Happy Horse Nutrition

Can lunging your horse actually be harder work than riding? Does speed strengthen bones or damage them? And could restricting calories make an already good-doing horse even thriftier?

Coming to you from Tokyo, Japan, Dr Nerida is joined by equine exercise physiologist Dr Brian Nielsen and researcher Renee Harbowy to unpack some of the fascinating science presented at the 12th International Conference on Equine Exercise Physiology (ICEEP).

After five days, around 80 research presentations and some very full brains, the three sit down to share the research that caught their attention, challenged their thinking, and might just change the way we feed, train and manage our horses.

They explore new research on lunging and exercise intensity, the complicated relationship between speed, bone strength and injury risk, why training young horses isn't necessarily a bad thing, and how mitochondria respond to calorie restriction — with some interesting implications for managing overweight horses.

Of course, there's plenty of horse nutrition too, including the relationship between grain feeding, hindgut health and racing performance, with a look at some fascinating data presented from Ciaron Maher Racing.

It's a slightly different episode, with plenty of science, a few laughs and a behind-the-scenes look at what happens when you put a couple of hundred equine researchers in a room together for a week.

And perhaps most importantly, it's a reminder that good horse management rarely comes down to just one thing, and that behind the science is a whole community of researchers working incredibly hard to make life better for our horses.

Learn more about the 2026 International Conference on Equine Exercise Physiology (ICEEP), Tokyo, Japan:
https://iceep2026.org/

📲 Download the MyHappy.Horse nutrition app to check your horse’s diet is properly balanced ⁠https://apps.apple.com/au/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324⁠

💖 And if you found this episode helpful, please follow the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast and share it with a horse owning friend 🙏🏼

Orla is back for another Happy Horse Nutrition Q&A, although this one very quickly becomes a reverse Q&A, a Pony Camp debrief and a collection of slightly random, but useful, horse nutrition observations.

We talk about a stomach with a pH of 1.2, why water matters more for gastric health than we sometimes give it credit for, and how Dr Nerida, yes the PhD equine nutritionist, managed to give her own horse colic!

Nerida and Orla also revisit straw for horses with EMS and weight issues, why the right low-energy forage is essential for feeding hay 24/7, and why it is so essential to feed a properly balanced diet when using straw.

Then they head back down the ryegrass rabbit hole with a fascinating real-world case of a horse showing extreme behavioural changes on ryegrass pasture, and what happened when his owner added a targeted mycotoxin binder.

Plus horse drinking habits, Pony Camp survival, and apparently… kangaroos can get staggers too.

As always, there’s science, horse geekery, plenty of side tracks and lots of laughs plus hopefully a few things that make you look at the way your own horse eats, drinks and behaves just a little differently.

📲 To check your horse’s diet and KNOW you are feeding right, download the MyHappy.Horse app ⁠https://apps.apple.com/au/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324⁠

💛 We’d love if you would leave us a rating, follow the show and share this episode with a friend, it truly helps us get this information in front of more horse owners.

🩺 And if you’d like to get in touch with Orla, Orla.lyons@randlab.com.au

Ever looked at the feeding recommendations on a bag of horse feed or a bucket of supplements and wondered who decides how much you should feed? And do you really need to follow them?

In this episode of the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast, Dr Nerida takes you behind the scenes of horse feed and supplement formulation, drawing on more than 25 years of experience developing products and writing the feeding recommendations that appear on their labels.

You will learn why some feeds recommend feeding large amounts while others recommend very little, how those feeding rates are calculated, and why feeding less than the recommended amount could leave your horse short of essential vitamins and minerals.

We also explore what happens when you combine fortified feeds with vitamin and mineral supplements, why a 30 g supplement isn't necessarily better or worse than a 150 g supplement, and why feeding half the recommended dose of a gut health or hoof supplement might mean you're wasting your money.

Plus, what should you do if your horse gets fat on the recommended feeding rate, or needs more feed than the manufacturer suggests?

And Nerida mentions several times that the best way to know exactly what your horse is getting from its diet, is to run an diet analysis thorugh MyHappy.Horse, the equine nutrition app designed to help you feed with confidence and accuracy!

You can check out MyHappy.Horse here 🩵
https://apps.apple.com/au/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324

Knowing better is one thing. Actually changing what we do is something else entirely. In Part 2 of this conversation, Dr Nerida and veterinarian and social worker Dr Katherine Goldberg go deeper into the very human reasons horse management practices can be so hard to change.

They use one of the simplest horse welfare changes as the perfect case study: feeding hay before you ride. Why does something so easy, with such clear benefits for our horses around gastric health, comfort and behaviour, still meet resistance?

