Porta-Grazer Can Help!

Porta-Grazer can help with bad stall habits, misleadingly referred to as “Boredom”.  Since horses do not have a gall bladder stomach acid is produced 24/7.  When the stomach is empty of forage (This can be as soon as 20 minutes after finishing his meal), acid alone in the stomach without the alkalinity of food and saliva to buffer it causes discomfort and lead to gastric  Ulcers.

Many people try to maintain weight by ration feeding. Meaning giving a small amount and the horse has nothing available until the next "meal". However, when no forage is available the horse will do unnatural behaviors to create saliva to buffer the acid in an effort to soothe the pain. Behaviors may include cribbing, eating manure, destructive chewing, licking or constantly grazing the bare ground for anything that may be eaten. Many behaviors such as pawing, kicking walls, banging the feeder are ways to get your attention to bring forage, which relieves the pain. Horses will bolt their feed when forage is finally provided in an attempt to soothe the pain of an overly acidic stomach.   

Did you know ration feeding can actually make your horse fat?  Read this article by Juliet Getty PhD- How Forage Deprivation Keeps Your Horse Fat

How does Porta-Grazer help?

So how does Porta-Grazer help with these bad habits?  Each bite is sized and thoroughly chewed saturating the forage with saliva and neutralizing the excess acid. Large bites of hay with small amounts of saliva will not bring the acid into ph balance and the horse will continue to eat until out of food. Small sized bites well saturated with saliva quickly bring the acid into pH balance. When in balance the horse will usually not continue to feed, unless the hay has high sugar content.  By providing enough forage 24/7 to keep the stomach acid buffered the horse can calmly graze as needed.