From years of experience Gotcha Equine have found the best strategy for solving behavioural and physical problems is to firstly ensure you are feeding a horse properly, then see what problems you have left after a month or two.

The ProVide It Plan will help eliminate digestive flora problems, mineral imbalances, mycotoxin overload, correct the natural buffering system and to help ensure your horse has a long healthy and productive future. Who would have ever guessed that the grass your horse is eating could have a major part in causing a whole list of problems, ranging from major calcium deficiencies from Oxalate grasses (kikuyu & setaria grass for example), to debilitating mycotoxins and grass tetany.

Gotcha Equine encourage you to help build up associations and links with other problems in Australia by filling in an online survey - the results will be sent back to you. Or simply use their Symptom Tool.

See what has been happening with other horses by browsing through some articles. 

There are many in the livestock industry that claim that dung analysis is the most accurate method to determine animal mineral deficiencies. It is certainly more immediate compared to hair analysis which typically records the mineral status of an animal from a few months previous. Blood analysis can be helpful, but tends to be difficult and costly to obtain. It is also important to remember that blood only transports minerals, so does not necessarily reflect the actual tissue mineral status - ie the working end of the animal (N.B. hair is a form of body tissue). 

Soil analyses are probably the least reliable option as minerals that appear to be present in soil are often 'locked-up' and not available to plants. For example you may have plenty of magnesium showing up in a soil test, but little in the plant, and therefore very little in the animal. Leaf tests may give bit more of a reliable clue (though are often limited to testing only a single plant species at a time), but there is nothing like getting it from the so-called 'horses mouth' - the animal itself. The following instructions for dung analysis for cattle have been extracted from the Queensland's DPI&F website: