Eating to Improve Equine Insulin Sensitivity

cereal grains. Never reduce forage intake. While pasture grazing may not be an option for your overweight insulin resistant horse during certain times of the day or seasons of the year you should always offer hay day and night 24 hours a day. Be sure to provide a vitaminmineral supplement to fill in the gaps that exist with hay. 
To make sure your hay is appropriate to feed freechoice it is best to have it tested so you know that it is low enough in sugar starch and calories. To evaluate the testing report look at the column labeled Dry Matter. Add the ESC simple sugars to the starch. This amount should not exceed 11 percent. The Digestible Energy DE is an indicator of calories and should not be more than 0 95 Mcalslb 2 09 Mcalskg on a dry matter basis. 
Allow your horse to selfregulate.
When forage is restricted your horse perceives this as winter is coming and his body adjusts by holding onto body fat. But if hay is always available he will soon get the message that he can walk away and the hay will be there when he returns. It is important however that the hay never runs out not even for 10 minutes to allow his brain to relax. It is amazing to watch he starts to calm down his eating eats more slowly and eats less eating only what his body needs. Insulin sensitivity increases and body weight begins to normalize. With the help
of exercise your horses cells will respond to insulin even better and no longer store excess body fat. 
Bottom line
The closer you get to a feeding environment that simulates a natural setting the healthier your horse will be. Give your horse a chance to be a horse and let him tell you how much forage he needs. He has the ability to regulate his intake to match just what he needs resulting in a normalized hormonal response. He will be insulin sensitive not resistant.