HORSE NUTRITION

I recently attended the Purina Nutrition Seminar concerning “how to feed a horse.” I spent three days becoming better educated concerning the nutrition of horses. Nutrition varies for each horse depending on size, breed, use, and health. Horses are herbivores. That means horses eat plants. Plants are carbohydrates. There are nonstructural carbohydrates, such as simple sugars. There are structural carbohydrates that allow the plant to stand tall, and, are carbohydrates high in fiber. Fiber is an important component of the horses diet because the hind gut acts as a fermentation vat and produces volatile fatty acids used for glucose production. A horses feed can be composed of protein, fat and carbohydrates. Purina feeds are so diverse in the percentage of protein, carbohydrates and fat, that it is difficult to know which feed to choose for your horse. After attending this nutrition conference three times over the last ten years, I now feel comfortable offering Nutrition Consults. Why Purina? Purina is my choice because they have a farm committed to compassionate research, offer a variety of feeds for individual horse needs, support the veterinarian in education and individual consultations, and realize that NUTRITION CAN REMEDY DISEASE. Remember: “YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT” AND “YOU ARE WHAT YOU DO NOT EXCRETE.”