Spring Grass and Laminitis: How to Protect Your Horse Before the Damage Is Done

There's a certain kind of dread that comes with the first flush of spring grass. If you have ever nursed a horse through laminitis or watched anxiously over a good-doer who looks a little too round and a little too cresty, you will know exactly what I mean. I watch my own horses closely at this time of year, because while spring is beautiful, spring can be dangerous for those of us with laminitis prone horses and ponies. The good news is that laminitis is far easier to prevent than it is to fix. If you understand why spring grass causes problems and get a few key things in place before the paddock turns green, you can dramatically lower your horse's risk.

Let's walk through it:

Why is spring grass so risky for horses? Grass makes sugar. On bright, sunny days, plants photosynthesise and produce water-soluble carbohydrates, simple sugars and fructans to fuel their growth. During warm nights, the grass uses those sugars up again. But in spring, we often get sunny days followed by cold nights, and that combination is the problem the grass keeps making sugar during the day but can't burn it off overnight. Therefore, it accumulates. That's why frosty mornings that turn into sunny afternoons are some of the highest-risk conditions of the whole year, even though the grass may look short and harmless. Short, stressed grass can actually be higher in sugar than long, lush pasture.

When a horse takes in more sugar and starch than its system can handle, the ripple effect reaches the feet. In sugar-sensitive horses, this drives the inflammation and blood-flow disruption in the laminae, the delicate structures that anchor the hoof wall to the pedal bone inside the hoof. When those structures fail, you get laminitis, and in severe cases, founder.

Which horses are most at risk? Any horse can develop laminitis, but some are far more vulnerable than others like ponies, or certain breeds of horses. Keep a close eye on ponies and "easy keepers" who hold weight on the smell of a hay bale. Horses with a cresty neck or lumpy fat pads over the tailhead, shoulders or swollen sheath. Horses who have been diagnosed with Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS) or Cushing's (PPID). Any horse that has had laminitis before, once they've had it, the risk never fully goes away. Older horses, who are more prone to hormonal changes that affect insulin. If your horse ticks one or more of these boxes, spring is not the season to relax and hope for the best. It's the season to have a plan, and there are early warning signs you shouldn't ignore. Laminitis rarely arrives without a warning. The earlier you catch it, the better the outcome. Watch for

- A short, pottery, "walking on eggshells" gait, especially on hard ground or when turning

- Reluctance to move, or shifting weight from foot to foot

- Warm hooves and a strong, bounding pulse felt at the back of the pastern (the digital pulse)

- Lying down more than usual, or standing rocked back onto the heels to take weight off the toes

- A sudden reluctance to walk

With any of the above mentioned, then suspect active laminitis, treat it as an emergency and call your vet straight away. Get the horse off grass and onto a soft surface while you wait for the vet to arrive. Everything in this article is about prevention, and prevention is where naturopathy shines.

How to protect your horse this spring.

This is where you get to be proactive. A few practical steps can make an enormous difference. Manage grazing, don't just reduce it. Simply shutting a horse in a bare yard for most of the day can backfire they gorge the moment they're let out, so have either a well-fitted grazing muzzle, a track system, or a smaller "sacrifice" area with low-sugar forage gives you far better control. If you do turn out, early morning (before the sun has been on the grass) is lower in sugar than a sunny afternoon. Soak your hay (yes this can be I very time-consuming job, trust me I know!) but soaking hay for 30 to 60 minutes leaches out a good portion of the water-soluble carbohydrates and is one of the simplest tools you have for a sugar-sensitive horse. Tip the water out where they can't drink it (my plants love this water) and rinse the soaked hay. Keep weight in check and weigh the hay before it is soaked so you know how much you horse is having each day. A lean horse going into spring has a real head start. Body condition is one of the biggest levers you control. Balance the minerals. A diet that's correctly balanced with particular attention to magnesium and the trace minerals involved in healthy metabolism supports your horse's ability to cope with dietary sugars rather than being overwhelmed by them.

Support the gut and the horse as a whole. A healthy hindgut handles dietary changes far more calmly than a compromised one. This is exactly the kind of picture a naturopathic approach is built for: looking at the whole horse, weight, gut, metabolism, minerals rather than reacting to one symptom at a time. Prevention is a plan, and a guide to help get through spring. The horses who sail through spring aren't lucky they belong to owners who saw it coming and got ahead of it. If you have got a good-doer, a pony, or a horse with a laminitis history, now before the grass really takes off, is the time to build your plan and put it in to practice. If you would like a hand putting together a low-sugar, properly balanced feeding plan tailored to your individual horse, then book your appointment this is exactly what I do, and I am here to help. You are also welcome to grab my free Equine Herbal Starter Kit to begin building a more natural feed bin today.

Balanced feeding. Herbal healing. Your horse deserves both.