Diets By Design

03/05/2026

Autumn feeding tip

As we move into autumn and grasses start to dry off and prepare for winter, many horses transition onto more hay-based diets and their protein intake drops.

Low protein intake causes muscle loss- a gradual process that often goes unnoticed until it shows up a few months later, when horses suddenly start to look ribby, lose topline, or struggle to maintain condition.

Without enough protein and essential amino acids, horses will start breaking down muscle to support more important body functions.

This is where Back 2 Basics Muscle Up can really help.

Feeding 20–30 g daily provides key amino acids like lysine, methionine, and threonine — helping your horse maintain muscle mass, support recovery, and hold condition through the colder months.

This is especially important for older horses and breeding mares, who often find it harder to rebuild lost muscle once it’s gone.

A little support now can prevent a much bigger rebuild later

26/04/2026

Autumn feeding tip

As we move into autumn and cooler weather starts, grass growth slows and grazing becomes more fibrous and dryer.

The drier grasses and shift to feeding more hay can result in increased risk of colic.

Adding a tablespoon of salt to your horses meals can help keep your horses water intake up and keep gut contents moist and mobile.

31/03/2026

There are so many factors to consider with sugar intake from grass and so many opinions out there.
I have always been of the opinion that putting easy keepers on really short grass reduces how much grass and therefore sugar they can eat in a short amount of time compared to those on longer grass.

Nice to see this theory is being backed up with some research.

GRASS CONFUSION! 🥴🌱🐴

Don’t mix up the total amount of grass your horse eats with the nutrient content per kilo of that grass!

The total amount of grass your horse eats and at what rate they eat it are much more important factors than the amount of fructan, sugar or total WSC per kilo of that grass.

It is a common error to focus just on the WSC or sugar content per kilo of grass when for example comparing very short grass to longer more mature grass - rather than considering how much WSC or sugar or calories the horse can actually eat during the time they are grazing.

Annette Longland and her team at the University of Aberystwyth confirmed that very short pasture does limit dry matter intake of grazing ponies i.e. they eat less grass on them.

There are a number of considerations to be made when matching and managing grass pasture to and for individual horses and ponies, and the best results will come from thinking carefully about our individual situation.

Feel free to share
🐴🍏🌱

29/03/2026

Introducing GutSense – The Sensible Choice for Supporting Gut Health

A healthy, well-functioning liver and hindgut are essential for your horse’s overall wellbeing. GutSense takes a multi-faceted approach to gut health by supporting both, helping to reduce the impact of stress and improve your horse’s overall health and performance.

Recently a lot of focus has been placed on stress and its role in stomach ulcers, the hindgut — the largest part of the digestive system — and the liver are just as vulnerable to stress. Factors such as poor diet, exercise, toxicity, travel, and management stress can disrupt the digestive system, affecting digestion, behaviour, and condition.

What sets GutSense apart from other gut supplements is its combined focus on liver support, gut lining integrity, and microbiome health. The liver plays a central role in digestion, detoxification, and overall metabolic function. When supported effectively, it helps reduce internal stress on the body, allowing the gut to function more efficiently and maintain balance.

Providing the key nutrients needed to support healthy cell turnover and the production of the mucous layer lining the gut helps strengthen the gut barrier, reduce inflammation, and improve digestion and immune function.

By combining targeted amino acids, gut-supporting nutrients, probiotics, postbiotics, and mycotoxin support, GutSense helps to:
• Support liver function and natural detoxification processes
• Promote healthy hindgut fermentation
• Stabilise the gut microbiome
• Protect and nourish the gut lining
• Improve feed utilisation
• Support the horse’s ability to cope with dietary and environmental stress

GutSense is currently a custom supplement which will be formulated to individual needs of your horse. It is designed to support a healthy, stable gut environment, improve fibre digestion, and protect the gut lining. A 2 kg pack provides approximately 5–6 weeks of support, helping to kickstart your horse’s journey back to better health. Contact me for your individual formulation

04/03/2026

Introducing Back 2 Basics GutIQ – the intelligent choice for hindgut health

GutIQ is a targeted hindgut support supplement designed to help restore and maintain a healthy hindgut and microbiome. It focuses on feeding and supporting beneficial microbes in the hindgut, helping them do what they do best — ferment fibre efficiently and keep the gut environment healthy and stable to improve digestion, immunity, health and performance.

