First I’d like to thank my xx-wife for setting our 2 kids in riding school after the divorce and then leaving for work and letting me take care of it. I soon got fed up with freezing while my kids were bouncing around without learning anything about horses and bought 3 ponies. I made a pasture with my house in the middle and started my horse life. To me, horses are in turn-out, barefoot and always grazing, end of story…. Or maybe I should say “beginning of the story” because you might know me (Good Ove Lind) from “Swedish Hoof School”, “Svenska Hovskolan” and/or “NoFrog-NoHoof-NoHorse” on Facebook.
The year was 1996, we enjoyed our ponies and our ponies enjoyed a large pasture with a grass field, a forest, a mountain, and a big box where oat-straw or hay always was present. Having to clear the ground around the feed box from far too much wasted feed got me started experimenting with what I could do to reduce the waste. It is impossible to count how many constructions I have created over the years to improve my and my ponies’ situation but after 9 years I realized that reducing waste was only a very small part of what had happened. I started to search the literature to see if I could find an explanation as to why my ponies had become so harmonic and nice to both humans and other horses while my neighbor’s ponies were fighting and fuzzing over everything and nothing.
What I found was EGUS and not just one or two studies but plenty of them. It turned out that EGUS (Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome) had been known for decades and even the reason for it was well documented but no one had solved the problem of how to let horses have continuous access to their hay without overeating.
Wow!
Setting out to reduce the wasting of hay and solve the most common health issue among domestic horses.
No, I don’t have any scientific studies proving that Real SlowFeeding heals EGUS but lots of living proves that Real SlowFeeding can re-teach the horse to balance his own eating and weight and also that Real SlowFeeding changes the horse’s temperament and social profile.
To me, SlowFeeding is no longer primarily about making the hay last for longer. It is about bringing out the best in each horse. Improving harmony, stamina, and performance.
Horses are not naturally bad-tempered, nervous, or angry, they don’t fight over feed and they don’t behave badly to humans or herd mates. If so then they are fed the wrong way, treated the wrong way, and/or in pain.