Equine Wizard Nutritionist, Gabrielle Sutton

For those of you smart and lucky horse people who only have one horse, worming day is probably a very manageable day.  But, for us insane multiple horse owners, worming day leaves us shuttering like Lurch.  Thankfully, I’ve found a solution that really helps me, so I thought I’d pass it onward.

But first, thinking about worming made me think about Gabrielle Sutton.  This woman is a force in the Equine Nutrition world!  She received her initial education in Human Health as a nurse practitioner with advanced training in Naturopathic Medicine, Botanical Medicine, Nutrition as well as Homeopathy.  Then, people started asking her to help them with their horses.  Well, a new career opened up and she became just as proficient in Equine Nutrition, Equine Naturopathy and Homotoxocology.  She’s got chops.  Her business is called, KAM Animal Services.

Now, I know we all hear about herbs and herbal remedies.  I actually really believe that you are what you eat… same with equines.  And, we all know that most of our horses are living artificially on what we provide for them to eat,  not necessarily what they are craving or what they intrinsically need. We try our best to figure out what they could use nutritionally… “Hmmm, her coat looks dull” or “Gee, his feet seem to be chipping more this year” and “He has no energy “… and we purchase a nice supplement.

Obviously,  we are all kinda shooting from the hip, if you know what I mean.  For me, I just surmise what they probably need and go from there.  And, that has been mostly just fine.  But, I’m here to tell you, when you need to bring in the big guns, Gabrielle is a wizard.  This brainiac is so helpful and so knowledgeable, you want her to live out back planting a garden, mixing potions and fixing all your equine buddies’ ailments.  I was in awe and gaga when we had our initial conversation.  Well, it wasn’t really a conversation… she spoke, I listened trying to keep up, but it all made sense and I was sold!

All of her supplements and feeds she created herself.  All the ingredients are listed and she can tell you exactly what each one does, how it supports another and why it is in there.  She will also cite clinical trials and tell you more about metabolic disorders than you ever wanted to know — but need to know.  Oh yes, and SHE answers the phone.  Or, if Gabrielle is out of town (which she is quite often as she visits farms and horses all the time), she will call back or have her assistant call.  Wonderful.

Personally, Gabrielle came to my farm and helped me tremendously with a Cushings horse (she recommended an entire feeding regimen and it worked) as well as a supplement program for all of my horses. Her wealth of knowledge just bends you over backwards.  So, when you need to call in the cavalry to help your horse, put this info in your back pocket.  She is a genius.  Go to the website and you’ll see what I mean.  These aren’t your ordinary herbal concoctions for horses.  This is extraordinary stuff.

Anyway, back to the reason I’m thinking of Gabrielle –  she re-educated me on my worming schedule.  Without getting political, I’d like to say that there is generally no reason to worm your healthy horses every day or even every 3 months.  However, this is not going to be a favorable piece of information for the companies that make wormer… Really, Gabrielle taught me that unless the horse is showing signs of worms (and you can always do a fecal test every three months if you’d like), it could be detrimental over time to worm a horse every day or every three months for its entire life.

GABRIELLE’S SUGGESTED WORMING SCHEDULE (this could upset Pfizer or maybe your vet…)

SPRING:  5 day Power Pack (test to make sure you need it)  SUMMER:  Strongid   FALL:  Ivermectin or Equimax if you are in an area populated with Equine Tape worms.   That’s it.  Simple.