Retirement and Diet Balancing

Retirement isn't going quite the way I had planned.

I should be loading Dreamer into the trailer and heading off  to ride and having a lot more time to spend playing with her and Little Joe at home.

Instead, I seem to spending most of my time helping others plan out their horse's diets.  That's OK to a point but the demographic has changed.  Not so long ago, all the balance requests came from folks with at least a little background - they belonged to the Equine Cushings or DSLD/ESPA groups or they were local veterinary referrals.  We started out pretty much on the same page - they needed help with the math, finding sources and maybe having their hay cored and checking which tests to run.  I didn't have to debate the problems associated with excessive iron in the diet or the difference between scientific evidence vs testimonials or "pseudo-science".

Lately, many of my "wannabe" clients come with a different perspective.  Their information has come from infomercials on supplement and feed manufacturer's websites and they have minimal understanding of the basics.  Anything "natural" must be good (hmmm... what about arsenic?) and supplement decisions are made by muscle testing.  I find myself starting from the ground up over and over. Not necessarily a bad thing - I enjoy seeing people learn and reach for more knowledge. But some also come with a belief system - which is simply impossible to question or reason about.

Choli getting acupuncture with Dr. Mike

Some of these horse owners seem to feel that using scientific evidence-based method is counter to a holistic or natural approach when just the opposite is true.  A sound foundation - whether in diet planning, diagnostics or treatment eliminates many issues that are masked by a "try everything" approach and allows the targeted use of the best of complementary and alternative modalities or medicine (CAM).  Energy therapies, Traditional Chinese Medicine, herbal and aroma therapies are all effective when used appropriately and can benefit both the horse and owner.  CAM modalities are being embraced, studied and practiced by many large and small animal veterinarians who appreciate the synergism between western and eastern therapies.

Not all new in depth encounters are frustrating.  I welcome new situations as challenges that often result in my learning and discovering along with the horse owner, especially when they result in demonstrable improvements.  But I can't try something unless I have a factual rationale - and a reasonable basis for expecting the rationale to also apply to equines. Case in point - when reviewing supplements which might be helpful for a horse diagnosed with some bone loss, most relied mainly on nutrients which should already be present in adequate amounts in a balanced diet.  Some also contained a laundry list of  nutrients which might be helpful but not present in amounts expected to have any true effect - but they made the product labels appear impressive.  After balancing the horse's ration based on hay analysis and ensuring adequate major and trace minerals, protein and vitamins were present in the correct proportions, we were able to target a few nutrients commonly known to be associated with bone mineralization and include them in appropriate amounts.  Each of these had substantial research supporting their use in horses.  Instead of five different supplements, some with duplication, the owner now only needs to include one primary supplement plus silica and one herb being tried on a trial basis.

I guess this will continue to be my "opinion" blog - I try to stay pretty factual on Desert Equine Balance but do need, on occasion, to rant a bit.