Robert Carsel Horsemanship

08/21/2026

SURPASS® (1% diclofenac sodium)

The only topical equine NSAID with patented WISDOM® technology that targets pain at the source.

SURPASS is the only FDA-approved topical NSAID medication that modifies both clinical signs and progression of osteoarthritis in horses.

A horse’s joints often need medical support in order to relieve the pain and inflammation associated with equine osteoarthritis. Untreated osteoarthritis can cause poor performance, lameness and long-term effects on quality of life.


SURPASS for horses is a unique topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that provides pain relief directly at the site of inflammation in tarsal, carpal, metacarpophalangeal, metatarsophalangeal and proximal interphalangeal (hock, knee, fetlock and pastern) joints in horses. This targeted treatment minimizes the risk of the potential side effects that come with systemic NSAIDS.

Formulated with unique WISDOM® liposomal technology, SURPASS cream pe*****tes the skin barrier and provides sustained release in a way that alternatives don't. This means relief for your horses in fewer applications. Help manage your horse’s joint health by asking your veterinarian for a product you can apply yourself after you’ve left the clinic.

NSAIDs should only be administered under the direction of a licensed professional. SURPASS topical cream is only approved for use in horses, and has not been evaluated in breeding, pregnant or lactating horses, or in horses under 1 year of age. Do not exceed the recommended dose. Wear gloves when administering SURPASS.

Boehringer Ingelheim

08/19/2026

How to Assess Your Horse’s Forage

Is green always good? What if it’s brown? How do I know if it meets my horse’s nutritional needs? These are just a few of the questions owners might ask when trying to assess their horses’ forage.

Forage can be divided into two types: harvested (hay) and unharvested (pasture). It supplies horses with energy, crude protein, vitamins, and minerals at varying levels depending on the plant species and its nutritive value. The plant’s maturity at the time eaten or harvested, as well as the soil in which the plant grew, influence the nutrition it offers.

“It is the forage nutritive value in combination with visual and physical assessment of the forage that supplies the best information when it comes to understanding how to assess forage for your horse’s needs,” says Amy Parker, MS, equine nutritionist and technical services manager at McCauley’s Feed, in Versailles, Kentucky. “Remembering that horses are herbivores and hindgut fermenters means that they have an inherent need for fiber in order to keep the gut moving normally.”

This is why we must feed appropriate amounts of hay when grazing is not feasible. The two major types of hay we feed horses are legumes (e.g., alfalfa, clover) and grasses (e.g., timothy, orchardgrass).

Legumes are generally higher in nutritive value than grasses, says Parker. When harvested at the same stage of maturity, legumes tend to contain higher amounts of crude protein, digestible energy, and calcium and lower amounts of fiber. When comparing grasses, cool-season species (e.g., timothy, orchardgrass) tend to offer higher amounts of nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs) and lower amounts of calcium, while warm-season grasses (e.g., bermudagrass, teff) tend to have lower amounts of NSCs and higher amounts of fiber, says Krishona Martinson, PhD, professor and equine extension specialist at the University of Minnesota, in St. Paul. Understanding these differences is key to matching forage type with a horse’s individual nutrient needs.

A visual inspection of hay is as important as its chemical analysis, says Martinson. “Physical evaluation can help you determine the plant species in the hay, including the desirable forages, weeds, and poisonous plants,” she says.

Consider the following five physical characteristics when selecting hay.

1. Color
Although hay color is preferably green, which can indicate the presence of nutrients, it should never be the primary focus, our sources say. Color can be a poor indicator of nutritive value because weeds tend to stay green when dried.

A light-yellow color on the outside of the bale indicates sun-bleaching, says Parker. Sun-bleaching does not reduce the hay’s nutrient value if the bale is just bleached along the outside, with no moisture and no mold, and yellow does not pe*****te the bale beyond ¼ to 1 inch. The sun-bleached section will simply be lower in carotene (the active source of vitamin A) and less palatable.

