Let food be your medicine and your medicine be your food.
This was the oath doctors used to swear to Hippocrates, the founder of western medicine. And this is also the effect we see when we start feeding horses and ponies according to their natural minimum roughage needs. We see fewer problems such as colic, ulcers and stereotypical behaviours. And if we zoom in on nutrition even more, we’ll see even more veterinary problems that are influenced or caused by an incorrect diet.
Drs. Annette van Weezel Errens graduated in 2004 with a free field of study in veterinary medicine. Even then, she was aware that a more preventative approach in veterinary medicine was what interested her, an approach that better suited the animal’s natural needs and would also take into account the environment and sustainable agriculture.
‘The New Feeding Concept’ is a philosophy that could provide answers to many of the public questions the equestrian industry will be facing in the coming years. Annette’s vision was awarded with the HIP Award for ‘changemakers’ in the equestrian sector in 2019. Much of our routine management around horses when it comes to training and feeding still dates from the previous century. Time for change.
To feed a horse correctly, it is important that the diet matches the horse’s needs and that the horse is able to digest the feed properly. Internal processes inside the horse’s body may influence this, think of teeth, age and diseases. Furthermore, the external processes surrounding the horse, including training, stabling and herd composition should all be in order. Only then should we begin to look at any supplements the horse might need as support, which should be of high quality and specific to the issue at play.
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