Wes Leckner and Tracy Underwood, co-owners of the Santa Rosa Equestrian Facility, board between 90 and 100 horses at their training facility in northern California.  Tracy reports, “The health benefits of the fodder are amazing!  We had Clair Thunes, a PhD in nutrition from UC Davis, do an in-depth analysis of our fodder.  Basically, the fodder provides an energy dense, live feed source that has a consistent nutritional content in addition to greater amounts of lysine, vitamin E and omega -3 fatty acids than hay.   Many benefits that we have observed but don’t necessarily appear in the written analysis include shinier coats and an improvement in attitude and energy, especially in the older ponies at our European Pony School.  Our barn vet, John Kaufman, DVM, attributes this to the seniors (some lacking teeth) being able to eat, digest and therefore, get the nutritional benefit of the food…”  In early July of 2015, a small sprouting system will be delivered to Colorado State University.  They will be performing research on the effects during pre and post op equine surgeries.  With the known health benefits, it will be interesting to see the recovery time.  The university learned about sprouts through a local dude ranch using fodder.  They could see improved health in the horses and asked what they were doing different.