Yellow throughout the bale indicates it was overly mature at harvest, resulting in reduced nutrient value and palatability. A chemical analysis can tell you how much nutrient value the hay offers.

Dark brown to black hay might indicate the forage was harvested and/or baled wet. Storing wet hay allows bacteria and fungi to consume the nutrients, which produces heat, says Parker. The duration and intensity of the heat damages the hay, turning it brown to black and producing a distinctive sweet caramel odor. Heat-damaged hay has reduced nutritive value, palatability, and digestibility. In addition, it might still contain bacteria, mold, and fungi that can produce dangerous mycotoxins. The hay might also contain gray or black mold within the bale. For this reason, always open a bale to inspect it.

Note that red clover is naturally brown when dried for hay. This is a good reason to identify the plant species in your hay.

2. Smell
In general, says Parker, hay should have a sweet, clean, and fresh smell. It should not be excessively dusty, and you should not see any indication of mold. If you have a musty or stale-smelling bale or one creating dust clouds as you move it, best to pass on purchasing. Exposure to this type of hay can exacerbate respiratory ailments such as equine asthma.

3. Maturity
Stage of plant maturity or growth at the time of harvest might be the single most important aspect when evaluating how the hay will contribute to the diet. “Forage maturity and nutritive value are inversely correlated,” says Parker—as the forage matures, the nutrition it offers decreases.

The more mature the plant, the higher the lignin (an indigestible component) content in its cell walls, making it less nutritive (but potentially gastric-acid-buffering if it’s alfalfa).

You can usually determine maturity by the size of the seedheads in grass hays and the number of flowers in legume hays. Low numbers of and small seedheads and few flowers indicate a less mature hay.

It is the stage of maturity at the time of harvest and not the hay cutting (e.g., first, second, third) that has the largest impact on a hay’s nutritive value, says Parker.

4. Leafiness
Leaves contain about twice the nutrients and more protein and digestible carbohydrates than stems, says Parker. If the forage is leafy with green or brown leaves (remember, color varies with the plant species), contains few stems and seedheads, and is free of weeds, dust, and mold, it’s high in nutritive value.

Texture is also important, says Parker. Horses usually prefer soft leaves rather than coarse stems. Legume leaves tend to be slightly coarser than grass leaves when baled at the same maturity.

Also note the stem thickness or coarseness. Hay that contains very thick, coarse stems was harvested at a mature state, while hay that contains fine stems was harvested at a less mature state. A hay with fine stems but few leaves might mean it was harvested at an immature state, but the leaves came off when the hay was lying in the field or during baling. Hay with “leaf shatter” like this might be of minimal nutritional value to the horse, says Parker, because stems contain few nutrients and lots of indigestible fiber.

5. Foreign Matter
Foreign matter is material that adds no nutritive value or is inedible or toxic to the horse. This can include weeds, insects (alfalfa weevil or toxic blister beetle in alfalfa), dead animals (birds, snakes, etc.) that can introduce the Clostridium botulinum neurotoxin that causes botulism, and trash (wire, paper, etc.) that can cause an impaction or gut puncture.

Getting a Hay Analysis
Talk to your hay supplier about harvest timing and conditions to better understand its quality. Parker says cool, wet growing seasons usually lead to increased fungi growth. Hay harvested, cured, and stored during a dry spell is much less likely to develop mold. Some hay producers submit their hay samples for analysis before market, so Parker suggests asking if your supplier has already performed an analysis he or she can share with you.

If not, having your hay analyzed helps you understand what you’re feeding your horse, says Martinson. Testing can ­provide you with information such as calorie levels, individual nutrient measurements, nutrient deficiencies, protein levels, digestibility and palatability, and starch and soluble sugar content, which is important if your horse is overweight or metabolic.

A basic forage test includes values for dry matter, digestible energy, crude protein, fiber, NSCs, and some minerals. You can request additional testing to determine mold counts and other minerals and vitamins.

