Feeding Horses S1 E1: Nutrition Tips for a Seamless Transition Into Spring

0:00You are listening to the Horse Radio Network, part of the Equine Network family. Welcome to the debut episode of Feeding Horses. I'm your host Stephanie Ruff. The goal of this podcast is to break through all the nutritional noise and focus on exactly what your horses need to perform at their best, whether that be in the show ring or on the trail or just hanging out in the pasture. Each episode will feature an in-depth conversation with a respected equine nutritionist or veterinarian covering current topics that matter to horse owners and professionals. Discussions will range from everyday feeding questions to new research shaping how we think about a horse's diet and health in conversations designed to be informative without being intimidating. And today I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Kelly Vineyard, an independent equine nutritionist

1:03with her company Equivine PhD Nutrition based in Florida. She is a lifelong horsewoman who currently enjoys riding and training in dressage. And be sure to stay tuned at the end of the podcast for a segment called Viral Ideas Real Horses. If you have ever seen a horse nutrition tip online and thought, that sounds interesting, is it true? You're not alone. In Viral Ideas Real Horses, we break down trending nutrition topics and look at how they hold up for real horses in real barns. Hi, Kelly. I'd like to welcome you to Feeding Horses, our first edition of our nutritionally centered podcast. Well, thank you so much for having me. I feel very honored to be your first guest. Oh, well, it is. It is our honor. And we are recording this in March and by the calendar, it is spring. And so that means pastors are starting to grow.

2:06And unless you're in the south or the southwest, people are starting to get out and ride again after what has been a really bad winter for a lot of people out there in the country. And so as the weather starts to change, we want to talk about what nutritional changes we might need to make with our horses. So to jump right in, Kelly, what are some things to look out for in our horses to make sure they are okay physically as we head into the spring season? Well, yeah. You know, spring is unique because I sort of look at it. It's sort of the time of year when nutrition, metabolism, and like management all change at the same time, especially, you know, if you're not in the south, I'm glad you mentioned that. I mean, I am in Florida. And so as I, as am I, okay, so we've been riding, we're the anomalies, but for the rest of most of the United States, you know, things are changing and all at the same time.

3:07So I think our goal should be, you know, let's help our horses make a seamless transition into this new season. And we do that by being proactive and observant. So some of the things I want to look for and be observant about number one is body condition. You know, they've been wearing blankets all winter. They've got a thick furry coat. Make sure, you know, they're still having, you know, adequate fat cover, but not too much fat cover, right? You can go either way. So good body condition. I think at this time, also, maybe if they're getting more turnout, you watch for subtle lameness as as spring grass comes on, you know, be very observant about that because, you know, we know there's some risk with pasture grass and especially in horses with a, you know, metabolic horses, certainly the shedding pattern. You know, horses are going to start shedding. I think, look out for, is it, are they shedding normally? Because if they aren't, especially if they're older, you know, over 15 years of age, and maybe patchy shedding or just don't shed at all, that might be an early sign of

4:08PPI D. And then another big one. And this definitely applies to Florida to skin issues in the, in the screen. You've got bugs coming out. You've got, you know, if your horse is an allergy prone horse, you've got, you know, grass pollen or tree pollen. So start just really paying attention to those types of things. Scratches, you know, can really pop up in the spring. And then I think finally, I actually rode my horse this morning and he was coughing. And that reminded me, oh, yeah, like sometimes this, like the dust and the, and the, and he doesn't, he hasn't really coughed in a long time. And I'm like, it's spring, the coughing. So respiratory issues, I think it's another thing to be proactive about. Yeah, that tree pollen that comes out this time of year in Florida. I know it's, it's a little bit later for other places. But around here, we've got a lot of pollen coming out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You mentioned turnout and, and grazing. And so if horses haven't had access to green pasture all winter, do they need to be sort

5:09of adjusted onto the green grass? Do they need some time to acclimate? So maybe restricted turnout on the pasture and increase it or what's the best way to reintroduce them to pasture? Yeah, I mean, yes, horses do need to be acclimated slowly to spring pasture, especially if they have, you know, been in dry lots or been stalled primarily and haven't been on pasture. Now, some horses are maintained on pasture all throughout the winter. And that slow growth of the pasture grass, it doesn't happen overnight. So that actually does serve as a little bit of a slow transition, which is nice. But if you're kind of starting to put your horses out, you have to be very careful. I think of going on to spring grass. It's like switching from like sort of like a slow release, like low burn diet to an energy drink, like grass is the energy drink. So we need to let the horse acclimate and we don't want to just throw them a bunch of red bull all at once. And maybe that's a bad analogy, but it's all about the microbiome, right?

