welfare - Equine Digest

digest

Equine Digest, 2026-07-05: Turnout, breeding age, and what we get wrong about starch

Editor's note A thread runs through this fortnight's papers: how much of what happens to your horse's body and behaviour traces back to time out of the stall. A Latin-square trial nails down a minimum useful dose of turnout. A UK broodmare cohort

Line illustration of a horse performing a lateral carrot stretch with handler offering a treat at girth level

equine-digest

Equine Digest, May 24 2026

Editor's note A thread runs through this issue: the gap between what we can see at first glance and what is actually going on. New field data on SGLT2 diabetes drugs for insulin-dysregulated horses shows most respond, but a meaningful minority do not, and a smaller group

Line illustration of a horse head wearing an English bridle

tack

Tack and equipment: what the evidence says about the gear on your horse

A research-grounded reading of what tack does to horses, what the marketing claims, and where the two part company.

Line illustration of a horse grazing peacefully near a barn

welfare

Welfare and behaviour: is your horse comfortable, and how do you tell

A plain-English read of equine welfare science, sorted by what studies back up, what stays mixed, and what research has actually contradicted. Pain checklists, stress hormones, social housing, and ridden tack have firm verdicts; stereotypies and turnout sit in the mixed pile; the "copying" claim and