Feeding Directions: Top dress on feed or add to water for desired flavor enhancement. Recommended usage is 1 oz. per 5 lbs feed.

Every horse owner is going to face this problem at some point. The horse is refusing to eat and/or drink normally. When linked to health issues, this needs veterinary attention, but there are many other scenarios where this problem can arise.

When traveling, showing, racing or riding/camping away from home, the water may taste different and lead to refusal to drink. Similarly, changes in type of feed, the addition of new supplements or oral medications may cause the horse to back off feed.

A common situation is a horse that has been accustomed to sweet feed needing to switch to a lower calorie, high fiber diet because of obesity or insulin resistance and laminitis. The horse is looking for the molasses aroma and sugary flavoring, but needs to go sugar-free as much as possible.

While molasses is a traditional favorite flavoring, there are others proven by research to appeal to the equine taste. These include apple, banana and peppermint.

Sugar-free is desirable both from a calorie standpoint and also to avoid an insulin spike in insulin resistant horses. Artificial sweeteners like the sugar alcohols avoid calories, but also cause insulin to rise. This defeats the purpose of the sugar-free sweetener because high insulin directly causes laminitis. Stevia is a low calorie, sugar-free plant based sweetener which does not elevate insulin.

Stevia does not increase insulin levels in horses and may actually aid in reducing the need for high insulin by causing cells to take in glucose using receptors that do not require insulin.