l have an insulin resistant mare, and we put her on some hay that was working well for her for 3 months.
My family came in to see her at the barn she is boarded at, and now she is foundering- again.
She was on a good Timothy hay, barely any sugar content, no high concentrates.
Around our area, there is no broam hay around.l would buy it for her any day because, well, is not that what insulin resistant horses use?
The owner of the farm has an article on insulin resistance, but it is quite old...
She has never dealt with an insulin resistant horse before.. Neither have I, so if you would not mind helping me...
l know I am going to get comments saying ''just put her down'' but once l get her on the right hay, it is all easier?
Here is A picture of before her insulin resistance.
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w193/yabber1006/horses001.jpg
l think she looked great.l have no pictures of her now that its after her diagnosis because it is fairly recent, just a late fall diagnosis.
Thanks.
Just give me some help on management, some good websites that l can print off.. All you vets out there.

l own a horse & a pony that both have insulin resistance. It can definitely be managed through feed & exercise. Soaking ur horse is hay for about 30 minutes helps remove some sugars from the hay. Lots of turn out & as much exercise as they can manage is good as well.

Here r a couple of recent articles about insulin resistance in horses.
http://balancedequinenutrition.com/IRArticle.html
http://holistichorsekeeping.com/resources/articles/insulin_resistant.html

l have two horses affected with metabolic syndrome, & one is insulin resistant, the other is Cushings. If u go to TheHorse.com, u can register at no charge & search their articles. They r a veterinary site & have the best up to date research information of any of the public access sites. The other post on soaking the hay is right on, & l feed Purina Wellsolve L/S which is a laminitis prevention diet for IR horses. The other preventives for laminitis r keeping weight down, & restricting grazing. My IR mare wears a Best Friends grazing muzzle part of the day to limit her grazing intake. If u have any trouble getting into TheHorse.com site, u can email me for help.Also, some of the information may be hard to interpret if u do not have a medical background, & l can help u with that as well.

l agree with ur two other posters - read as much as u can on the topic & that will be a huge help. Also, l believe u can test to see how much sugar ur hay has. You can not always tell by looking, it has been proven that forage under stress (such as drought) will produce excess sugar, so sometimes that hay that looks like it would be low is actually surprisingly high. Soaking in water for 30 minutes is supposed to also be helpful.
The one thing l was going to add is - talk to ur vet about trying a herbal product. My friend used a product by OmegaAlpha (or maybe it is AlphaOmega, u can find their site if u google it) that CLAIMS that it is for horses with insulin resistence. l think it is similiar to the oral meds that diabetics can use - it is supposed to work by stimulating the pancreas to use insulin more effectively. You give ur horse a few drops per day orally. l cannot say if it truely works or if it is just one of the many fake overpriced herbal things out there, I'd like to see a study that showed if the horse is blood sugars actually changed or not with it. l do know that my friend is Morgan horse is the type that puts on fatty deposits & is literally almost impossible to diet (he can get fat on air, honestly!) & he did tone up & loose some weight without any other changes in his lifestyle. l am not sure if that is evidence that it helped with his bloodsugars, but it is just enough to make me consider looking into it if l had a horse with the problem.
I'd also try to find a good equine vet in ur area & do some serious talking to them. Blood work should be drawn, & maybe that can give u some tools to use with this horse. Good luck.