For those suffering from allergies, seasonal symptoms return like clockwork and seem to get worse year after year. Little explanation is needed as to how they affect us or our animals. 

All too often, we simply just look at the name of the manufacturer or look at the protein content. 

And quite honestly, those should be the least of your concerns when it comes to determining what to feed your horse. 

Knowing What's NOT in the bag is equally important... Least cost analysis is often used to formulate feed. Feeding from just the bag, quite honestly, you can't get what you need anyway, if it's a so called complete feed. If you look at the bag, it'll tell you how many pounds a certain weight horse should get fed every day.

Normally, since I am a veterinarian, I speak about ANIMAL health but today the animal is two legged – i.e. people. 

I have probably never been more excited lord knows we all need help, health wise today - both animals and man! 

What I am excited about is not new though, BUT IT IS… as OLD as dirt itself! In fact, it is so old that Galen, one the oldest know physicians, and from way back in Greek renaissance even spoke of it and USED IT often in his practice for every imaginable illness.

Native American Indians and ancient cultures from all over the World have used it since antiquity! Gandhi used it for constipation!

Both Russian and French soldiers had it provided in their ration packets during WWI. Wild Animals seek it out and will walk hundreds of miles just to get to certain types of it and then fight over it to keep it! ALL animals eat it - it IS older than dirt!  In fact, it is dirt!

Now before you reach for the BROOM, bare with me a moment, I am not just talking about any type of dirt! I am speaking of a very specific type of CLAY DIRT- Montmorillonite CLAY! 

Times are changing and every day it becomes more evident that most drugs only relieve symptoms and often bring terrible side effects. Today I find myself digging through ancient medical books seeking remedies that don't have side effects and looking for answers that were long forgotten. It is amazing what I have continued to find. Some truly long forgotten others even covered up!

Grape Power!

Likewise, we have been told that if you don’t deworm your horse(s) EVERY 2-3 months you are a “bad” horse owner, right? Well perhaps no one actually called you bad – but you WERE shown all those horrible pictures of all those horrible worms and informed of all those horrendous consequences.

Eventually you believed, I believed, we all believed! Fear and guilt are incredible tactics BUT notice I used the past tense believED! Why the change? For me it was merely a matter of just remembering the truth.

We have to have salt! It just has to be good salt… not, kiln dried, bleached chemical sodium chloride that is in our food and our animals. History tells us we have to have it; the media and current medical establishment tells we shouldn’t. AND they are correct if you are talking about the typical chemically processed salt today. BUT a natural source of salt can make all the difference for good health.

Consider for a second, how important salt has been throughout history. Consider in the past just how many wars have been fought over salt.. plain old ordinary salt, Mother Nature’s salt and minerals! (uncivilized health link) If you are a hunter, or a wildlife enthusiast of any kind, you understand the importance of a “salt lick”. Animals will seek it out and they have to have it and so do we….. if we want to remain healthy!

Salt and minerals are what keeps the “batteries of life” charged”.

This why I suggest- RED CAL “Mother Nature’s Minerals and Natural Salt” for all Animals and our REDOXX for all people.

Below is a personal note to me along with a research article from Dr. Swerczek, DVM, PHD after one of many discussions out Red Cal. Dr Swerczek is probably the leading Equine Pathologist in the country. Being Located in Kentucky, he has seen it all and has seen how Red Cal works!

Up until recent years many doctors and even experts in the field thought all bacteria were bad. Antibiotics, of which the word which essentially means against life, kill both good bugs AND bad bugs. Overuse of antibiotics have created “super bad bugs” by a process called resistance. The same thing is happening with dewormers.

Indiscriminate use and deworming by the calendar instead of deworming strictly based on need has created super worms that even harsh chemicals no longer kill. I have been on my soap box for nearly twenty years preaching the hazards of calendar rotational deworming and the need for fecal exams instead.

I have been preaching that a healthy immune system through healthy nutrition is superior over use of drugs and medication too.
Now, as each day passes , health care professionals around the world are learning that the makeup of the massive bacterial populations of all animal bodies, and even possibly some worms in the gut may very well be the PRIMARY FACTORS in our health status. Antibiotics and indiscriminate use of dewormers is on the way out! Probiotics are in!

