Keeping in mind colic in most cases may not be preventable, there are a few things we can all do to minimise some causes:

1. Supply your horse with plenty of roughage (grass or hay). A horse's gut is designed to be grazing for at least 17 hrs a day. If you don't have much grass consider feeding the same quantity but feed more often throughout the day.
2. Supply good quality water.
3. Worm your horse regularly.
4. If you live in a sandy area feed your horse Psyllium & try to feed hay in feed containers (not easy we know) to minimise ingestion of sand. Some of our clients have the feed buckets on rubber matting and sweep it regularly to keep sand away from the feed.
5. Check your horse's manure for sand content by placing a double handful of manure into a bucket of water, mix it, give it a chance to settle, carefully pour off the soft debris (you may need to add more water a 2nd time to remove most of the soft debris). If you are left with a teaspoon of sand or more you should have a talk with your vet about treatment options.
6. Observe your horse & know what is normal, including the consistency of their manure formation.
7. Be very concerned if your horse is not eating or drinking.
8. Keep your paddock free of rubbish (plastic bags, hay bands etc)
9. Block any horse's access to your feed/hay shed.
10. Make any dietary changes over 3-7 days.

Colic prevention for the athlete (racing/performance/endurance, etc)

1. If making changes in grain feed, slowly change to increments of less than 500gms a day for 7-10 days.
2. If not feeding oats (high in precaecal digestability), make sure your grains such as corn/barley are extruded or micronized.
3. Limit the size of your grain/pellet (carb) feeds by feeding more frequently, i.e. no more than 2kg per feed for a 500kg horse.
4. If possible feed at least 3 times per day, small feeds more often.
5. Hay should be fed at a rate of 1-1.5 % of ideal body weight per day (5-8kg per 500kg)
6. When changing from different hay types or suppliers consider blending hay over 7-10 days.
7. Consider using other energy sources such as oils or rice bran etc.
8. Reduce or eliminate the "hard feed" grain ratio of the diet on days off or when injured or sick (i.e. not working).

Feeding horses (that are not on pasture) more frequently may help in the prevention of gastric ulcers, which is reported to affect 60% of pleasure/performance horses & 85-90% of racehorses. Saliva production is doubled when eating hay & is continuous when eating grass. Saliva has a buffering effect on stomach acid.