The Equine Connection Podcast

Managing Horses in the Heat

Entering the hotter months of the year can be a cause of concern for many horse owners. As ambient temperatures rise and  humidity increases you may be wondering how best you can manage your horses. In this week's podcast we address this topic and more. First, we discuss how horses respond to heat and how it can induce heat stress. We then address at what temperatures and humidity can stress a horse and how owners should respond. We also discuss a horse's body temperature and what the danger zones are and how you should respond. We then talk about how horses regulate their own body temperature in response to the heat. This is primarily by sweating, so we explain what this means for your horse and also how this can affect their health and nutrition. Obviously water is the main concern with horses in the heat and we give some general tips. Then addressing the topic of electrolytes, which are one of the nutritional categories linked to horses and sweat, and we explain what these are and how you can replenish them in the horses diet. Finally, we give some general tips on how best to support your animals during the hottest months of the year. 

You can learn more about these topics by visiting our expertise page HERE

If you have any questions or concerns about your own horse, please contact us HERE

This podcast was brought to you by Tribute Superior Equine Nutrition

Read that Feed Tag

Feed tags provide critical nutritional information for the horse owner. In this week's podcast we talk about what is printed on the feed tag and why that information should interest you. On the feed tag are bits of information like what class of horse the feed is specifically formulated for, the ingredients within the feed, and then some guaranteed values of certain nutritional components. Which values are included is encompassed in what is called a "guaranteed analysis." We describe what exactly this means and how those values are determined. We then discuss why certain nutrients are included, which will vary by regulatory agencies and feed company. Then we give some advice on how to read into the ingredients to determine feed quality. 

You can learn more about these topics by visiting our expertise page HERE

If you have any questions or concerns about your own horse, please contact us HERE

This podcast was brought to you by Tribute Superior Equine Nutrition

Underfeeding your Horse

While it is more common for owners to overfeed their horses, some may actually underfeed them. This can be due to an owner wanting to encourage weight loss, or even mistakenly underfeed them without realizing it. This week we discuss just why your horse needs some supplemental nutritional on top of their hay diet. We first discuss how a horse's basic nutritional needs are determined. Since all horse diets starts with forage, we briefly discuss which important nutrients they receive from forage and then which nutrients most hays are deficient in. This helps explain why a concentrate should be a part of every horse's diet and how sometimes owners might accidently, or consciously, underfeed it. We talk about the consequences of underfeeding your horse and how being deficient in certain nutrients can hurt a horse's performance. Finally, we give some tips on feeding your horse and how a horse's nutritional needs can change under different conditions. 

You can learn more about these topics by visiting our expertise page HERE

If you have any questions or concerns about your own horse, please contact us HERE

This podcast was brought to you by Tribute Superior Equine Nutrition

 

Costs of Feeding Your Horse

The costs associated with feeding a horse are one of the more expensive parts of being a horse owner. Thus, it is no wonder owners are rightly concerned about the costs of their feed. This week, we start off discussing the differences in forage and why some may be more expensive than others. We also talk about how costs can differ with hay quality or even how hay is sold, i.e. round bales versus square bales. Then we highlight that the selection of a hay can impact what else in the diet the horse will need to meet their daily nutritional needs. We then jump into the costs per day in different concentrates. There are so many considerations when selecting the proper concentrate for your horse. For simplicity, we compared lower quality feeds to higher quality feeds. We address what some of the major differences are between these feeds and then compare their costs. While costs normally do not differ very much between feeds, the nutrients included in their formulations do. We finish off the podcast addressing the inclusion of supplements in a diet. Supplements are costly and can dramatically increase the daily costs of feeding your horse. Thus, we give advice on how best to stretch your feed budget to ensure your horse remains healthy and happy.  

You can learn more about these topics by visiting our expertise page HERE

If you have any questions or concerns about your own horse, please contact us HERE

This podcast was brought to you by Tribute Superior Equine Nutrition

Building a Horse's Topline

For decades the Body Condition Scoring (BCS) system has been the gold standard for evaluating a horse’s nutritional status. However, it doesn't give a complete picture. This week we discuss why a horse’s topline muscling is important when evaluating your horse’s diet. Many factors do influence topline muscling in a horse and we discuss which ones we can manage, particularly diet. For example, the BCS system evaluates the energy in a horse’s diet, but misses other components such as protein, or more specifically, the amino acids in the feed. Thus, we discuss why not only protein is important, but also why feeding different types of protein is critical. We also talk about the different sources of protein and how they can influence your horse's muscling. Finally, we give suggestions on how to approach the topline of a horse with your easy and hard keepers and other important tips. 