Forage test results are only as good as the sample submitted, says Martinson. A representative sample should include about 10% of the bales from a given hay lot (same field and cutting), our sources say. Use a tool called a hay corer to easily gather the recommended 5/8-inch samples of chopped forage without contamination from handling. The corer attaches to a ½-inch drill. You can also use a hay probe, which is a long tube attached to a drill or operated manually. Insert it approximately 18 inches into the center of the short end of the bales you’re sampling to get a cross-section of the bale that contains several flakes. Take the sample to your local extension office, or send it to a reliable or certified laboratory (e.g., Dairy One Forage Laboratory; Equi-Analytical Laboratory Services).

Interpreting the Hay Analysis
Here are figures you might find on your analysis results and what they mean:

Moisture Hay appears dry but contains about 10% water. Hay with high moisture content (14-18%) can mold or spontaneously combust. Hay that’s too dry (< 10%) can suffer leaf loss and become dusty.

Dry matter This is the percent of hay without moisture. On a forage report, the results are usually reported on an “As Fed” (essentially, as sampled) and a “Dry Matter” basis. Feeds differ in their moisture content and, thus, will dilute the nutrient concentrations. Therefore, it is best to compare feeds more accurately by using dry matter percentage values.

Crude protein (CP) Crude protein is determined based on the amount of nitrogen within the feed. Crude protein of hay can range from 5 to 25% and is highly dependent on the type and maturity of the hay being analyzed. A higher percentage usually indicates the plants were younger when cut. It might also indicate the forage type; for example, legume hays typically have higher CP than grass hays.

Acid detergent fiber (ADF) This is a measure of hay’s indigestible portion. ADF includes cellulose (a type of fiber that is less digestible in horses) and lignin. The lower the ADF percentage, the more digestible the hay. Hays with ADF of 35% or lower tend to be very leafy and high in nutritional value; legume hays are usually lower in ADF than grass hays.

Neutral detergent fiber (NDF) This is an indirect predictor of voluntary feed intake. A lower NDF (< 65%) tends to indicate a more consumable hay.

Digestible energy (DE) This is the amount of megacalories per kilogram of feed. The CP and ADF content of the hay provide a reasonable estimate of its DE. The more mature the hay, the higher its ADF and the lower its DE or caloric value.

Macrominerals The basic analysis will include calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), magnesium (Mg), potassium (K), and sulfur (S). Calcium is usually higher in legumes. The Ca:P ratio is almost always 1:1 in grass hays and should be at least that but no higher than 6:1. Potassium must be low for horses with the muscle disease hyperkalemic periodic paralysis.

Microminerals (trace minerals) These might include iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and selenium (Se).

Other nutritional components a hay analysis might include are crude fat, sugar, starch, and mycotoxins.

Because some horses (e.g., metabolic or laminitic) are sensitive to dietary starch and soluble sugars, NSC percentage might be important. Avoid feeding hay containing greater than 10-12% NSC to these horses.

A hay analysis will not detect the presence of weeds or toxic plants, says Martinson. You must physically examine the hay to identify those contaminants.

“Physical evaluation is best used to get a first impression of hay quality and should always be followed up by chemical analysis,” she says.

08/14/2026

This filly has been a blessing to me, I’ve struggled the last few years after having kids getting into my head about “what if” I get hurt and I’ve gone back and forth on feelings with that, I just figured it was time for me to hang it up and not ride colts anymore! But the lord has somehow kept pushing me to grow and learn how to become a better horseman and pay attention to what the horse is telling me, I’ve taken very small steps with this filly and even needed some help getting her comfortable with a rider on her back, training horses is a lot like life and it takes time to get things done without rushing them into a freak out, small steps will be better for this horse in the end! Logine Pohlmann
Bailey Smith

08/14/2026

08/14/2026

Why Is My Horse Losing His Topline?

A strong topline helps a horse carry his rider and perform in balance and comfort. It includes muscles extending from the neck and withers through the back and loins, and its condition can provide clues about a horse’s nutrition, fitness, and overall health.

