Horse Nutrition – An Introduction

The Henneke horse body condition score was published by a professor at Texas A&M University in 1983 and is named after him. He wanted to use a simple system for horse owners to score the body condition of their horses. It has become popular and used widely.

Carbohydrate is a word that describes sugar.  Other words include saccharide, monosaccharide, disaccharide, polysaccharide, glycogen, starch, cellulose, soluble fiber, non-soluble fiber, structural carbohydrate and non-structural carbohydrate.  All sugar is made up of the same 3 elements: carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.  Glucose and fructose are both C6 H12 O6 but glucose has a ring of 6 carbons and fructose is a ring of 5 carbons.  This is incredibly significant in how the body uses these sugars with fructose more efficient in creating body fat and exhausting the cell to the point of death.

Concentrate rations are the opposite of forage for horses. They developed a while ago when people moved from the country farms to the industrialized cities. In order to feed these people, horses worked more to harvest more food for the increasing demand. Less farmers had to do more with their horses which caused weight loss in the horses because 1) increased work and 2) decreased pasture time. The solution was to feed them more sugar (glucose) in the form of grain (starch).

It is not necessary to feed a fat source or supplement to horses. The reason for this is based on understanding what a fat is and where the horse gets fat in a field of grass.

Horse owners feed by volume which most will call a “scoop.”  This is irrational.  If we all decided to pick one size for a “scoop,” would that “scoop” of feathers weigh as much as a “scoop” of rocks?  Obviously not.  The density of the two are not the same.  It would take a lot of “scoops” of feathers to weigh the same as 1 “scoop” of rocks.

Feeding signs I have seen at horse farms.

Horses are one of 3 groups of animals with similar digestive tracts in the world. Beside all equids (horses, asses and zebras), the other two are the tapir and the rhinoceros.

Foals at some point transition from nursing mother’s milk to eating solid food. This is normal but sometimes some problems can occur.

Hay is last summer’s grass.  It is a new supplement and it could also be called the original supplement.  The purpose of hay is to add calories to the diet when winter is hard on the horses.  Adding hay in winter to sustain life is why it was created.  Adding hay when there is no pasture (drought, lack of pasture) is an inadequate substitute for fresh and healthy pasture.  Here is why.

Lectins are found in the outer coverings of seeds, fruits and leaves of all plants. Animals have adapted to these toxins in many ways. Horses have limited their diet to ground plants and have come to terms with their defense mechanisms.

Minerals and electrolytes in horses are elements (atoms) that are NOT carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. They include the macro-minerals of calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sodium, chloride and sulfur. They also include the micro-minerals (trace minerals) of copper, zinc, selenium, iron, and others.

Knowing how nutrition works in the horse down to the cellular and molecular level is important. You may not think so or you may not feel capable of understanding the complexities.  If you try you will not only help your horse thrive, you will also save a lot of money!

There are about 35,000 DIFFERENT proteins in every cell of our bodies and about 1 to 3 BILLION total proteins in each cell. Protein is important.

I don’t believe in any supplement for horses unless there is a deficiency. With the exception of starvation, mineral and vitamin deficiencies are rare in horses.

The Top Line Score came out in other animals, primarily meat animals (hogs, cattle), as a way to determine how much meat was on the hoof. And ultrasound machine would be scanned over the backs of hogs and the back fat was measured as well as the depth of meat. No one dares do this in horses as this would ruin the horse feeding industry. This is why.

Most treats fed to horses are not only filled with inflammatory ingredients but are fed for the wrong reason.

Most people don’t “think” about feeding water – they just do it.  Water, along with air, is more important than food as removing either will bring death within a minute to a few days

I see weight control as two issues in horses.  Either the horse remains underweight no matter how much they are fed or the horse remains overweight no matter how much restriction is applied to the diet.  Weight needs to seen as both body fat and as muscle mass.  Both are important for health but have different purposes.