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Laminitis is inflammation of your horse’s hooves between the coffin bones commonly caused by a relative increase in feed especially carbohydrates and a relative decrease in exercise. Laminitis can become a chronic lameness problem; if not a fatal situation, for your horse. Less feed and lush pasture and more exercise can prevent it. The horses that are at most risk are:

1) horses with body scores of 7 or greater;
2) cresty necked horses;
3) thinned soled horses; and
4) geriatric horses (over 15).

There is a possibility that the potential typical "spring laminitis" from overfeeding on lush pasture has been delayed until now due to the drought. If your pasture grass gets lush now, you may want to consider reducing or eliminating your horse’s grain. For those horses in the above mentioned high risk categories, you may even need to reduce their pasture time or control pasture grazing with a muzzle.

A recent paper given at the Equine Nutrition and Physiology Society meeting suggested that the soluble carbohydrate content of perennial rye grass was highest in the middle of the day and lowest at night. So if this is true of the other grasses then turning out between 6 pm and 8am could be helpful to reduce "lush grass laminitis". (Turning horses out in the day time in April - which most NC horses have not switched to their summer time night turnout - might be an additive reason why horses founder more on spring lush grass!)