A snowy start to the new year

Happy new year and a warm welcome to the first UK-Vet Equine of 2025! I hope you were able to take a few days to rest and recharge over the festive period. I was fortunate enough to spend a lovely week with my family and friends over Christmas (avoiding the snow as best I could!), and am looking forward to what the new year will have to offer.

This issue opens with an in-depth review of the significance of chewing for horses (p6). It is well known that the equine diet should ideally consist mostly of fibre to maintain gut health and natural grazing behaviour (Raspa et al, 2022), but there is less focus on how the action of chewing itself is important. Briony Witherow discusses the mechanism, psychological significance and measureable parameters of chewing, which become increasingly relevant at this time of year. Many horses have less turnout over the winter months; being stabled for longer periods of time can have negative effects for a number of reasons (Krueger et al, 2021; Annan et al, 2023). For this reason, additional forage should be provided to ensure that horses are able to exhibit natural behaviours as much as possible despite constraints as a result of field maintenance.