Then Nerida and Katherine jump back on after Pony Camp for a real-world update and put the psychology into practice, looking at decisional balance, why being the only person doing something differently can feel hard, and why sometimes the best way to create change is simply to keep modelling the better way, loudly and positively.

Connect with Dr Katherine Goldberg Dr Katherine works with horse owners through Horses First Stewardship, helping people navigate horse care, feeding, track systems and those tricky situations where you know something needs to change, but you’re not quite sure what to do next.

Website: ⁠https://www.horsesfirststewardship.com⁠ Email: ⁠horsesfirststewardship@gmail.com

Why is it that we can be told something is better for our horse... and still find it incredibly hard to change what we do?

In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, Dr Nerida is joined again by Dr Katherine Goldberg, veterinarian and social worker, to turn the microscope away from the horse for a moment and onto the humans making the decisions.

Because improving horse welfare and horse nutrition isn’t always as simple as giving people better information. Human behaviour is messy. We have habits, beliefs, identities, fears, practical limitations and social pressures, and sometimes the benefits of staying exactly where we are feel bigger than the benefits of changing, even when the science is telling us otherwise.

Dr Katherine walks us through the psychology of behaviour change, including readiness for change, decisional balance and why some people simply aren’t ready to hear a new message yet.

And then there’s information overload: the vet says one thing, the trainer says another, Facebook says something else again, and suddenly doing nothing feels easier than working out who to believe.

If you’ve ever wondered why you or the horse people around you resist change, why better information isn’t always enough, or why knowing better doesn’t automatically mean doing better, this episode is for you.

Part 2 continues next week.

Connect with Dr Katherine Goldberg
Dr Katherine works with horse owners through Horses First Stewardship, helping people navigate horse care, feeding, track systems and those tricky situations where you know something needs to change, but you’re not quite sure what to do next.

Website: https://www.horsesfirststewardship.com/
Email: horsesfirststewardship@gmail.com

Bentley had been a healthy horse for years, until an injury, prolonged antibiotic treatment and a cascade of gut problems changed everything. Persistent colic, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, gastric ulcers and gas eventually led us to look more closely at his hindgut microbiome.

In this episode, Dr Nerida shares Bentley’s roller-coaster ride case study, from microbiome testing and low microbial diversity, through increasing dietary fibre diversity and two faecal microbiota transplants (FMT), to the gradual return of a comfortable, happy horse. We also look at free faecal water, faecal pH, vitamin B2, fibre-fermenting bacteria and what Bentley’s before-and-after microbiome results might tell us about equine dysbiosis, gut health and colic risk.

It’s a brilliant example of just how complex the horse hindgut is, and how much we still have to learn about rebuilding a disrupted microbiome. Have a listen and be sure to hang on for the highs and the lows of Bentley’s story ❤️

Big thanks to Bentley's beautiful owner Saskia for allowing us to their incredible story! 🙏🏼🥰

When it comes to fuelling performance, muscle glycogen and grain feeding get most of the attention, but that’s only half of the story.

In this episode, Dr Nerida breaks down the dual fuel tank theory of performance horse nutrition: the finite store of muscle glycogen used for speed and high-intensity work, and the continuous supply of energy in the form of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) produced via fibre fermentation in the hindgut.

We explore how these two fuel systems work together, how forage is an essential performance fuel, how the VFA acetate contributes directly to working muscle energy, and why overfeeding grain can undermine the hindgut fuel system that helps horses conserve glycogen for when they really need it.

If you feed a racehorse, eventer, polo horse, endurance horse or other high-level athlete, this episode offers a different way to think about the way you structure your diets around forage and grain, to maximise muscle glycogen, gut health and performance.

This episode is proudly brought to you by EquiGI's microbiom analysis, order a test kit at https://www.equigi.com

📲 Download the MyHappy.Horse nutrition app to check your horse’s energy intake and build better, more balanced performance horse diets https://apps.apple.com/au/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324

💛 Follow the podcast for more practical, science-based horse nutrition. And we’d love you to share this episode with a fellow performance horse owner or trainer to help them feed for better performance.

Has your horse suddenly become anxious, spooky, reactive or unpredictable... despite being normally calm and sensible?

In this episode, Dr Nerida explores how perennial ryegrass mycotoxins can affect horse behaviour, coordination and performance. Learn about lolitrem B and ergovaline, the toxins associated with ryegrass staggers, tremors, hypersensitivity, exaggerated startle responses, heat intolerance and dramatic behavioural changes.

We also look at when perennial ryegrass pasture and hay pose the greatest risk, how quickly horses may improve once exposure stops, and whether mycotoxin binders can actually help.

