THRIVE FEED BLOGS

Condition, Comfort, and Common Sense Across North America Winter is rarely hardest on the healthy adult horse. Winter is hardest on the edges. Older horses, thin horses, horses with worn teeth, and horses with limited reserves carry winter differently. Across North America, senior horse care is where winter management becomes most important. The goal is not panic. The goal is thoughtful support. Older Horses Have Less Margin A younger horse with a full coat and good body cond

The Quiet Winter Problem Across North America When winter arrives, horse owners focus on blankets, hay, and shelter. But one of the most important winter issues is rarely discussed until something goes wrong. Water. In cold weather, horses often drink less, sometimes far less, and the consequences are entirely predictable. Winter management is not only about warmth. It is about hydration. Horses Commonly Reduce Water Intake in Winter Cold water is less appealing. Frozen troug

The Real Winter Threats for Horses Across North America When people think about winter, they think about temperature. They worry about freezing air. They imagine horses shivering in snow. But in reality, cold air is rarely the primary problem for a healthy horse. The real winter threats are not always the cold. The real threats are wind, wetness, and exposure without choice. Horses Handle Cold Far Better Than Most People Expect A healthy horse with a natural winter coat is ex

Feeding the Winter Furnace Across North America When winter arrives, most people think first about blankets. Experienced horsemen think first about forage. Because the most powerful winter heater a horse possesses is not fabric. It is fermentation. A horse stays warm from the inside out, and the foundation of that warmth is fiber. The Horse’s Real Heater Is the Hindgut Horses are grazing animals designed to process forage continuously. Their digestive tract functions as a slo

Cold Weather Management, Coat Biology, and the Confidence of a Well Fed Horse When winter hits hard, many owners assume horses need to be protected from cold in the same way people do. Rugs come out, routines change, and anxiety rises. But the horse is not a human in a paddock. The healthy horse is one of the most winter capable animals on earth. Given the chance, the horse grows the coat it needs, adapts its metabolism, and often thrives in conditions that surprise us. I lea

One of the first things people notice when they open a bag of Thrive Feed is that it does not look like a typical horse feed. The pieces are not uniform. They are not tidy little pellets. They are not identical cylinders made to look “factory perfect.” Instead, Thrive Feed consists of irregular, uniquely formed nuggets, and that is not an accident. It is a deliberate part of what makes Thrive Feed different. Pellets Were Designed for Manufacturing, Not for Horses The modern f

In the modern horse industry, nutrition is often discussed as though the horse were a machine that needs constant adjustment. We hear phrases like “balanced diets,” “life-stage formulas,” and “performance rations,” as if the horse’s body is something that must be continually managed, engineered, and upgraded. But horses do not thrive because humans create perfectly calculated feeding systems. Horses thrive when their nutrition respects what they are. The horse is not an inven

A Practical Model for Peace, Health, and Partnership Everything we have talked about in this series comes down to one central truth. The domestic horse is still a wild design living in a human world. Horses have adapted remarkably. They tolerate confinement. They tolerate meal feeding. They tolerate artificial herds. They tolerate noise, pressure, routines, and environments they did not evolve for. But tolerance is not the same as wellbeing. The question is not whether horses

The Pressure of the Known Environment One of the strangest things horse owners experience is this. A horse can walk calmly down a trail in open country, yet spook violently in its own paddock. A horse can travel to a new place and behave reasonably well, yet become tense and reactive at home. People ask, “How can he be afraid here? He knows this place.” The answer is simple. Familiarity does not always mean safety. In domestic life, familiar places often carry the most pressu

Dogs, People, Noise, and the Constant Background Stress In the wild, a horse’s world is simple in one crucial way. Predators are rare, and when they appear, the horse can respond with distance and movement. A predator is an event. In domestic life, the horse lives with something very different. The domestic predator problem. Not because people are predators. Not because dogs are evil. But because the horse’s nervous system does not interpret the human world the way humans do.

