Help Safergrass.org continue to spread the word about laminitis prevention and treatment

The search for safer grass needs your help.

The racehorse industry directs research in equine nutrition

As I continue to seek out information on equine nutrition, it becomes increasingly apparent that the racehorse and performance horse industry is directing research in the universities. Take notice of the breeds found at university research facilities. So many studies start out “12 thoroughbred geldings in light race training were fed….” Have you seen many studies that start out “12 grade pony cross geldings, ridden lightly on Sunday afternoons…” ? While we can’t feed our easy keeper breeds like a cow, you can get away with feeding racehorses like a cow. Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds, and racing Quarter horses are ‘hot house flowers’ when compared to our pony, draft, warm blood breeds, and probably most ‘grade’ horses. They breed for speed in an artificial environment, and feed them an artificial diet. Their goal is a 16H 2 YO ready to race. The rest of us may have other goals.

Ponies can't eat like racehorses

Other breeds have been selected by nature to thrive in a harsh environment, on low carb, high fiber forage. Of course we can’t feed them the same as a TB! While we want to optimize our pleasure horse’s nutrition, we must acknowledge that they have less need for grain, AND for the high sugar grasses that dominate the forage industry today. The research for optimum nutrition for the average backyard horse is going to have to be supported by the average backyard horse owner. We are the ones who really NEED safer grass. We are the people whose horses are suffering from the excess sugars in the new varieties of grass being produced for the racehorse and dairy industry. While the foundered ponies in our backyards may have little importance to the system focused on supporting the performance horse industry, they are the focus of our lives. Their pain is our pain. Our happiness is dependant on how comfortably they walk each day.

Research for the backyard horse must be funded by the backyard horse owner

We are the ones who must shoulder the task of funding and doing this important research. I am not paid to do this work. I derive no income from the articles I have written for veterinary journals or popular horse magazines to spread the word about possibly dangerous levels of sugar in grass. Because I am not affiliated with a university, and am not a 501 (c), most research grants are not available to me. The Animal Health Foundation has been my only supporter, but as they are funding some very important work elsewhere, their funding is very limited. It has offset the out of pocket expense from my plots here, but has in no way begun to compensate for the amount of time and personal resources I have devoted to these projects. While my grass research is my passion, and I’d rather do it than anything else, I cannot afford to continue to spend so much time and resources on these projects. Unless the people whose horses are benefiting from this research help support this effort, it will be very limited.

How you can help:

Travel expense: Going to conferences and expo’s: Honorarium’s are offered to people with PhD’s, and then often don’t completely cover travel expenses. They get paid a salary to gather prestige for their university, and have department funds for travel expenses. I don’t get paid for doing this research, can’t pay bills with prestige, don’t have an organization to pay my expenses, so I have to turn down opportunities to go places and educate people. Trade fairs don’t pay speakers. They give you a free booth in exchange for speaking, and expect you to pay your own travel expenses. I have nothing to sell, so speaking at a horse expo is an expense, not an opportunity. I want people to have the information I am gathering. I need your help to get the word out.

Everyday expense: electricity to irrigate the plots and run sample freezers, repair and maintenance of the irrigation system, frozen overnight shipping to analytical labs, lab fees for forage analysis.

Safergrass has had over 100,000 visitors in five years. I know from your emails that for some of your horses, as well as my own, this research has been a lifesaver. If everyone who benefited gave a few dollars, just think of how much more effective we could be to end the pain and suffering of chronically laminitic horses and ponies and the helpless anguish felt by their owners. I get so much joy from emails of people who are ecstatic about how my hay soaking study helped their horses be pain free and off drugs for the first time in many months. From only $1,500 in research funding. Just think what we could do with $15,000! I have only scratched the surface of the issue of sugar content in grass. Even after we get the data on the sugar levels from existing plots, we still need to work on the management techniques to make intensive grazing of lower sugar grasses sustainable long term. We need more analytical work done on how different pasture management techniques affect sugar content. Think of how wonderful it would be to have grass that our ponies currently locked up in dry lots could safely graze as Mother Nature intended! I know well how expensive chronic laminitis can be, with huge bills to vets and farriers. But if your horse has stabilized from the help of Safergrass.org, please consider giving a little back to help another horse on the verge of the same fate. Send what you saved on drugs last month by following my advice. We must get pro-active, get more data, and educate the vets, the extension agents, and the owners. I have 2 full days of lectures prepared. I need sponsors to pay the expenses to get the information to the people to who need to know.

I realize that some of you are only going to be able to give to a 501(c) non-profit organization for tax purposes. The Animal Health Foundation can accommodate you, and a note with your donation can earmark the funds for Rocky Mountain Research’s work to find Safergrass. They have a very small and efficient volunteer staff, dedicated to funding only research on laminitis, and also fund very prestigious researchers like Dr. Philip Johnson and Dr. Chris Pollitt.

www.animalhealthfoundation.com

A paypal account is provided for your convenience.

For those of you who would rather send a check:

Rocky Mountain Research
& Consulting, Inc.
491 West CR 8 North
Center, CO 81125

Tax Deductible:

Animal Health Foundation
3615 Basset Road
Pacific, Missouri 63069

THANK YOU, from the bottom of my heart, and the bottom of your horse’s feet, and from the pony down the street whose owners are feeding it to death out of ignorance and good intentions. Help me teach them with your contribution.

Katy Watts

“It is not possible for people who perpetuate and are comfortable with the status quo to make prolific changes; only those people who cannot live within the status quo do”.
~Susan Jeyes, a Safergrass supporter whose pony now gallops and bucks.