Each ingredient is carefully selected for its positive effects on the microbiome, the cells lining the hindgut, with added benefits of immune and anti-inflammatory support.

FOS – A prebiotic fibre that feeds beneficial hindgut microbes, helping to improve populations of healthy bacteria, stabilise pH, and support digestion.

Vistacell – A highly concentrated probiotic strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast that supports fibre-fermenting microbes and improves feed digestibility. Vistacell scavenges oxygen and sugars which would otherwise be used by lactic-acid-producing bacteria which helps to prevent hindgut pH drops on high starch diets

Diamond V XPC – A postbiotic fermentate that nourishes gut cells, supports digestion, improves immunity, reduces cortisol levels, improves exercise tolerance, helps reduce inflammatory markers and supports joint health.

Butyrol – A stabilised form of butyric acid (a short-chain fatty acid) that feeds colonocytes and supports integrity of the hindgut lining. It helps stabilise the microbiome, reduces inflammation, improves performance and recovery after exercise.

GutIQ is ideal for horses:
• Recovering from surgery or illness
• During and after medication - anti-biotics, anti-inflammatories, dewormers
• Struggling to maintain condition
• With poor coat and hooves
• In heavy work
• Eating high-concentrate diets
• Eating low-quality forage
• Showing signs of hindgut imbalance (periodic diarrhoea / colic, sensitivity to leg aids)
• Moving yards
• Going through diet changes
• Changing from grazing to hay or hay to grazing
• Needing extra digestive support to get their gut health back on track

GutIQ is currently a customisable supplement with ingredient amounts adjusted to your horses individual needs. For a 500 kg horse - feed approximately 15 g daily for maintenance and support and 30 g daily when your horse needs extra support. Ponies - 8 g / 15 g daily
Contact me for your individual formulation.

27/02/2026

Friday myth busting.

Protein does not make horses “hot.”

Excess energy can. Excess starch/sugar can. Feed that makes your horse feel uncomfortable can.

But normal or even moderately high levels of protein generally won't be the culprit.

Protein is about amino acids — building and repairing tissue, supporting muscle, enzymes, hormones.

Energy is what fuels behaviour and work.

If a horse becomes more reactive after a feed change, it’s usually because total energy intake has increased, or there is too much starch or sugar — not because of the protein itself.

And a lot of times it's frankly coincidence (weather, workload, environment) and nothing to do with the feed at all!

24/02/2026

I love hearing from satisfied customers

"It's really starting to work now👍🏻👌😃 The Immunohoof and Mycosorb. I no longer use sunscreen for their noses. Her nose got bad when she moved to Pietersburg and now thanks to this supplements have healed so nice🥰 her nose is perfect and also hair grew back.

And I have received it on January 8 2026. So only been using it since then.

I used to buy sunscreen and it's over R200 a bottle and doesn't last a whole month with 2 pink nosed horses. 😂 so I am so satisfied with this I cant even describe it!"

17/02/2026

Optimal gut health is fundamental to keeping our horses happy and healthy, especially when exercise, management and feeding practices place significant stress on the horse and its digestive system. If not addressed early on, gut-related niggles can end up as serious health issues down the road.

Over the past 15 years working with custom feeding plans, I’ve learned a lot about supporting, improving, and maintaining gut health to help horses stay comfortable, healthy, and happy. This first-hand experience has shown me which nutrients work -and which ones don’t – when it comes to gut health. Drawing on this experience, I’ve developed three new Back 2 Basics customised supplements focusing on gut health that can each be matched to your horses individual needs.

GutIQ – A hindgut-focused supplement designed to support and restore a healthy gut microbiome, improving fibre fermentation and digestive stability.
Contains pre-, pro- and post-biotics and butyrol.

