For our last blog in our Christmas series, we are focussing on making plans for 2022 and some last-minute gift ideas. As you know whether you are a horse owner, competitor, trainer, or therapist when it comes to horses you just never stop learning. At Horses Inside Out our focus is to make learning about anatomy and biomechanics fun, informative and accessible to all.
Our 2022 diary is filling up fast with a great range of courses on offer. Take a look at the What’s On page of the website to find out more. Buying a friend or relative a place on one of our courses would make a lovely gift.
Sadly, there will be no Horses Inside Out conference in 2022 but in its place, we will be running two days of online events on consecutive Saturdays. This is great opportunity to learn from home and we have two great seminars lined up.
Nutrition and your horse's performance
On 12 February Independent nutritionist Dr Clare MacLeod will be joining Gillian and Liam Gamble, veterinarian and educator in the field of equine nutrition and probiotics, for a day focusing on Digestive Anatomy, Feeding and Nutrition.
This is a fantastic opportunity to learn all about the anatomy of the digestive system and the important role it plays together with correct nutrition in keeping your horse happy, healthy and able to perform at his best.
Clare will look at the theory of feeding and examine how to put this theory into practice. She’ll also look at a range of feed plans suitable for different types of horses.
Clare also loves to put right commonly misunderstood feed facts that often cause confusion amongst horse owners.
The low down on carrots
One such fact is - Fresh carrots are LOW in sugar!
"When carrots are fed to your horse in a fresh state, they are not high in sugar or NSC (non-structural carbohydrates)," explains Claire. "Fresh carrots are - by official human food definition - a low sugar food at less than 5% sugar.
"The reason for this is that carrots are around 80% water, so any sugar in them is diluted. Grass hay is typically around 8% sugar as fed, so one medium carrot gives your horse about 3g of sugar, whereas one slice of hay gives your horse about 80g of sugar".
Understand How Your Horse Learns
The following week on Saturday 19th February, Dr Andrew Hemmings will be presenting a fascinating seminar on Training the Brain. Andrew is a world authority on the equine brain and how that organ impacts on behaviour and training. This is sure to be popular and will enlighten us all about how horses learn and improve the way we train them.