Posted: 30th September 2013 | Back to news feed
With the nights getting longer and as the grass starts to become less nutritious, horses are stabled for longer.
An increase in hard feed and time spent without access to forage can upset the delicate balance of a horse’s digestive system and greatly impact on their overall health.
Horses have evolved to require a minimum amount of dietary fibre as a food source for the micro-organisms located in the caecum and large intestine, collectively called the hindgut.
Also horses can only digest very small amounts of starch at any one time and, consequently, the small intestine can struggle to deal with large concentrated meals.
The disruption of normal hindgut function due to horses being fed less than adequate dietary fibre or receiving excess dietary starch often reduces the ability of the hindgut to maintain a near-neutral pH, which can lead to acidic conditions, often referred to as acidosis.
Acidosis can be implicated in a wide range of problems from colic to reduced B vitamin production to the onset of laminitis.
The Lifeforce Range of supplements from Alltech; the experts in equine digestive health, has been specially designed to optimise digestive health of horses throughout their lives from breeding stock, through the demands of competition, and well into retirement.
Lifeforce helps promote beneficial gut mocroflora and reduces the negative impact of undigested hard feed entering the hindgut.
It maximises fibre digestion and allows the horse to extract more nutrients from its diet promoting all round good health and nutritionally supporting coat, skin and hoof quality.
Alltech is title sponsor of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ 2014 in Normandy, France. The Lifeforce range is the cornerstone of the Alltech Equine Advantage series, developed to benefit horses at every stage of life, from breeding stock to pleasure and performance animals.
For further information please visit www.lifeforcehorse.com or telephone 01780 764512
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