Poseidon Equine Nutrition Library

Felicity Davies is an Australian Horsemanship & Mindset Mentor, who hosts the Equestrian Perspective Podcast. She is obsessed with helping hors...

Often as horse owners we undertake this exercise when something is not quite right with our horse or we have seen a change in their behaviour, performance or physical well being. However, anytime is a good time to review our horses diet and there are some crucial pieces of information we should gather in order to do this exercise properly.

There is a truism that feeding horses is as much an art as it is a science. It is our failure to remember this that sometimes gets us into trouble...

As a horse owner, when looking at the huge array of supplements available it can be overwhelming and difficult to know which supplement is right for your horse and your situation. 

Take a look out the window…what’s your horse chewing on right now? Hay? Chaff? Some apparently random stick or bit of bark? Or that boundary fence post that’s slowly starting to fall apart? Hey, well at least it’s all fibre… and, importantly, it’s all different types of fibre.

As horse owners we only want the best for our horses, yet we all know that owning and caring for a horse can be expensive. Now more than ever, many people are looking for a way to feed their horse that meets all their nutritional needs but is also economical. There are areas of your horse's diet where you may be able to reduce your feed bill, without compromising gut health or optimal nutrition.

During stressful events like weaning, the microbiome (eg. bacteria, fungi etc.) in the gut changes and this may have negative consequences on health. 

With competitions, rallies and outings being kept to a minimum, it’s time to turn social distancing into a positive for you and your horse. 

From a nutrition perspective, this period of reduced stress is a great opportunity to concentrate on feeding your horse to restore balance in their gut. 

One of the most difficult things to find in a drought is forage. The problem is, forage is the most important, and therefore the least negotiable item in a horse’s diet. Their gut needs forage. Without it, the risk of gastric ulcers, colic, sand or dirt accumulation and other hindgut disturbances like dysbiosis (imbalance of the hindgut bacteria) is high!

Part of the challenge with recognising gut health as a problem for your horse is that symptoms of poor gut health in horses can be very subtle, even when issues are severe, and horses may show different signs for the same issue.