Cortisol -- the STRESS hormone. Although an important hormone, when consistently elevated, it negatively impacts carbohydrate metabolism, causing blood insulin levels to rise, leading to fat storage and most critically, a possible laminitis attack. Controlling excess cortisol requires attention to what is bothering your horse. One of the most stressful circumstances a horse can endure is an empty stomach. The acid that accumulates leads to painful ulcerations, as well as an increased potential for diarrhea, colic, laminitis, and the progressive damage of oxidative stress, affecting every part of your horse's body. Free-choice forage feeding is a necessity for all horses to maintain hormonal balance.

Once you've met this basic, foundational necessity of feeding horses, consider supplementing the herb, Rhodiola rosea. It has a lot of research behind it and is considered an "adaptogenic" herb, meaning it has the ability to normalize body systems. During stress, a cascade of events occurs where the hypothalamus portion of the brain stimulates the pituitary gland to produce adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which in turn, tells the adrenal gland to secrete cortisol. Rhodiola calms the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal cascade that is stimulated during times of tension, and may even be helpful for horses suffering from equine Cushing's disease.