6:11In the high gut and they, those microbes need time to learn how to metabolize these new types of fiber from the grass, as opposed to maybe the hay that they've been on, I'll winter. So start with short turnout periods, you know, maybe an hour, maybe a couple of hours and gradually increase to whatever your full turnout schedule is, whether that's 12 hours or 24 or whatever it may be, maybe over, you know, a two week period. And that's pretty conservative. Two to three weeks is a conservative, but especially if you have a sensitive horse, it's, it's worth the trouble as the acclimation. If you can't do that, you know, grazing mezzles can, can work too to, to help slow them down. You can also sort of add hay, like I always like for people to remember, like go ahead and feed them hay while they're on pasture. So they don't gorge themselves on the spring pasture, right? So kind of, or either fill them up in the stall or on the dry lot with their regular hay,

7:13then turn them out for a couple of hours. They're maybe not going to eat as voraciously if they have a full belly. So yeah, that's a good tip. Yeah, because they will go after it. And you mentioned those sensitive horses. So what are some of the factors that make horses sensitive to spring grass and put them at risk for problems like laminitis? Right. I mean, that's, that's is one of the primary things we're watching out for. And it is their metabolic status, right? And so this is a reminder, if, if you suspect your horse is metabolic, but you've never pulled insulin or glucose levels or you've never had him tested, you know, it might be a good idea to do that, especially if your horse kind of has that phenotype with the fat pads or maybe he's one of the breeds that's susceptible to metabolic issues. I think knowing his power, knowledge is power. So, you know, if you're questioning, you can always have your veterinarian help you test for their status

8:14because horses with insulin dysregulation, metabolic syndrome, PPD, they are all less able to regulate glucose after they eat grass. And that's going to spike their glucose, which then spikes their insulin from those high carbohydrates and spring pasture. And that can be really problematic if they are metabolic. So those guys are more sensitive. And I would also say obese horses maybe are more at risk too. You know, obesity sort of like also decreases insulin sensitivity as well. And it also is kind of leads to more inflammatory state in the body. So that can kind of just predispose them to have a, if they get a high trigger of high carb grass that they can't handle, that could be bad. I mentioned breed predispositions, you know, the ponies, the morgans, the Arabs, those thrifty horses that can live on air, watch out for them. They're not acclimated to modern pastures, especially our modern fertilized pastures, you know,

9:18and that is certainly kind of something to watch out for. That makes a horse maybe more sensitive. But, you know, it's also a function of your type of grass in your pasture. You know, if you have sort of poor quality pasture that sparse, maybe you're not at such a risk or your horses aren't as much of a risk as if you're on a really well managed pasture. Like up in the Northeast and Pennsylvania, it's like amazing pastures up there. You know, they grow well, you know, you know, your pastures. If they get very lush, very fast, just, you know, be aware. Yeah. Yeah. I have a half Arabian and she's 20 this year. And so I have been thinking about doing exactly that, testing her. She doesn't really show any signs of any metabolic issues, but I figure at this point, it's probably time. And like you said, just just to know or to have a baseline, exactly going forward. So yeah, I'm probably going to be doing that this year. Knowledge is power. Yeah, there you go.

10:20And one of the things, and I will admit, I always forget this as well, is knowing when those pasture sugars are at the highest or the lowest during the day, is it early morning? Is it early? Is it afternoon? Is it evening? I can never remember. I always have to look it up again. But is there an easy way? What is it? And is there an easy way to remember? Yes. The pasture sugars are at their lowest or highest. Okay. So I'm going to give you my little cheat because it is hard to remember. Now, I will have to give you a caveat. Number one, it depends on the species of grass a little bit. And it also depends on where you are, sort of like in the hemisphere, you know, but let's just kind of say on average in the United States, cool season grasses. Okay. Cool season grasses, sugars do fluctuate more than warm season. So in Florida, we have warm season forages, not as as that there's no fructans in warm season grasses.

11:22So we're not here to talk about grass physiology, but you know, this kind of blanket statement I'm going to give you really does apply mostly to cool season forages in most of the United States, sugars rise with the sun. Okay. So sugars rise with the sun and they fall overnight. So think about as a sun going up and the sugars are going up with the sun, and as the sun's going down, the sugars go down. And here's the reason it's because plants produce sugars. They're making a whole bunch of sugar through photosynthesis. When this photosynthesis happen, when the sun's up, so they're making all this sugar during daylight. And then as it gets dark, the plant uses all those sugars up. So that's why overnight, the plants like using all those stored sugars and the sugars drops when it's dark. So generally, the lowest pasture sugar levels are like at the very early morning, they've used all their sugars all night long and low pasture sugar there. Highest pasture sugar is going to be late afternoon,

12:23early evening, when it's like really hot in the sun's out and you're just dying. The sugars are high. Okay. No, that's good. I like that. I think I think that works because yeah, I'm always looking it up. Yeah. And you know, again, we're not talking about plant physiology too much, but there's another kind of nuance there. And people hear about the stressed grass or the frost, you know, after a frost sugars are high. So there is like another caveat. So when there's like nights are really cold, like below 40 degrees or, you know, there's a frost, the stress traps sugar. Okay. So that's why it's kind of, it can be like a danger zone to graze immediately after stress, either drought or a frost. So, you know, sun makes sugar, the night uses sugar and then stress traps sugar. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. Absolutely. Good. All right. We've got it now. There you go. Beyond pasture, the other thing, you know, we think about when we're coming into,

13:27especially if people are starting to ride their horses more, we're getting fit, getting ready for upcoming show season, or even those of us in Florida who are ready to wind down because our summers are our times off. That's right. Do we need to take a look at our concentrate, our feed and our supplements and changing those in the spring? And if so, how? Yeah. I mean, the short answer is if there's any type of change, it's always a good idea to re-evaluate your concentrate and supplement feeding program. You know, the big change in the spring usually would be forage. So if the horse is going to be on more pasture, you know, maybe you need a different type of concentrate or maybe you need more concentrate because you're working more. So that's another change. Maybe you're exercising more, riding, going to more horse shows. So typically in the winter, we may be feeding less calories, you know, because they're off and we're relying on a salt block for electrolytes. We're not doing a lot of supplementation. We're kind of just feeding to their maintenance needs over winter.

