PERRYS FOUNDER FIGHTER uses carefully selected ingredients to create a horse feed that provides essential vitamins and minerals (including biotin) whilst avoiding the non-structural carbohydrates which have been shown to play a role in laminitis symptoms. WHY A MUESLI FEED? The horse is a herbivore without the benefits of the ruminant digestive system (i.e. cows/sheep) which helps to facilitate digestion of high fibre diets. To counter this, the horse evolved masticating (chewing) feed for up 18 hours a day. This level of mastication would be impossible without constantly erupting teeth, which can continue emerging from the gums until the horse is up to 25 years old. Without this regular chewing, the teeth can create overgrowths, which can result in several developmental and nutritional issues. A major advantage of feeding unprocessed muesli feeds is the mastication required to digest the feed promotes wearing of the teeth, helping to promote the maintenance of healthy teeth. WHY IS ROUGHAGE IMPORTANT FOR LAMINITIS? Recent research has indicated that an acidic ph level within the horses hindgut has been shown to play a part in Equine Metabolic Syndromes and in particular laminitis. Fermentation of sugars from certain types of grain, pasture and other products within the hindgut can raise the acid levels. Horse saliva acts as a buffer to acidic levels. Roughage feeds force the horse to chew it's feed and produce saliva to attempt to create a bolus within the mouth to facilitate swallowing. The increased saliva entering the digestive tract is one of the horses natural mechanisms to enable it to begin reducing acid levels within the hindgut. OMEGA 3 AND 6 OIL FOR ENERGY Grain is often used in horse feed as a source of energy. The starch inside the grain is utilized as glucose for the horse’s metabolic activity. The metabolic breakdown of the starch within the large intestine of the horse has been shown to play a significant part in the development of laminitis. Whilst Oil content in feed plays an important part in improving condition and coat on your horse, it is also a rich sources of energy, but has not been shown to lead to the laminitic symptoms which grain rich feeds do. PERRYS FOUNDER FIGHTER contains essential Omega 3 and Omega 6 oils. Our canola oil is extracted by cold compression to reduce oxidisation, which can occur during the processing of recycled oils. PASTURE Research continues into the causes of founder. Different pastures have different levels of carbohydrates. It is important if you intend to keep you horse on pasture to take into account diurnal patterns which can result in increased carbohydrate levels. Day length, amount of sunshine, moisture content, night time temperature and type of pasture all impact on the levels of non-structural carbohydrates in the plant. Baled hay can also have varying levels of NSC’s, which should be taken into account when providing to a horse susceptible to founder.