Kara Brown, VMD, Dipl. ACVSMR, assistant professor of equine sports medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, in Kennett Square, says the topline provides a visible indicator of a horse’s core strength. “A horse’s core includes not only the topline, which in veterinary terms are the epaxial muscles (those that sit on top of the vertebrae in the back) but also the hypaxial muscles (those that sit on the bottom side of those vertebrae) and the abdominal muscles.”

As in human athletes, core strength helps improve balance and performance in horses. This becomes important when they perform athletic tasks with a rider on board. “The topline is just the tip of the iceberg but is the thing that we focus on the most when it comes to core strength in horses,” says Brown.

Why Horses Lose Topline
When viewed from behind, most horses should have a convex contour to their back, almost like a rainbow, Brown says. “It should be nice and round,” she explains. “When horses have topline atrophy, the top of their back looks more like a triangle, so you will start to see a really prominent profile to the very center of their back, where the spinous processes lie.”

When veterinarians see muscle atrophy along a horse’s topline, back pain often comes to mind first, Brown says. Although disease affecting the back can be a cause, topline loss can also signal an underlying lameness, she adds, which makes determining the cause important.

Atrophy as a result of disuse can take months to become noticeable along the topline. Hind-end lameness can alter the kinetics and biomechanics of the back, Brown says. “Just like people who limp for long periods of time, their back starts hurting or their hip starts hurting—it’s all connected.”

Gluteal muscle loss can also accompany many of the conditions that cause topline atrophy.

“From the side, we really want a nice soft curve to the gluteal muscles between the top of the rump to the top of the tail, and when that starts to look like a straight line, then I start to get nervous that the horse is experiencing some gluteal atrophy,” says Brown.

Other conditions can contribute to topline loss as well. Gastric ulcers and parasite infection can potentially lead to loss of muscle mass along the back, says Jacquelyn Dietrich, BVSc, CVA, CVMMP, CERPV, of Legacy Equine Sports Medicine Inc., in the Bay Area of California. She added that other health conditions, such as pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID, formerly called equine Cushing’s disease), can affect the topline muscles and result in lordosis, or increased curvature of the back.

Consider Saddle Fit
Saddle fit can also play a role in a horse’s back health. A poorly fitting saddle can cause back pain, so Brown recommends having a saddle fitter evaluate and adjust the saddle at least once a year. However, she sometimes sees the reverse situation in her patients.

“Horses can have a disease process that results in loss of topline, which makes the saddle fit abnormally,” says Brown. “In these cases, it’s important to ensure that the horse doesn’t have an underlying source of topline atrophy that is actually resulting in a previously well-fitting saddle now fitting poorly.”

In addition to musculoskeletal disease, neurologic diseases such as equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) and equine degenerative myeloencephalopathy (EDM) and muscular disorders such as vitamin E responsive myopathy (VEM), myofibrillar myopathy (MFM), and polysaccharide storage myopathy (PSSM) can cause muscle atrophy, weakness, and irregular movement, leading to topline loss.

If a horse has a neurologic condition, muscle atrophy can develop more quickly than when it occurs secondary to skeletal problems, Brown says. This can happen even when the horse follows a normal, well-designed exercise routine. Because these diseases involve different treatments, veterinarians should identify and treat the underlying condition before addressing rebuilding the topline.

Equine Nutrition and Topline Health
Good nutrition supports muscle development and maintenance, so consult your veterinarian or an equine nutritionist to determine whether your horse’s diet meets his individual needs.

Providing high-quality forage and feed (and supplements when appropriate) can help maintain topline muscle even as horses age and their backs begin to weaken. Brown emphasizes the importance of creating a diet that supports your horse’s workload and provides the calories and nutrients he needs to maintain an appropriate body condition.

Veterinarians might consider a horse’s vitamin E levels when evaluating a horse with poor topline development or muscle loss. The nutrient plays important roles in muscle, nerve, and immune health.