14:28You come into the spring, you're going to be maybe riding them more or you're going to have a forage change and maybe not feed as much hay but just rely on pasture. So, you know, re-evaluate, look at their body condition score, look at take a good body weight. I think it's a good idea to keep track, especially through the spring. Like maybe once a week put a weight tape on them so you can really keep track and have a plan. Do I need to increase calories? Do I need to switch from a ration balancer to a concentrate if I'm starting to ride four or five days a week? Maybe that ration balancer can't maintain them, you know, in the right body condition anymore. So yeah, maybe you do switch concentrates to a concentrate to prevent weight loss. Maybe you start top-dressing electrolytes because their sweat level is going to go up. They're going to increase their sweat rate. A salt block generally is, you know, for a lot of horses it can work at maintenance but if their horse is actively sweating, I always recommend top-dressing salt or electrolytes to make sure you get enough. And then, you know, maybe you need to look at your amino acids or maybe your

15:32vitamin E. Like, and you know, pasture is a very great source of vitamin E so maybe through the winter you were supplementing vitamin E. But now if they're on fresh green pasture, maybe you can discontinue that for a while. So it's always a good idea to try to take a step back and re-evaluate any time there's a change, including a season change. Okay. Well, that's great. And that's really good, that's really good information that kind of just narrows it all down into, into easy, easy things to do that we can get used to. Be proactive and be observant, right? Yeah, yeah. And we can all do that. That's right. Not complicated. Yeah, really. So, and you obviously are an expert at all of this. And if people are interested in talking to you further about any of these topics or their own specific situation, where can they learn more about you and what you do? Well, right. So I'm an independent nutrition consultant primarily working

16:37with, with manufacturers. But I also work with horse owners upon veterinary, like a veterinary referral. And I also have a website with some, you know, good educational material on there, so you can find me at my website, which is equivinephd.com. Okay. Yeah. Great. Well, thank you so much for all of that great information. And when we return, we are going to take a look at our first topic for our new segment, viral ideas, real horses. Welcome back. And as I said at the top of the podcast, here is where we are going to break down trending nutrition topics and look at how they hold up for real horses. And today, we're going to take a look at that longstanding idea that alfalfa makes horses excitable. We've probably all heard that or hot. Kelly, what do you think? Is there any truth to that? Well, the short answer is, no, alfalfa does not inherently make horses hot.

17:44Or excitable. But there's always nuance in equine nutrition, right? And my, I understand where this came from, right? Alfalfa is a really good source of digestible fiber. It's a very good source of protein. But it doesn't have like high soluble carbohydrate quick energy, like you think up from grains. So true, hot behavior in horses is maybe a little bit more related to that type of high carbohydrate quick energy type feeds, you know, like starches and sugars. Alfalfa is very low in starch and sugar. So, so it's not like alfalfa is like creating this energy that the brain can use, you know, brain uses glucose. But what alfalfa does do is it provides really good fuel. And sometimes I think when horses have maybe a change in behavior after, you know, getting some alfalfa that they haven't had before, it's a response to improved nutrition, not necessarily improve, you know, more excitability or nervousness. It's like they feel better. Okay. And so, you know,

18:50they simply may be getting their energy needs met finally. And they feel better. And that's revealing kind of their underlying normal temperament and normal fitness. Like maybe they are an excitable horse. But if you, if you underfeed and horse, if they are not getting enough protein, if they're not getting enough calories, they're not going to feel good. And maybe they are a little dull. And then you all of a sudden start feeding them something that they feel better. And this doesn't actually only apply to alfalfa. It can apply to any type of feed. If you meet a horse's requirements, and now they feel better, yeah, they may react differently. And then I would also say excess calories can also sometimes result in a little like the horse has got to get his energy out somehow. But that is not just from alfalfa. That can be from bee pulp. That can be from rice brand. You know, it can be from a lot of other ingredients, but excess calories can sometimes lead to excitability. But it's not specifically alfalfa. Okay. Good to know. There you go. Well, thank you so much for that. And thank you for joining us on feeding horses.

19:55All right. Thank you for having me. That's it for our first show. Many thanks to our guest, Kelly Vineyard. If you're watching this on YouTube, please like and subscribe for more horse health management information from the horse.com. If you have a nutritional topic you would like us to cover, please reach out to us on our social media channels or email editorial at the horse.com. Thanks for joining me. Now go spend time with your horse.