Podcast #44. Track systems (perimeter grazing systems) can look deceptively simple… but when they’re designed well, they deliver something horses are wired for: friends, freedom, and forage… with movement built in.

In this episode, Dr Nerida is joined by the wonderful Dr Katherine Goldberg (DVM, LCSW), a veterinarian and clinical social worker,  to unpack what “species-appropriate husbandry” actually means in the real world, and why track systems aren’t just a “weight loss tool” for good doers, but a way we can help horses to live in a way that truly honours their needs.

Podcast #43. Free faecal water (aka free fecal water / free fecal liquid) is one of those horse problems that looks “not that bad” on paper… until you’re on wash-duty for the 14th time and your horse’s skin is angry, sore, and stained. 🐴💦

In this episode of the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast, Dr Nerida McGilchrist unpacks why FFW is suddenly being talked about everywhere — from first hearing it at a conference in Dijon (2016) to seeing it dominate conversations at AAEP Denver (2025).

Podcast #42. What happens when your horses live on mostly straw for 10 days… and one of them decides to protest with full-blown diarrhoea? 😅 In this Q&A-style catch-up, Dr Nerida and Orla unpack a very relatable “whoops” moment and use it to teach one of the most overlooked fundamentals in horse gut health: fibre diversity.

I was CoaCoa’s everything - her caretaker, her protector, her teammate. My brothers pranked me constantly, but they NEVER messed with anything related to my horse. They knew better. I was fiercely protective of her, and honestly? She was my best friend.

We competed in camp drafting and barrel racing, and god, we were GOOD. When CoaCoa was on, we won. She was fast, she was brave, and she tried her heart out for me every single time.

But something wasn’t right.

Podcast #41. Feeding an Off The Track (OTT) in the first 12 months can be a worry inducing juggle… appetite, behaviour, ulcers and those classic “why won’t you hold weight?” situations. In this episode of the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast, Dr Nerida shares her practical approach to feeding OTTs in their first year off the track so they can settle, digest fibre properly, and become easier to keep long-term.

Podcast #40. NSC is one of those three-letter acronyms that pops up on feed bags and hay reports… and consistently manages to confuse even the most dedicated horse owners. In this episode of the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast, Dr Nerida McGilchrist unpacks Non-Structural Carbohydrates (NSC) in a practical, horse-owner-friendly way, looking at what NSC actually is (starch + water soluble carbohydrates), how it relates to WSC, whether we should be using WSC or ESC to calculate NSC (see, it gets confusing!), and why that “fructan piece” matters for both laminitis risk and the hindgut microbiome.

Podcast #39. A horse that won’t eat isn’t being “fussy”… it’s a red flag. In this episode of the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast, Dr Nerida, PhD equine nutritionist and founder of the MyHappy.Horse app, breaks down the most common nutrition-related reasons horses go off their feed, what they look like in real life, and what actually helps.

We cover hindgut disturbance (including hindgut acidosis) and the appetite knock-on effects, including the destruction of  vitamin B1, why some horses go off grain but still eat hay, and how faecal/manure pH can be a handy monitoring tool (with the key low-pH threshold to watch).

Podcast #38. In this episode of the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast, Dr Nerida tackles a pasture risk that catches many good horse owners out: high-oxalate warm-season grasses that can block calcium absorption, slowly weaken bone, and set horses up for nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism (Bighead disease).

You’ll learn the simple physiology behind it (the “bone calcium bank” concept), why blood calcium can look normal even when bones are being depleted, and the real-world signs that are easy to misread; shifting lameness, sore or grumpy behaviour, odd gait, skull changes, loud breathing noise under work, dental issues and poor hoof quality.

Podcast #37. Feeding horses during emergencies (bushfires, floods, storms, evacuations) can quickly become a “take what you can get” situation, but the choices you make in your makeshift feed room can determine whether your horse copes… or tips into dehydration, gastric ulcers, hindgut dysbiosis, colic, or even laminitis. In this practical episode of the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast, PhD equine nutritionist Dr Nerida shares her approach to natural disaster horse feeding with one core rule: keep the diet as close to normal as possible.

Summer is coming! And with it, for some of us, so are HOT days and high humidity! And the combination of these climactic factors puts significant pressure on our horses to stay cool.