Horses that don’t have access to pasture or have spent an extended period eating only hay might need vitamin E supplementation.

Your veterinarian will test your horse’s blood vitamin E concentration to help determine whether supplementation is necessary and, if so, how much to provide. Too much vitamin E can interfere with the absorption and balance of other nutrients.

Dietrich says she has found added vitamin E works well to support muscle recovery and strength building if the horse tests low for it. She also uses other supplements to encourage a strong topline. “I’m a big fan of protein supplements,” she says. “Horses that are building or maintaining muscle and strength can benefit from a quality protein source, as well as vitamin E when necessary.”

Exercises to Build Your Horse’s Topline Muscle
Once your veterinarian has identified and addressed the underlying cause of topline loss, appropriate exercise can help a horse rebuild muscle. Dietrich uses several exercises to rehabilitate horses that need to develop strength.

Daily dynamic mobilization exercises, including carrot stretches, sternal lifts, and pelvic tucks, can benefit horses whether they are ridden or not. Resistance bands can help horses with proprioception (awareness of their body position and movement), while pole work engages the core and topline. Always work with your veterinarian to develop an exercise routine that’s appropriate for your horse.

“Even when you’re rehabilitating a horse that requires restricted movement due to an injury, being diligent about therapeutic stretches and mobility exercises can keep their core muscles activated during times of decreased exercise,” Dietrich says. “If you have a horse that is limited due to a specific injury, there are always things that you can do in their stall or cross ties. Even having them walk over different types of surfaces can help proprioception, which aids in preventing atrophy of muscles that support the axial skeleton.”

Rebuilding lost topline muscle takes time, Brown adds. “It takes a lot longer to build lost muscle than it does to take it away,” she says. “I would encourage people who find the source of the disease and then treat it not to be too discouraged if it takes some time to build that muscle back. That is just the nature of muscle.”

Take-Home Message
If your horse is losing topline, work with your veterinarian to identify the underlying cause and develop an appropriate treatment plan. Appropriate nutrition and exercise can then help support his recovery.

The Horse

08/12/2026

Evaluating Horse Diets: What to Know

Nutritional evaluations take the guesswork out of whether your horse consumes a balanced diet
Your horse has a shiny coat and has never had issues maintaining weight. The 2-year-old in the next stall is growing steadily into the reining prospect of her owner’s dreams. And the barrel racer across the barn aisle performs well and always recovers from competition quickly.

It’d be easy to assume each of these horses is fueled by a well-balanced nutritional plan, but making assumptions in the diet department can have serious consequences. That’s where nutritional evaluations—making sure the diet is supplying all the necessary nutrients—are key to keeping horses healthy.

We consulted two equine nutrition specialists to learn what you need to know about deconstructing a horse’s diet to ensure he’s getting what he needs to thrive.

Do All Horses Need Nutritional Evaluations?
“A nutritional evaluation can determine if a horse needs additional nutrients or if some nutrients are in excess of needs,” says Laurie Lawrence, PhD, a professor of equine nutrition at the University of Kentucky, in Lexington. “With that knowledge, the owner can make adjustments to the amount or type of feeds that are in the ration.”

All horses benefit from occasional nutritional evaluations and resulting ration adjustments. But, our sources agree, certain equine classes—including those with health problems or that are competing, growing, or breeding—should have their diets assessed and balanced on a more regular basis.

Take the growing horse, for instance. “Most of us want to develop a horse into an athlete, or at least something that’s going to be healthy and have longevity,” says Brian Nielsen, PhD, MS, PAS, Dipl. ACAN, a professor of equine nutrition and exercise physiology at Michigan State University, in East Lansing. “To do that you have to be certain you’re feeding the appropriate nutrition.”

It’s not just ensuring the horse is consuming enough calories. Growing horses need a specific mix and quantity of nutrients in their diets to ensure their bodies grow and develop properly.

“And here’s the tricky thing with nutritional deficiencies: A lot of them aren’t things you’d see acutely,” Nielsen says. “In other words, they typically develop slowly, and you might not notice it happening at all. Some mineral deficiencies can take years to become a significant problem.”