If your horse seems to have had a sudden “personality transplant”, their pasture or hay may be worth a closer look and this episode is definitely worth a listen!

Testing pasture or hay for perennial ryegrass toxins

Australia: Southern Scientific Services, Hamilton VIC – pasture toxin testing including lolitrem B and ergovaline. Phone 0408 363 061. Contact the laboratory before collecting/sending samples for current sampling instructions.

USA: Oregon State University Endophyte Service Laboratory – quantitative testing for lolitrem B and ergovaline in pasture, hay and feed. https://emt.oregonstate.edu/endophyte-lab

📲 For help balancing your horse's diet, download the MyHappy.Horse App https://apps.apple.com/au/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324

💖 If you found this episode helpful, please follow the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast and share it with a horse owning friend who is struggling with their horse's behaviour.

🌟 And we'd love you to leave us a rating and review, it helps us help more horse owners to find practical, science-based nutrition advice.

How high can the starch content of clover really get? Can lupins be too high in protein? And does adding lots of different fibre sources actually help your horse’s hindgut microbiome?

In this Q&A episode, Dr Nerida and Orla unpack a mix of practical horse nutrition questions, including clover and insulin dysregulation, faba beans and resistant starch, high-protein diets, gastric ulcers, and why even a skinny horse can still be metabolically at risk.

They also explore one of the biggest emerging areas in equine nutrition: forage diversity and the gut microbiome and how much ingredient variety may be enough to make a meaningful difference to the microbiome.

Plenty of practical feeding advice, a few fun rabbit holes on human and ruminant nutrition, and one genuinely scary clover statistic!

📲 To check your horse’s diet and KNOW you are feeding right, download the MyHappy.Horse app ⁠https://apps.apple.com/au/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324⁠

💛 We’d love if you would leave us a rating, follow the show and share this episode with a friend, it truly helps us get this information in front of more horse owners.

🩺 And if you’d like to get in touch with Orla, Orla.lyons@randlab.com.au

Did you know the microbes living in your horse’s hindgut may be influencing how well they perform?

In this episode, Dr Nerida explores research linking hindgut microbiome diversity, fibre fermentation and performance in horses. We look at studies in Thoroughbreds and trotters showing that higher microbial diversity and greater fibre-fermenting capacity are associated with better racing performance, while greater starch fermentation is linked with poorer performance.

You’ll also learn practical ways to support a healthier, more diverse microbiome through forage, fibre diversity and smarter grain feeding.

Whether you own a racehorse, performance horse or simply want to support better gut health, this episode may leave you in a state of mind-bogglement… which will make perfect sense once you listen. 😂💛

Research mentioned in this episode

Leng et al. (2024)
Early-life gut bacterial community structure predicts disease risk and athletic performance in horses bred for racing
Scientific Reports, 14:17124
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-64657-6

Park et al. (2024)
Comparison of the fecal microbiota with high- and low performance race horses
Journal of Animal Science and Technology, 66(2):425–437
https://doi.org/10.5187/jast.2023.e45

Vasseur et al. (2024)
Fibrolytic efficiency of the large intestine microbiota may benefit running speed in French trotters: A pilot study
Physiological Reports, 12(21)
https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.70110

Hansen et al. (2015)
High nutrient availability reduces the diversity and stability of the equine caecal microbiota
Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease, 26:27216
https://doi.org/10.3402/mehd.v26.27216

Grimm et al. (2020)
Dietary composition and yeast/microalgae combination supplementation modulate the microbial ecosystem in the caecum, colon and faeces of horses
British Journal of Nutrition, 123(4):372–382
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114519002824

Managing a laminitis-prone horse through spring can feel like a full-time job! Especially when pasture non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) levels can change dramatically with the weather.

In this episode, Dr Nerida and Orla talk through the practical realities of managing horses with laminitis and insulin dysregulation, including why frosty nights and sunny days can make spring pasture particularly risky, when grass is likely to be safest to graze, and how grazing muzzles, strip grazing and low-NSC hay can help.

They also discuss clover, forage testing, nitrate risk, exercise and insulin sensitivity, and the challenge of keeping horses eating enough fibre while still controlling calorie and sugar intake.

A useful follow-up to our conversation with Dr Luke Wells-Smith, for anyone navigating laminitis and spring pasture with a metabolic horse or pony.

🤖 If you have questions about laminitis, or any other feeding and nutrition related question, give Dr Nerida AI a go: https://www.myhappy.horse/nerida-ai

💛 And to really look in detail at your horse’s diet, download the MyHappy.Horse nutrition app: https://apps.apple.com/au/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324

In this episode, Dr Nerida is joined by Dr Luke Wells-Smith, dual qualified equine veterinarian and farrier, for a unique perspective on laminitis.