Quietness Is Not Always Calm There is a type of horse that is often praised. The quiet horse. The easy horse. The horse that “never does anything.” People say, “He is so good.” And sometimes that is true. But sometimes, quietness is not calm. Sometimes it is resignation. This is one of the most misunderstood adaptations of the domestic horse. In behavioural terms, it is often called learned helplessness. That phrase sounds harsh, but the concept is simple. When an animal is p

What Training Really Is in the Domestic Horse Training is often misunderstood. People think training is about control. About obedience. About making the horse do what we want. But in truth, training is something much deeper. Training is substitution. It is the structured replacement of the natural life the horse no longer lives. In the wild, the horse spends its days moving, grazing, interacting, exploring, responding to the world in a constant flow of purpose. In domestic li

Why Many Horses Are More Tense at Home Than in Open Country A horse is not designed to feel relaxed in captivity. That is not an insult to domestic care. It is simply biology. The horse is a prey animal. Its nervous system is built for awareness, scanning, readiness. In the wild, the horse manages anxiety through three tools. Movement. Distance. Herd connection. Domestic life removes or reduces all three. The horse is confined. Movement is limited. Escape is impossible. Socia

The Invisible Cost of the Modern Horse World If there is one condition that perfectly captures the domestic horse’s adjustment to human life, it is this. Gastric ulcers. Ulcers have become so common in modern horses that many people now treat them as normal. They are not normal. They are widespread because the domestic environment creates the perfect conditions for them. To understand ulcers, you have to understand the horse’s design. A horse produces stomach acid continuousl

Cribbing, Weaving, Pacing, Not Bad Horses, Adaptive Horses There are behaviours in horses that people label quickly. Cribbing. Weaving. Stall walking. Fence pacing. Wood chewing. They are often called vices. As if the horse is choosing wrongdoing. But these are not moral failures. They are stereotypies, repetitive coping behaviours that emerge when a horse is trying to adapt to an environment that does not meet its natural needs. In the wild, you do not see horses weaving in

Confinement Changes Horses, Even When Everything Looks Fine Many people think of a stable as a safe place. Shelter. Clean bedding. Feed delivered on schedule. Protection from weather. On the surface, it looks comfortable. But for the horse, the stable is not neutral. It is one of the most unnatural environments the domestic horse must adapt to. A horse is a prey animal designed for open space, movement, and choice. In the wild, safety comes from distance and visibility. The h

Herd Animals Living in Unnatural Herds A horse is not designed to live alone. That may sound obvious, but most people do not fully understand what it means. In the wild, horses live in stable social structures. They form bonds. They know their place. They move together. They rest together. They survive through connection. The herd is not just companionship. The herd is safety. A horse’s nervous system is built around the presence of others. The simple act of seeing another ho

Standing Still Is One of the Most Unnatural Things We Ask a Horse to Do If the Hunger Clock is the first great adjustment of domestic life, the second is even more profound. Movement. In the wild, a horse is almost never truly still. Horses walk as they live. They graze as they move. They travel for water. They shift constantly with the herd. Even at rest, there is circulation, awareness, readiness. Movement is not “exercise.” Movement is biology. The horse’s entire system is

One of the greatest adjustments the domestic horse makes is something most people never think about. The horse’s relationship with hunger. In the wild, a horse is almost never truly “waiting for food.” Grazing is constant. Intake is slow. The stomach is rarely empty. The horse’s system is designed for continuity, not interruption. The horse lives by what I call the Hunger Clock. It is not just about calories. It is about biology, expectation, and rhythm. A horse is built to e

One of the most important truths in horsemanship is this. The horse you love is still a grazing, roaming, social prey animal, but it is living in an environment created almost entirely by people. In the wild, horses move many miles a day. They eat small amounts almost constantly. They live in stable social groups. They rest in short cycles. They respond to life through instinct, movement, and connection. In domestic life, that world changes completely. Meals arrive twice a da