The calcium to phosphorus ratio is important in diets for growing horses, Nielsen says; diets with less calcium than phosphorus can put youngsters at risk for issues such as osteopenia, or decreased bone mass. This, in turn, can result in enlarged joints or crooked long bones, which can ultimately increase the horse’s risk for injury or mechanical breakdown as he ages and enters work.

Similarly, study results have suggested dietary copper deficiencies can put growing horses at increased risk for developing potentially performance-limiting osteochondritis dissecans (OCD)lesions.

It’s not just the vitamins and minerals that can cause issues. Simply feeding growing horses too many calories without adequate amounts of other nutrients can promote rapid growth, which can put them at a greater risk for developmental orthopedic disease than a youngster with a more consistent growth rate.

“You could essentially set your horse up for some long-term health problems by not evaluating the diet,” Nielsen stresses.

Broodmares need not only enough calories to support themselves and their growing fetuses or foals but also the right balance of nutrients to give their offspring a good start in life. Horses working in high-intensity sports might have different electrolyte needs than pleasure horses. And horses with certain health issues might need custom-tailored diets to keep their bodies functioning properly. For instance, researchers know horses with the muscle disorder type 1 polysaccharide storage myopathy (PSSM1) need a low-sugar and -starch, high-fat diet to help prevent excess levels of glycogen and an abnormal type of polysaccharide (a form of carbohydrate) from building up in muscle tissue.

“But, even for happy and healthy horses, an occasional nutritional ‘checkup’ is a good idea,” Lawrence adds.

For instance, protein and associated amino acid deficiencies can result in weight loss, poor hair and hoof quality, and muscle mass loss. Excess dietary ­selenium—a trace mineral to which equids are incredibly sensitive—can cause signs of colic, increased heart and respiration rates, head pressing, and even death in otherwise healthy horses.

The key point: While certain classes of horses might benefit from more regular dietary evaluations, it’s an important part of maximizing all horses’ health.

Evaluating the Diet Step by Step
“A basic evaluation compares the nutrients that a horse is consuming to the nutrients that horse needs,” Lawrence says.

So, the first step in evaluating the diet is to determine what the horse eats each day.

“That’s a very simple task, right?” Nielsen says. “But here’s the issue: Many owners will probably tell you, ‘I feed two scoops of this 12% feed.’ They probably don’t know how many pounds of feed that is.

Plus,” he adds, “many owners might not think to include forage in the evaluation. And, if they do, they often tell me the horse gets two flakes of a mixed-grass hay and is turned out on pasture. That doesn’t really tell me a whole lot about what nutrients the horse is actually getting.”

The good news, Lawrence says, is it’s not hard to reach a fairly accurate estimate of what makes up your horse’s diet, particularly if they are fed individually in stalls and have limited pasture access.

“The easiest way to do that is to weigh the amount of hay and concentrate that the horse is getting each day,” she says. “It doesn’t take fancy equipment, just a bathroom scale (a fishing-type scale works, too), a bucket, and a large garbage bag.”

If you don’t have a scale with a tare ­button/adjustment, weigh the empty bucket before adding the amount of ­concentrate the horse gets each day; subtract the weight of the bucket to find out how many pounds the horse eats. Then, place the horse’s daily hay ration in the garbage bag (or a haynet) and weigh it; a garbage bag probably won’t affect the numbers too much, but a haynet could weigh a pound or two, so use your best judgment on whether to determine its weight separately and subtract it from the total.

One point to remember: “You may have to make an adjustment on the amount of hay consumed if your horse doesn’t consume all that is offered,” Lawrence says.

If your horse consistently leaves forage behind, consider weighing what you offer, then weighing his leftovers to determine how much he consumes. Doing this over the span of a week or so and finding the average amount consumed can give you a good working number to use in your evaluation.