Dr Luke unpacks what’s happening inside the hoof during laminitis, the early warning signs horse owners can watch for, insulin dysregulation, digital pulses and hoof growth rings.

Nerida and Luke also get into nutrition, misleading “grain-free” feed labels, beet pulp, the microbiome, and why identifying and controlling the underlying cause of laminitis is so critical.

A fun and practical conversation for anyone wanting to better understand laminitis and protect their horse’s hooves.

You can find Dr Luke Wells-Smith at the Motion Equine Centre:
https://www.motion-equine.com.au/

Telehealth consultations with Dr Luke Wells-Smith:
https://motion-equine.com.au/telehealth

What are the best ingredients for helping a horse gain weight safely?

In this episode, PhD equine nutritionist Dr Nerida explains why lucerne (alfalfa), full-fat soybean, lupins, sugar beet pulp and copra meal are five of her favourite horse weight-gain ingredients.

Discover how each ingredient supplies energy, fermentable fibre or quality protein, and how the right combination can help horses build body condition and muscle without simply relying on more grain.

You’ll also learn why hindgut health matters, when high-protein feeds can become problematic, how to use these ingredients safely and why every weight-gain diet still needs to be properly balanced.

Soycheck test kit for checking whether soybean products contain active trypsin inhibitor: https://cbsbioplatforms.com/Store

Join Dr Nerida and Orla as they discuss how exercise can improve insulin sensitivity. Plus they talk feeding for muscle development, and how whey protein, soybean and leucine play a role.

They also dive into digestive enzymes, why they are being added to more feeds, and how enzymes may help some horses digest starch more efficiently when grain-based feeds are used. This leads into a bigger discussion about diet analysis, nutrient deficiencies, toxicities, misleading “grain-free” labels, and why horse owners need a way to check whether a diet is genuinely safe and balanced.

The episode finishes with musings on raw grain, stomach pH, hindgut pH, gastroscopy, omeprazole, acid rebound, and has a few classic Orla and Nerida side tracks along the way.

📲 To check your horse’s diet and KNOW you are feeding right, download the MyHappy.Horse app ⁠https://apps.apple.com/au/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324⁠

💛 We’d love if you would leave us a rating, follow the show and share this episode with a friend, it truly helps us get this information in front of more horse owners.

🩺 And if you’d like to get in touch with Orla, Orla.lyons@randlab.com.au

Preventing squamous gastric ulcers takes more than just feeding enough forage. In this episode, Dr Nerida explains four additional nutrition strategies: feeding a balanced diet, controlling grain and starch intake, supplying high-quality protein, and using lucerne or alfalfa strategically.

Plus she covers why grain is not automatically the problem, how key nutrients support stomach repair, and why lucerne is so valuable for gut health.

Here are some of the papers referenced:

Effects of feeding alfalfa hay in comparison to meadow hay on the gastric mucosa in adult Warmblood horses https://pferdeheilkunde.de/files/20200105.pdf

Evaluation of diet as a cause of gastric ulcers in horses https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10895901/

Risk factors associated with equine gastric ulceration syndrome (EGUS) in 201 horses in Denmark https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19927579/

📲 For help assessing your horse’s diet and making sure you are feeding a balanced diet to prevent gastric ulcers, download the MyHappy.Horse App https://apps.apple.com/au/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324

💖 If you found this episode helpful we'd be so grateful if you would follow the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast and share it with a horse owning friend who is struggling with gastric ulcers.

🌟 And please leave us a rating and review, it helps us help more horse owners to find practical, science-based nutrition advice.

Gastric ulcers are incredibly common in horses, but before changing feeds or reaching for an ulcer supplement, there are three far more important foundations to get right.

In this episode, Dr Nerida explains why forage is central to preventing equine squamous gastric ulcers and reveals the three practical steps every horse owner should prioritise: feeding enough forage, minimising the time horses spend without something to chew, and feeding hay before, and ideally after, exercise.

You’ll also learn why simply providing hay does not necessarily mean your horse is eating enough, how herd dynamics and restrictive hay nets can reduce forage intake without you actually noticing, and why weighing your horse’s hay may be one of the most useful things you can do for their gastric health.

Here is the link to free full text research study mentioned in the podcast: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/22/3512

📲 For help assessing your horse’s diet and making sure you are feeding enough forage to prevent gastric ulcers, download the MyHappy.Horse App https://apps.apple.com/au/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324

💖 If you found this episode helpful, please follow the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast and share it with a horse owning friend who is struggling with gastric ulcers.