You can access the Tribute Wellness System and see the different topline scores HERE

You can learn more about these topics by visiting our expertise page HERE

If you have any questions or concerns about your own horse, please contact us HERE

This podcast was brought to you by Tribute Superior Equine Nutrition

Feeding Underweight Horses

While many horses are considered overweight and are considered easy keepers, often owners will have horses that are difficult to maintain weight and are considered hard keepers. We provide a brief review of the Henneke Body Condition Scoring System and also discuss the Tribute Wellness System. Together, they can be used to evaluate how well your horses are doing with their diets. We discuss what could be considered an underweight horse and what nutrients these horses may be lacking in the diet. Then our focus switched to just how to feed an underweight horse to bring them back into a proper body condition. Like any diet evaluation, this starts with a horse’s forage portion of the diet. High quality forage is always important for any horse. Then when evaluating the concentrate portion of the diet, we discuss many important considerations for horse owners. Throughout the podcast we give tips and advice on how best to manage the diet of these "hard keepers". Finally, it is worth for extreme cases with horses that are in a very low body condition (BCS 1-2); these animals will need a special refeeding program. In these instances we urge you to seek advice from your veterinarian and you can also reach out to us for help. 

You can access the Tribute Wellness System HERE

You can learn more about these topics by visiting our expertise page HERE

If you have any questions or concerns about your own horse, please contact us HERE

This podcast was brought to you by Tribute Superior Equine Nutrition

Feeding Overweight Horses

It is estimated that over 50% of horses in the United States are overweight. In this week’s podcast we discuss how to adjust your diets to reduce a horse's weight safely. We start off with discussing how to diagnose if your horse is overweight. We then provide a brief review of the Body Condition Scoring System and what is the healthy range for horses. When adjusting diets for any horse it can be tricky. Thus, we outline some basics for owners to consider with regards to adjusting the concentrate and forage portions of their overweight horse’s diets. Since all diets are based on forage, we do spend some time on discussing how to adjust this portion of an overweight horse’s diet. It is also important to remember that even high quality forage can not meet all of a horse’s daily nutrient requirements. So even overweight horses will generally need a supplemental feed, usually in the form of a ration balancer, and we explain why this is important. Finally, we give some other tips and tricks to help your overweight horses get back to a healthy body condition.

You can learn more about these topics by visiting our expertise page HERE

If you have any questions or concerns about your own horse, please contact us HERE

This podcast was brought to you by Tribute Superior Equine Nutrition

 

Focus on Foals

This week we transition from the mare to the foal. For our foals, their nutrition starts with the mare. What you feed the mare has direct consequences for her offspring as she passes those nutrients through her milk. Then  as foals begin eating solids, mimicking mom, this has some implications to their nutrition. Thus, we highlight why it is important to remember that foals cannot digest plant-based proteins until at least three months old and explain why owners should be feeding their young foals (< 3 months of age) milk-based protein feeds. Orphan foals are a rare occurrence and we explain how to transition them to a creep feed, and then explain what exactly creep feeding is. Then we jump into Developmental Orthopedic Disorders and Dr. Rambo explains what exactly DODs are. She also explains how to design a feeding program for your foals and suggests what feeds you should and should not be feeding. We finish off this episode discussing signs you can monitor to ensure your foals are growing properly.

You can learn more about these topics by visiting our expertise page HERE

If you have any questions or concerns about your own horse, please contact us HERE

This podcast was brought to you by Tribute Superior Equine Nutrition

 

Focus on Broodmares

This week we focus on the broodmare and discuss why she requires special care and attention. Broodmares are especially interesting because they go through so many tremendous changes through gestation and then immediately following parturition. During gestation, broodmares require careful management as they provide critical nutrients to the foal. We specially focus on why owners need to be careful on what they are feeding as it has major implications on offspring wellbeing. Then once she has given birth, her nutritional demands dramatically increase as she shifts to lactation. Therefore, we discuss feeding strategies on how to help her through this post pregnancy pregnancy and support her as she provides important milk for her foal. Finally, as the goal for most broodmare operations is to get the mare rebred and pregnant for the following year, we highlight some important considerations for owners to consider. 

You can learn more about these topics by visiting our expertise page HERE

If you have any questions or concerns about your own horse, please contact us HERE

This podcast was brought to you by Tribute Superior Equine Nutrition

 

Fly Control for your Horses

During the spring is the time of year when flies begin to reemerge and start to pester our horses.  In this podcast we first provide an overview of the types of flies that bother our horses. Flies are also a concern because they can even harm our horses through the spread of disease. From a nutritional point of view, flies can lead to loss of body condition. Horses can and often do suffer stress from flies by either the fly pestering them through it's constant buzzing, feeding off the horse's secretions like around the eyes, and even from biting them. All in all, flies are a major nuisance to horses and horse owners alike. Thus, in this episode we focus much of our discussion on fly control. With all the tools available to horse owners, one newer area are the introduction of fly feed through products. We describe what exactly these are and how they work.

Tribute offers Essential K with fly control and you can learn more HERE

You can learn more about these topics by visiting our expertise page HERE

If you have any questions or concerns about your own horse, please contact us HERE

This podcast was brought to you by Tribute Superior Equine Nutrition