All About Allay: Rebuilding a Horse’s Gut After Racing

Podcast #60

What really happens inside an off-the-track’s gut when you take away the racing diet and start to rebuild the horse from the hindgut up?

In this episode of the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast, Dr Nerida is joined again by Dr Belinda to talk all about Allay, Nerida’s beautiful off-the-track Thoroughbred mare, and what happened inside her gut as she transitioned from racehorse life into life after racing.

Allay’s story gives us a rare look at the hindgut microbiome in real life. Over her first 12 months with Nerida, her diet, behaviour, condition and microbiome were tracked, showing what can happen when an off-the-track horse is given time, fibre, forage diversity and the right nutritional support.

Nerida and Belinda unpack how Allay’s microbiome changed over time, why fibre comes first when rebuilding the hindgut, how forage diversity helps support microbial diversity, and why microbiome recovery does not always happen in a perfectly straight line.

They also talk about behaviour, manure, ryegrass curveballs, microbial resilience, and why feeding the microbes in the hindgut is such an important part of supporting the whole horse.

If you own an off-the-track, work with them, or simply want to better understand how the gut can influence condition, health, behaviour and long-term resilience of any horse, this is an episode you we are sure you will love.

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