“If your horse is out on pasture, intake will be much more difficult to estimate,” Lawrence says. “The amount of time in the pasture, as well as the composition and density of the plants, will affect intake.”

She says access to a sparse field for a few hours each day likely won’t contribute much nutritional value to a horse’s diet. But longer turnout on lush pasture is a different story.

“Then, intake could be pretty high,” she says. “Some estimates suggest that during one hour of grazing on lush pasture, a horse can ingest the equivalent of 1 to 3 pounds of hay.”

Once you’ve determined what your horse consumes each day, it’s time to evaluate which nutrients are in his feed. Be sure to include supplements in this step, as some can alter the diet’s balance significantly.

“This part is straightforward for most commercial feeds, and the feed tag/bag should have information about the nutrient content,” says Lawrence. “Manufacturers are usually happy to supply information on nutrient content beyond what is on the feed tag,” so reach out to the feed company if you have a question.

Likewise, most supplements have nutritional information on their packaging, and many manufacturers can supply additional information upon request.

Our sources agree that the diet’s forage component is the most complicated part of this step of the evaluation.

“The best way to determine nutrient content of a forage is to obtain a representative sample and have it analyzed” at a commercial or university laboratory, Lawrence says.

It’s a relatively inexpensive endeavor, Nielsen says, and you typically receive results in a few weeks.

“Sometimes it makes sense to do that, but, practically, there are times when it doesn’t really make sense,” he adds.

If you produce your own hay or buy enough hay (ideally grown in the same fields) to last six months or a year from one seller, “it makes a whole lot of sense to get it analyzed,” he says.

“But if you buy 20 bales at a time from the local hay auction or retailer,” Nielsen continues, “by the time you send off samples and get results from one batch of hay, your horses have eaten it all and you’re on to the next one.”

In those cases, or if sampling and ­analyzing hay isn’t an option, “textbook” reference values for different forages can give at least an estimate of what the products your horses consume might contain, Lawrence says.

“I typically go to Equi-Analytical’s website, which lists the average concentrations of various nutrients from the huge number of samples they analyze,” Nielsen says.

Next, it’s time to get out your calculator to determine nutrient intake.

“Nutrient intakes are calculated as feed amount times nutrient concentration,” Lawrence says. “For example, if a horse is receiving 10 pounds of hay and the hay contains 10% protein (10 x 0.10), the horse is consuming 1 pound of protein via hay each day.”

You’ll need to determine how much of each nutrient your horse is consuming to complete the final step, which is comparing his intake to how much he needs. This is based on his weight, activity level, and whether he needs to gain, lose, or maintain weight, Lawrence says.

“There are several feeding standards that have been developed in different countries and by some feed companies for horses,” she explains. “In the U.S., the National Research Council’s publication Nutrient Requirements of Horses is a common resource.”

An online calculator containing the same information as the publication can help streamline the evaluation process, she adds.

Evaluation Complete. Now What?
The analysis might be done, but the work isn’t over. Now it’s time to translate the results into practice.

“Once the evaluation is complete, owners can make diet adjustments if the horse’s needs are not being met or if some nutrients are being fed in excessive amounts,” Lawrence says.

An equine nutritionist or a veterinarian trained in equine nutrition can help refine the diet based on the evaluation results to ensure the horse is consuming the nutrients he needs to stay healthy at the appropriate level, Nielsen says.

“I love straight forage diets,” he says. “If you can get by with it, I think it’s absolutely phenomenal. But I also recognize that many forages aren’t going to meet all horses’ dietary ­requirements.”

On the other hand, pricy supplements and feeds that can benefit some horses might, for others, have little to no dietary benefit, he adds.

“People spend so much money on supplements and grain because they’re so concerned about their horses’ diets,” Nielsen says. “But they won’t spend any money to bring somebody in to do a quick analysis. A lot of times you can save a lot of money and potentially avoid some long-term health problems. It really does behoove you to go ahead and have an evaluation done, both for the benefit of your horse’s health and your bottom line.”

The Horse