hay and your horse/pony is not eating any grass it is vital that we feed a broad spectrum
supplement to enable tissue repair and maintenance to take place. An example balancer commonly recommended is TopSpec
AntiLam.
WEIGH TAPES
Weigh tapes can be used but it is important to note they are not accurate at giving a weight they should be used to monitor
progress. Regular use of weigh tapes (2-3 times a week), and recording measurements are really useful for tracking
progress. It is really helpful to speak to a nutritionist to have a diet plan created specifically for your horse/pony. The main
factor in feeding laminitics is to minimise the levels of sugar and starch in the diet, but provide ample fibre.
FEEDING HAY & HAYLAGE
Feed restriction means that overweight horses and ponies might inevitably spend some time without anything to eat. To keep
your horse eating as long as possible we would recommend feeding in small holed hay nets and, or if you do not have this
using one hay net inside another, to make your horse work really hard for forage. If using a chopped fibre feed, feed in a
large rubber bucket and put a football on top so that your horse has to manipulate to get to the feed. If your horse is a
playful character, hanging up vegetables or chopping and putting in a foraging ball can also help to keep them entertained.
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