Your horse’s primary method of cooling is evaporative cooling, which requires them to sweat. And in order to sweat, they need they need electrolytes.

Without enough electrolytes, they stop sweating and overheat. If they overheat, the results can be deadly. So it is critical that you make sure your horse has enough of the electrolyte minerals to get them safely through summer!

While seeing a healthy foal raised successfully by its dam is every breeder’s goal, unfortunately situations do arise where foals are unable to be suckled by their mothers and alternatives must be found.

Whether the foal was orphaned due to complications during delivery, the mare is unable or unwilling to raise the foal or the foal needs to be weaned early to reduce the stress placed on its dam, an alternative source of milk and maternal care must be found.

Gut health has sprung to the forefront of popular topics in the world of horse nutrition in the last decade. And the number of gut health supplements on the market has exploded.

With good reason. For gut health is THE foundation of horse health.

Your horse’s gut controls everything from feed digestion and your horse’s ability to maintain weight, right through to behaviour, immune function, muscle energy generation and hoof health, as well as a plethora of other health parameters including things as unlikely as bone and lung health!

Podcast #36. Should you feed before you ride? After? Or let your horse graze along the trail? 🐴 In this myth-busting Q&A, Dr Nerida and Orla tackle some feeding folklore that just won’t die. Learn why lucerne before exercise protects the stomach from acid splash, why water restriction after work is probably just a Black Beauty hangover, and how letting horses snack mid-ride actually supports gut health.

Podcast #35. Forage sits at the very heart of equine nutrition—yet for most horse owners, the numbers on a hay or pasture analysis can feel like a foreign language. In this deep-dive episode of the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast, Dr Nerida sits down with Anthony Balzer and Kimberly Detmers from Feed Central and Local Ag for an eye-opening conversation about what’s really in our forage, how much it changes, and why testing matters more than most people realise.

Podcast #34. To kick off Season 2 (2026), we’re re-sharing our most listened-to Season 1 episode of the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast — and it’s a classic for a reason. In this practical, science-backed starter episode, PhD equine nutritionist Dr Nerida breaks down what it really means to feed your horse like a horse, using evolution and gut physiology to help you understand and make modern feeding choices that truly honour your horse’s gastrointestinal physiology.

Podcast #33. To wrap up 2025, we’re resharing our most popular guest interview from Season 1 — and it’s a favourite for good reason. In this episode, microbiology expert Dr Belinda Chapman and Dr Nerida take us inside your horse’s hindgut ecosystem. Together, they look at what the microbiome actually is, why horses rely on microbes far more than we do, and how the balance between the fibre-loving “good guys” and the weedy, greedy starch-fermenters can influence everything from digestion and energy production to health, performance, and behaviour.

Podcast #32. In this last new episode for 2025, professional equine nutritionist Dr Nerida shares five ingredients she loves using in real-world diets, and five she tries hard to avoid (including a couple she’d happily see disappear from horse feeds altogether). Listen as Dr Nerida frames nutrition the way she actually practices it — like a big jigsaw puzzle. No magic ingredient, no perfect feed… just smart puzzle pieces put together in the right way to support horses and to honour the physiology of their ancient gut.

Podcast #31. When a horse presents with ulcers, colic risk, poor performance, slow healing,  unexplained weight change or a plethora of other health conditions, nutrition may be part of the story—even if it isn’t the primary cause. In this episode, Dr Nerida, PhD shares a practical, vet-friendly framework for a rapid field assessment of diet: the same fast mental checklist nutritionists run through when they first meet a case.

Podcast #30. The racing world is changing — and happily, it’s science leading the charge.

Dr Nerida and Orla return to unpack the data from Ciaron Maher Racing’s nutrition overhaul: less grain, more fibre, and a healthier, happier gut. Learn how high-fibre feeding transforms energy systems, why “the slump” after a diet change is worth pushing through, and what 12 months of microbiome testing revealed about real equine gut adaptation.

Last month, we covered the most important priorities when feeding during drought, which are; 1. to keep horses physically and mentally healthy by providing LOTS of forage in the form of hay and other types of fibre or forage; and 2. to meet your horse’s need for nutrients.

Essentially, you need to fill them up, keep them chewing and keep their weight on!

This however is only part of the picture when it comes to drought feeding. Your next priority when feeding during drought is to prevent the diseases that drought increases the risk of.