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    Feed Your Horse the Natural Way : The Platform Upon Which to Build Health
    Feed Your Horse the Natural Way : The Platform Upon Which to Build Health
    Feed Your Horse the Natural Way : The Platform Upon Which to Build Health
    Ebook174 pages1 hour

    Feed Your Horse the Natural Way : The Platform Upon Which to Build Health

    By Christopher Day

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    About this ebook

    Christopher Day MRCVS has been treating horses for more than 43 years and has a special interest in their safe and natural feeding and nutrition. This ebook offers a simple-to-follow approach to providing your horse with a species-suitable, fresh and wholesome diet, which has brought health and welfare benefits to so many of his patients.
    In the author's opinion, expensive and vigorously-marketed manufactured horse foods and supplements are not the best way to feed your horse for stamina, performance, musculo-skeletal health, immune resilience and a long, happy and active life.
    The horse is the archetypal vegan and thrives on fibrous foods. Christopher Day advocates feeding as close to Nature as one can, in this modern society. This ebook provides a simple guide to taking your horse's health and well-being into your own hands. Your horse will be thankful for it, every day.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLulu.com
    Release dateOct 26, 2012
    ISBN9781300343776
    Feed Your Horse the Natural Way : The Platform Upon Which to Build Health

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      Book preview

      Feed Your Horse the Natural Way - Christopher Day

      Feed Your Horse the Natural Way : The Platform Upon Which to Build Health

      Feed Your Horse the Natural Way

      The Platform Upon Which to Build Health

      Christopher Day

      Copyright

      Feed Your Horse the Natural Way

      The Platform Upon Which to Build Health

      Christopher Day

      First Edition

      Copyright © 2012 Christopher Day

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information technology without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Similarly, no part of this book may be translated into another language without the prior written permission of the publisher. It is sold on the condition that it shall not be resold, lent or hired without the publisher’s prior consent.

      ISBN: 978-1-300-34377-6

      www.alternativevet.org

      wwwnaturalfeeding.uk

      Christopher Day MA VetMB VetFFHom CertIAVH MRCVS

      Alternative Veterinary Medicine Centre

      Chinham House

      Stanford in the Vale

      Oxfordshire SN7 8NQ

      Acknowledgements

      To my wife, Shelagh, go my heartfelt thanks, for her tolerance as I wrote this book and for her inspirational contributions to my understanding of horses and their nutrition. I thank my many noble, gentle and graceful horse and pony friends, who have patiently taught me what is good for them and what is not. Thanks also go to all those horse folk who have so freely participated in discussions and feedback on nutrition and practical feeding, contributing to a pool of common-sense and real-world wisdom for the sake of our beloved equine friends.

      About the Author

      Christopher Day qualified from Cambridge University and Veterinary School in 1972. He is Principal of The Alternative Veterinary Medicine Centre, in Oxfordshire - website: www.alternativevet.org.

      Introduced to homeopathy at about the age of ten or eleven, he used this type of medicine on himself through school and college, for all the usual colds, flu, rugby injuries etc., to great effect. He started using it on some of his patients from the outset of his veterinary career. His use of homeopathy increased rapidly, taking up an increasing proportion of his practice time. His interest in natural medicine led him to take up acupuncture, having studied abroad, and he now uses these two medical systems, in conjunction with other ‘alternatives’, including chiropractic manipulation, herbs, tissue salts, flower essences, aromatherapy etc., in his holistic medicine practice. In 1987, he founded the Alternative Veterinary Medicine Centre (AVMC), the first dedicated holistic practice in the UK. Healthy nutrition is a mainstay of all his daily holistic work, in which he discusses a species-suitable fresh diet for each and every patient.