Soils are made up of three basic parts:

1) The physical part the clay, sand, and silt that make up the majority of what you pick up and hold in your hand when your are walking through your field or pasture. It also includes the water in the soil as well.

2) This chemical constituent of the soil; the nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, (the first three numbers on the fertilizer bag), calcium, magnesium (from lime), and trace nutrients that are held on the clay.

Even if your horse gets a "complete" feed and even if you have salt or mineral blocks in the fields - THAT IS NOT ENOUGH! 

Literally, every function in the body requires minerals. Even the slightest imbalance can cause severe consequences and in my opinion, humble yet outspoken as it is (!), literally every disease is either directly or indirectly caused by an imbalance thereof! And know this: Horses ain't Lickers, but they are "LIKE'ers"!

So what is the "Big Deal"? 

"My horses have a salt block already, I have a mineral block in the pasture and, besides, I feed a "complete" feed anyway. My horses should be fine, right?" 

Quite honestly - almost certainly NOT! 

Conditions like founder, laminitis, abortion, allergies, botulism, cushings, hypothyroidism, lameness, joint problems are truly the result of imbalances...

 They have been a popular item for several years. I still see them at almost every equine event I attend. 

Truthfully, I almost laughed the very first time I saw one years ago. Then I thought to myself “that is a great idea”, many horse owners today really need them. But why? 

 For thousands of years wild horses have lived on grass alone and typically they ate all they wanted. There was no one to stop them, turn them out for only a few hours at a time or worse yet MUZZLE them. Today, colic, allergies, metabolic issues, laminitis, hoof and other health issues are often associated with eating too much grass.

What is different about today’s grass or perhaps what is different about the horse? Obviously a lot has changed! If we truly look at the way it was and, “mimic” what’s natural, perhaps we can have healthier horses and avoid a lot of problems.

Today’s species of grasses are totally different from the past. Most horses today on pasture only have one or two varieties of grass - usually timothy, orchard grass with some degree of clover and fescue. In the wild, they had access to vast areas of grass and abundant species. Equally important was access to other plants and herbs. Today they eat what they have access to in the spaces we confine them to. Most species of grass (and even grain) today are genetically modified - a controversy and discussion all in itself. By being able to “pick and choose” what they needed, horses received a balance of nutrients.

For instance, would you agree that most people have and ARE being told daily that fats are bad for you? Most doctors, the media, the advertisements and pretty much ALL, suggest a low fat diet. 

But let’s look more closely at why, and also look at why other feeds may NOT be so great. And let’s take a close look at why these commercial feeds may actually be directly related to, and in my opinion the very cause of many of our overweight, cresty necked, insulin resistant, allergic and laminitis prone horses today. 

In addition, we’ll consider why the idea of supplementing either commercial or individual grains, oats or otherwise, with vitamins, minerals, microbials, etc. is critical as well.

So what is bad about oats?

Oats like ALL grains are mineral and vitamin deficient. Horses simply can’t get the overall nutrition that they need from any grain UNLESS they are fortified. Oats, corn, barley, etc., etc. are all are deficient. Today, what farmers essentially use to fertilize is chemical fertilizer. The 10-10-10’s or 2010-10’s are only nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus: 10% nitrogen, 10% phosphorous, 10% potassium. What happened to all the other minerals on the periodic chart that we learned about in high school? To make matters worse, these fertilizers are salt based. Salt destroys the soil over time and makes it very packed, claylike and sticky – AND in doing so kills the earthworms, the soil’s true method for oxygenation.

Desensitization with allergy shots is usually recommended. However, allergy shots are expensive. What’s worse is they only work about 50% of the time! Other alternatives, such as steroids and antihistamines are becoming less and less popular, too; it appears they only make matters worse. Yes, allergy problems in horses are a nightmare! Allergies are becoming more and more prevalent. Yet hopefully, with the knowledge I am about to give you, you will never have to experience them with your horse!

What are the symptoms?

The obvious symptom of allergies is itching. This is often accompanied by hives, which are little raised bumps, similar to what a bee sting would make. In severe cases, hives are so numerous they gather together, causing what are called whelts. In extremely severe cases, the horse itches so bad it rubs and bites its skin until it is raw and/or bleeding! Horse owners feel helpless! Fly sprays, lotions, etc. help somewhat. Yet, for the most part, these simply make the owner feel better -- not necessarily their horse...