Katy Watts 
______________________ 
 
 
 
Founder and Director of  
Safer Grass 
 
 
 
 
 
Education for the Prevention and Treatment of Laminitis in Horses  
Welcome 
Thank you for taking this time to learn about laminitis - visit www.safergrass.org.  
The information gathered here is the result of my research to find out how to better manage my own chronically laminitic ponies. This includes replicated field trials on grass at my own research facility, literature searches of scientific journals, discussions with veterinary scientists, and collections of anecdotal evidence from people all around the world who are dealing with equine laminitis.  
As a professional agricultural contract researcher and consultant, I am in a unique position to understand and conduct studies on carbohydrate content of forage. Destiny has also placed me in a region where environmental conditions produce especially high sugar and fructan levels in grass so that I can generate data under a worst case scenario. It is my hope that the discussion here of plant physiology and grazing management can provide useful information for those who need to minimize sugar and starch content in their horse's diet.  
Please note, I am neither a veterinarian nor an equine nutritionist. Medical information offered here should be discussed with your attending veterinarian. As a professional scientist, I attempt to provide evidence based information when available, and provide links and abstracts to indexed scientific journals so that those capable of proper interpretation may do so. Yes, there is a lot of information here to sort through. People have asked for a condensed version of the most important points to help deal with current laminitis. This is provided as a set of narrated Power Point presentations that play on your computer.  
To the owners of chronically laminitic horses: You are not alone in your frustration and grief. Only YOU can make the best day to day decisions to manage your horse in your situation. Hopefully, I can provide you with some information such that you make better, more informed decisions. Knowledge is empowerment. In today's rapidly changing world of health care, Survival of the Best Informed seems to have replaced Survival of the Fittest. Let's learn about laminitis!