Answers, Advice, and all the Nutrition Know-How you need
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Podcast #18. Discover the answer to one of the most common questions asked by horse owners worldwide: how much hay does my horse actually need? Dr. Nerida reveals why this seemingly simple question has life-or-death consequences for your horse's health and performance.
As horse owners we often give ourselves a really hard time for not doing ‘the right thing’ for our horses. This blog post was originally inspired by a conversation with a gorgeous friend whose pony had gotten laminitis.
Horses with chronic or acute kidney disease can benefit from careful nutritional management. Feeding these horses appropriate rations can take the load off their kidneys to allow them time to heal or to prolong the time the kidneys are able to function effectively for the horse.
Podcast #17. Is your horse experiencing back pain? In this eye-opening episode, equine sports medicine specialist Dr. Nicolle Wiechula and your host Dr Nerida McGilchrist dive deep into everything you need to know about horse back health.
Podcast #16. Dr. Nerida and Orla are back! And in this Q&A, they dive into some of the trickiest horse nutrition topics—because let’s face it, feeding horses isn’t always straightforward.
Podcast #15. If you own a laminitis-prone horse or pony you know well the anxiety this condition creates for us as horse owners! In this essential episode, Dr. Nerida explains why a change in season creates the 'perfect storm' for laminitis - from the science behind how cold nights and sunny days cause dangerous carbohydrate accumulation in pasture plants, to the insulin dysregulation that affects 90% of laminitis cases.
Yep, they do!
In looking at 13 pasture samples from one farm it is very clear that the higher the NSC content, the higher the digestible energy (calorie) content. The pastures shown here were all sampled between 11 am and 2 pm on the same day. They were all dried at the same time and all were analyzed by Equi-Analytical.
Podcast #14. In this evidence-first episode, Prof. Brian Nielsen (Michigan State University) and graduate researcher Renee Harbowy join me to unpack what we really know—and don’t—about glucosamine, chondroitin and MSM. We trace the research history (hello, cell culture studies), talk frankly about why high-quality equine trials are rare, and look at a clever, blinded field study run at an all-girls riding camp with ~80 horses on site.
Podcast #13. In this evidence-first episode, Prof. Brian Nielsen (Michigan State University) and graduate researcher Renee Harbowy join me to unpack what we really know—and don’t—about glucosamine, chondroitin and MSM. We trace the research history (hello, cell culture studies), talk frankly about why high-quality equine trials are rare, and look at a clever, blinded field study run at an all-girls riding camp with ~80 horses on site.
Podcast #12. Join Dr. Nerida McGilchrist and long-time friend and fellow horse industry veteran Orla for a lively and insightful Q&A. With decades of combined experience—ranging from pasture sampling to product development—these two dive deep into real-world horse nutrition challenges.
Podcast #11. How can you tell if your horse’s hindgut is healthy—or heading for trouble? In this episode, Dr Nerida explains three practical and science-backed ways to assess hindgut health: manure scoring, faecal pH, and microbiome testing. Learn how each method works, what to look for, and how these insights can help you determine if your horse’s hindgut and the microbes who live there are healthy, or not!
Podcast #10. Your horse’s hindgut microbes are the key to their health, happiness, and performance. In this episode, you’ll learn the 4 essential feeding rules that support a healthy hindgut—and why those rules matter more than any gut supplement.
Podcast #9. Want to unlock better health and performance for your horse? Start with the gut!
Podcast #8. In this Q&A episode, Dr Nerida tackles real-world feeding challenges: what hay to choose for a horse with ulcers, how to support an anxious mare, and what to feed a Shetland that’s dropping weight (and yes! Who knew this was even possible!!)
Podcast #7. Drought conditions increase the risk of ulcers, sand colic, and digestive upset — but smart feeding can reduce the danger. In this episode, Dr Nerida shares practical tips to keep your horse’s gut safe, happy, and functioning well when forage is scarce.
Is copra meal a good feed for horses?! This has to be one of the most common questions I have been asked in my career. What do I think of copra meal? Let’s dig into that…
Cooking cereal grains before you feed them to your horse is absolutely essential (with the exception of oats). Cooking improves how easy the starch inside the grain is to digest. The starch (the white stuff you can see in the middle of the grain) is the major source of energy contained in grains and it is the single reason we feed cereal grains to horses.
As horse owners, one thing we LOVE is when our horses are well muscled! It looks beautiful AND it is also very functional!
Podcast #4. Did you know that our traditional exercise and management regimes of performance horses can contribute to a decline in bone health? And may even lead to catastrophic bone injury!
Podcast #2. A horse's gastrointestinal tract is unique and complex. In this episode, Dr Nerida demystifies the horse's gut!
Podcast #1. In this episode, Dr Nerida talks about feeding your horse, like a horse... We can't (and shouldn't) fight 55 million years of evolution.
There is a very good reason the saying “You eat like a horse” exists; Horses. Eat. A. Lot!!! The amount of forage you feed your horse has a HUGE impact on the health, welfare, behaviour, gut health and performance of your horse as well as your horse’s risk of diseases like colic and gastric ulcers.
Weanlings are funny little creatures, endlessly curious, prone to mischief and constantly walking the tricky balance between growing fast enough to achieve their genetic potential but not growing so fast that they end up with bone or joint disease.
And because of this balance that must be achieved between growth and skeletal health, their nutrition can be challenging.
Did you know that horses WILL NOT show you they are in pain until the pain is so bad they can no longer hide it!
Abstract: Cereal grains do not form part of the natural diet of equines, however, results from an initial survey conducted, suggest that horses in the Australian thoroughbred industry are currently being fed on average about 7 kg of grain concentrate/day. Horses are not well equipped to digest the starch from cereal grains in the small intestine and as a consequence, the hindgut fermentation of starch, which may lead to hindgut lactic acidosis and diseases such as laminitis, is an evident problem in the thoroughbred industry.
Feeding a horse confined to a stable is a balancing act! You need to balance between giving them plenty to eat, to keep them chewing, happy and occupied… AND not giving them so much to eat that you have them bursting with energy and climbing the walls. Here is a little help on how to do it!
Oats and horses are well made for one another. Of all of the cereal grains we can feed to horses, oats are the only grain that can be fed safely without being cooked.