      He is Veterinary Dean to the Faculty of Homeopathy. He was, for more than twenty-five years, Honorary Secretary of the British Association of Homeopathic Veterinary Surgeons, of which he was a founder-member. He has served two terms as President of the International Association for Veterinary Homeopathy, of which he was also a founder-member. He is actively involved in clinical research and treats all species with natural medicine. He has written several books on homeopathy, herbs and natural medicine. He lectures around the UK on many aspects of natural medicine and holistic medicine to a wide variety of audiences and teaches vets on post-graduate courses both in the UK and around the world.

      Preface

      No field is so beset with mystique and elitism than is the marketing of horse and pony feeds and supplements. Claims of an unsupportable nature abound. Attractive advertising draws attention to supposed benefits of brands or ingredients. Sweeping and meaningless descriptions appear, such as ‘specially formulated’, ‘scientifically formulated’, ‘selected ingredients’, ‘balanced diet’, ‘providing for all the needs of your horse’, ‘performance enhanced’, ‘natural’, ‘provides more energy’, ‘with added herbs’. Names of food and supplement products often imply or more explicitly state a relevance to a medical condition, rarely proven and stretching the relevant law (Medicines Act 1968) almost to breaking point. No overarching advice exists, to help a horse carer to assemble a diet from different products, since understanding and knowledge of both dietary requirements and product ingredients is hard to come by. Nutritionists are mostly in the pay of the big players in the market or, while appearing independent, may have their own products to sell or be ‘aligned’ with one or other manufacturer. Veterinarians lack the training. The result is a nightmare and a veritable minefield for caring riders, who want to do the best for their horses and are willing to buy whatever is necessary for health and well-being yet do not know where to turn for objective and independent advice. Sadly, the result is inappropriate feeding for most of our horses.

      It is hoped that this ebook will serve to dispel the myths, clear the fog and remove fear of the unknown. This will, in turn, enable the reader to break free from the uncertainty and lack of confidence, brought about by skilled commercial propaganda, thus becoming confidently able to feed a horse in a practical, logical way for health, longevity, performance and stamina. The advice is based on more than thirty-eight years of experience in horse practice. The holistic approach brought with it an enquiring mind that examined all aspects of a horse’s life, taking nothing for granted. Old and new philosophies came under the microscope, disregarding propaganda but critically examining claims and experiences, from an objective and independent point of view, uncluttered by profit motivation. This work is the amalgamation of what the author currently considers safest and best for horse health and well-being, taken from many sources and tried and tested in practice.

      For about twenty-five years, the author has handed out a diet ‘discussion document’ to clients and developed it in response to feedback from clients, giving rise to several editions of that document. This ebook is built upon that original initiative and upon the ebook Feeding Horses the Natural Way, incorporating the resultant experience and feedback. Of course, an enquiring mind never completes a study, so feedback and advice from readers will still be welcome and may influence a future edition of this ebook.

      We all want to do the best we can for our horses, including giving them a wholesome diet. It is absolutely clear that the food we eat, and likewise the diet our horses eat, forms the basic components of tissue building, repair and biochemistry. It also affects their healing capacity. Food gives them energy to carry out daily activity and to drive their metabolism. It is also about renewal of tissues. Can we expect healthy tissues if we do not select the best raw materials? The old slogan we are what we eat is meaningful and valid, even if a well-worn cliché, and applies as well to horses as to people.

      In the author's daily holistic veterinary practice, dietary improvement is a major part of his medicine. The author believes that there is no such thing as good medicine without good diet. Hippocrates (460 – 357 B.C.) is credited with having said: "Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food". There is no better way to express the inevitable blurring of the boundary between medicine and diet and their inseparable relationship. Any medical or management initiative to help fight or prevent disease, however good, will fall short of its intended target if the patient's diet is suboptimal. The more ill a patient is, the more a wholesome diet is essential. However, even a healthy young animal will benefit hugely and will be better able to resist illness or premature ageing and degenerative disease.

      The purpose of this ebook is to consider the options available, to air the philosophical and scientific questions that arise and, clarifying the issues, to make decisions easier for those who wish to feed their horse companions ‘their own way’.

      The following paragraphs outline the theory and philosophy that the author considers to be wholesome and

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