GutSense – A comprehensive nutritional support formula geared towards gut repair, improving hindgut function, and providing liver support. Ideal for horses experiencing hindgut issues such as intermittent diarrhea, frequent colic, poor food utulisation. I have found that providing nutrients to help detox the liver can have a marked effect on improving gut health so have included it this formulation.
Contains: Methionine, threonine, glutamine, Pre-, pro- and post-biotics, TMG, mycotoxin binder, calcium, magnesium and zinc

GastroGuard – Stomach & hydration support for horses during high-stress periods such as travel or competition, when ulcer risk and gut disturbance are increased.
Contains: Pectin, pro & post biotics, amino acids and TMG

While I am busy refining these formulations the supplements can be ordered on [email protected] this will allow me to work with you to choose the best option for your horse and to adjust individual ingredients to suit your horses needs.

16/02/2026

Large (almost 2000 horses) study looking at the accuracy of weight tapes - which lines up with what I see in practice when I'm out weighing horses - from the study:

"This study aimed to explore possible factors influencing weigh tape readings in a large group of horses, using a single, commercially available weigh tape. The results supported the hypothesis that there would be a difference between weigh tape readings and true body weight. Deviations from true bodyweight ranged from a difference of 1–2 kg, through to differences of over 100 kg. Whilst the smaller deviations are less relevant in practice, with these slight under- or overestimations being less likely to affect the horse’s well-being, the larger deviations may be more problematic in practice."

https://www.mdpi.com/2244472 - full text available here if you'd like to read it.

Weight tapes are still useful to measure if your horse is gaining or losing weight, but are not accurate for all horses!

Lucky for those of you in Sydney, you CAN get accurate weights without needing to take your horse out of the comfort of its home - my mobile scales come to you, at a fraction of the cost of having your own scales (believe me, they are $$$$).

13/02/2026

Mycotoxins
Mycotoxin exposure is affecting an increasing number of horses across the country, and many common health issues seen by owners may be linked to — or worsened by — chronic low-level exposure. Identifying and testing for specific fungi and mycotoxins in pasture or hay is often impractical and costly. In my experience, using broad-spectrum mycotoxin binders is an effective and realistic way to help reduce the impact of exposure and improve symptoms.

While mycotoxins from grains and feed are often addressed with binders included in commercial feeds, these products are often limited in scope, binding only certain toxins and added at inclusion rates too low to deal with the wide range of mycotoxins that can occur in hay and grazing.

Mycotoxins are toxic compounds produced by fungi to protect their food source when plants are under stress. Their levels can fluctuate with changing growing conditions, including temperature extremes, water stress, and low soil nutrient availability. While warm, humid conditions encourage fungal growth and can increase mycotoxin production, drought conditions can also trigger their development — meaning no climate is completely immune to mycotoxin risk.

Signs of mycotoxin exposure may include:
• Mud fever
• Sunburn and hair loss on white noses
• Crusty scabs on the face and legs
• Facial hair loss and bare patches on the body
• Itchiness
• Dull coat
• Weight loss
• Sudden behaviour changes and erratic behaviour
• ‘Marish’ behaviour and reproductive disorders
• Colic and gut disturbances
• Depressed immune system
• Skin ridges - usually over the ribs

Living in an area with high mycotoxin pressure, especially in summer and managing horses that are particularly sensitive to them, has allowed me to trial a number of different binders over the past few years. Through this process, I’ve identified two that stand out for their effectiveness when used individually — and even more so when combined.
PastureGuard is a carefully selected blend of these broad-spectrum mycotoxin binders and includes betaine and zinc, to support liver and kidney function to help the body process and eliminate toxins.
For a 500 kg horse, feeding rate for PastureGuard is 10 – 15 g daily in times of low challenge and this can be increased to 30 – 40 g when symptoms such as mud fever and sunburn are seen. In my experience horses will respond really quickly when on the correct dose allowing you to adjust the dose accordingly.

12/02/2026

Storms are playing havoc with our signal and it is dropping quite often.

I will get to emails and queries when I can so please bear with me.