Fat Pony Feeders

05/18/2026

Rainy day R&D when Helper Cat shows up, confiscating the scissors like TSA… 😆

05/09/2026

Woven, knotless black polyester, not dyed. Marine grade, sourced with care, completely obsessed over & absolutely over thought. 😆

05/06/2026

I was planning on being very efficient & focused today, two days of cold snow are the perfect time to lock in & really get work done. As I took a brief (hahaha, that was the plan at least!) break to go out to shake snow off our trees I found a soaking wet, hypothermic dove fledgling. It was unable to fly, breathing was labored & it was barely able to try to hop away from me. I put the bird in a cardboard box, set the box on a heating pad & added a hot water bottle. For the first hour the bird was just still, resting in its dark & warm box, then I saw it move a little. Another hour passed & then the bird started preening itself & I started to feel hopeful. After 4 hours of warm rest it was fully dry & eyes were alert,it was time to release it & hope the parents will find it! I walked out & set the box where I had found the bird - to my great joy it was able to fly up from the ground & land on our roof! ❤️

04/24/2026

03/02/2026

The use of hay nets and slow feeders as feeding methods in horse management: A semi-systematic review

Background: Hay nets and slow feeders are designed to mimic natural grazing by prolonging forage intake, thereby supporting digestive health and reducing stress-related behaviours. Their design and use, however, can influence effectiveness and may introduce risks.

Aim: This semi-systematic review evaluated the use of hay nets and slow feeders in feeding horses, focusing on their impact on feeding time, behaviour, forage management and health management.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41478609/

02/23/2026

A great clarification!

CARBOHYDRATES
Fermentable, hydrolyzable, nonstructural, structural, fiber, sugar, starch, soluble, insoluble, water-soluble, ethanol-soluble… UGH!

Are you feeling overwhelmed as you try to manage your equine with metabolic issues? Small wonder, given how incredibly diverse carbohydrates are. To make matters worse, laboratory analytical and equine physiological terms are used interchangeably, adding to the confusion. Let’s straighten this out.

Laboratory terms: Nonstructural carbohydrates (NSC) are the contents of the plant cell – simple sugars (glucose, fructose), disaccharides (sucrose), starch, and long- and short-chain fructans. These can be further quantified by different extraction methods. Starch is extracted using enzyme analysis, sugars and fructans can be extracted with water (water soluble carbohydrates – WSC), and simple sugars and disaccharides with ethanol (ethanol soluble carbohydrates – ESC). NSC, representing all the cell contents, is the sum of WSC and starch. NSC is not “sugar” nor is it the sum of anything other than WSC + starch.

Equine terms: Hydrolyzable carbohydrates (HC) are sugars and starch that are hydrolyzed (broken down) and absorbed as glucose. Fermentable carbohydrates are resistant to mammalian hydrolysis and instead are fermented, the main source of calories for the horse. Because carbohydrates absorbed as glucose (HC) have a profound effect on glucose and thereby insulin, these are especially worth understanding. So how do we get there using laboratory terms? Easy! Just add ESC + starch.

NSC is a good laboratory index for plant biology but it’s not informative for equine digestive physiology. If you’re using NSC to quantify grass hay and using an arbitrary safety threshold of 10-12% NSC, you will likely reject 80-90% of all samples tested because fructans could be making up a large portion of the NSC, yet fructans play no role in glucose or insulin dynamics. Knowing the individual components that make up NSC also helps to understand what is driving the glucose/insulin response, for example, grain-based products that are high in starch, or legumes like clover and alfalfa that use starch (as opposed to fructans) as their storage carbohydrate.

Twenty-five years of ECIR membership experience and feedback have guided our recommendation of 10% or less HC when managing the diet of equines with hyperinsulinemia in order to avoid laminitis*.

*Adjust for level of work if necessary. Exception: Equines on SGLT2 inhibitors for refractory hyperinsulinemia have different requirements. Ask for help if you do not have access to feeding protocols specific for SGLT2 therapy.

01/30/2026

We will be closed tomorrow, Friday January 30th.

We will close in observance of human rights. We will close in opposition to the cruelty and lack of due process across our country. We will close in solidarity to the people whose lives have been taken or ruined.

As a person I am outspoken; but as a brand I have stayed silent. You shouldn’t mix business and politics I have been told; but I think we are past politics now.

I saw a post stating “If speaking out against fascism damages your “brand”, then your brand is fascism” – silence implies consent, right? So, we will no longer be silent.

We will stand up for human rights, for due process, for the rights detailed in the constitution, and for human decency and empathy.

11/28/2025

We hope you all had a lovely holiday. 🙂

As per tradition in our house; we put our holiday PJs on early in the day and make a set of them for everyone who joins us for dinner - expecting our guests to wear them for dinner as well. We keep our day low stress, relaxed, make sure we can fit in the things we are grateful for and make sure our loved ones know they are loved and cherished.

And no, we don’t do holiday sales, our prices are the same all year round.

We are grateful and appreciative of many, many things, our customers are high on that list. You are why we are in business. ❤️

11/04/2025

Salt. I know I have posted about this before, but it is hugely important! Do not rely on salt blocks shared by the herd, that was my initial mistake. I saw the salt blocks decrease & assumed all was well. The. When I put my Fat Pony on her own, parallel track where she had her own salt lick I realized it didn’t shrink at all. Just got collected dust. Now I add 2 tbsp of iodized table salt to her bucket feed every day, slightly less in the winter than on hot days. A little extra if it is hot _and_ she has exercised.

10/24/2025

Last call to sign up for ECIR's No Laminitis virtual conference next weekend! They are an incredible source of credible information and advice - they have helped countless horse owners!

Last chance to register for the 2025 NO Laminitis! Conference. Speakers, topic, and registration at nolaminitis.org. Registration closes at midnight EDT today, October 24.

A very special thanks to our wonderful Benefactors, who have made this conference possible:

DIAMOND
Custom Equine Nutrition, LLC (Vermont Blend)
Equine Balanced Support
California Trace
Forageplus
Soft Ride Equine Comfort Boots
Hay Chix

PLATINUM
Auburn Labs
Progressive Hoof Care Practitioners
Mad Barn
Black Horse Spirit
Eleanor Kellon Vmd

GOLD
Triple Crown Feed
Anderson Feed Company (Stabul)
Equi-Analytical
Pure Sole Hoof Products
My Best Horse
New England Equine Balance
Great Plains Forage
Jeannean Mercuri - The Hoof Fairy
HorseTech, Inc.
Gutzbusta Slow Feed Hay Nets USA
Nanci Ochi and Dot
SURE FOOT Equine Balance Pads
Fat Pony Feeders
EasyCare Inc. Protective Hoofwear
Hygain
Wandilla Farm and Equine Services
Nutra Horse
Equine Digit Support System, Inc.
Yank Gulch Equine