🌟 And we'd love you to leave us a rating and review, it helps us help more horse owners to find practical, science-based nutrition advice.

Orla is back on the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast, and this time she and Dr Nerida are answering listener questions, sharing stories from the behind the gastroscope, and chat themselves down a number of rabbit holes.

In this (very 😂) relaxed Q&A episode, Nerida and Orla talk about sand, gravel and soil in the gut, when psyllium may be useful, and why forage and fibre are so important for helping horses move dirt through the digestive tract. They also discuss the tricky balance between using haynets to slow intake, while still keeping horses comfortable, chewing and ulcer-free.

They answer a listener question about lucerne/alfalfa and whether it is actually too high in sugar for metabolic horses (spoiler alert, it's not but there are so many misconceptions!). Nerida explains why lucerne can be a useful low-NSC forage, and how it can help add protein, calcium and fibre diversity to the diet.

The conversation also wanders into fasting horses for gastroscopy, soaking hay, muscle cramping, potassium, PSSM and HYPP, because one good horse nutrition question always seems to lead to five more 🙈😄.

This is a fun episode with some useful info and interesting stories 💖

💛 If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast and share it with a horse-loving friend 🙏🏼

📲 For help assessing your horse’s diet, download the MyHappy.Horse app ⁠https://apps.apple.com/au/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324⁠.

🩺 And if you’d like to get in touch with Orla, Orla.lyons@randlab.com.au

What really happens inside an off-the-track’s gut when you take away the racing diet and start to rebuild the horse from the hindgut up?

In this episode of the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast, Dr Nerida is joined again by Dr Belinda to talk all about Allay, Nerida’s daughter's beautiful off-the-track Thoroughbred mare, and what happened inside her gut as she transitioned from racehorse life into life after racing.

Allay’s story gives us a rare look at the hindgut microbiome in real life. Over her first 12 months with Nerida, her diet, behaviour, condition and microbiome were tracked, showing what can happen when an off-the-track horse is given time, fibre, forage diversity and the right nutritional support.

Nerida and Belinda unpack how Allay’s microbiome changed over time, why fibre comes first when rebuilding the hindgut, how forage diversity helps support microbial diversity, and why microbiome recovery does not always happen in a perfectly straight line.

They also talk about behaviour, manure, ryegrass curveballs, microbial resilience, and why feeding the microbes in the hindgut is such an important part of supporting the whole horse.

If you own an off-the-track, work with them, or simply want to better understand how the gut can influence condition, health, behaviour and long-term resilience

🐎 To watch Allay's full story, see Allay: The First 12 Months

📲 For help assessing your horse’s diet and building a balanced feeding plan, download the MyHappy.Horse App and let it help you feed with more confidence https://apps.apple.com/au/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324

💖 If you find this episode helpful, please follow the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast and share it with a horse owning friend who is struggling with feeding their OTT.

🌟 And we'd love you to leave us a rating and review so more horse owners can find practical, science-based nutrition advice.

How much does broodmare nutrition really matter?

In this episode, Dr Nerida is joined again by Jess, an equine science student from Charles Sturt University, for a practical Q&A on feeding pregnant (and lactating) broodmares.

They unpack the idea of “feeding for two”, and why pregnant mares do not need large amounts of extra energy and protein from day one, but absolutely do need a balanced diet from the very beginning.

Nerida explains how nutrients such as copper, iodine, calcium, phosphorus, protein and lysine can influence foal development, joint health, milk production and mare condition. The discussion also explores lactation, foal growth rates, the importance of the mare’s microbiome, and why nutrition during pregnancy may have long-term effects on the foal’s health and future performance.

A must-listen episode for breeders, stud staff and horse owners wanting to give mares and foals the best possible start.

📲 Download MyHappy.Horse to help you keep broodmare diets balanced: https://apps.apple.com/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324

🦠 And if you want to look into your broodmare’s microbiome, get in touch with EquiGI - https://www.equigi.com/

Is your horse an “air fern” who seems to gain weight just by looking at grass?

In this episode of the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast, Dr Nerida walks you through how to feed overweight horses and good doers for safe, sustainable weight loss, without leaving them hungry, stressed, nutritionally deficient or at higher risk of problems like gastric ulcers.

Weight loss for good doers is not as simple as “feed less”. In fact, restricting forage too harshly will create serious gut health, welfare and behaviour problems. Instead, Nerida explains how to reduce calorie intake while still keeping your horse chewing, happy and with all of their nutrient requirements met.

You’ll learn the five key steps to feeding horses for weight loss, including remove high-energy feeds, manage access to pasture and high quality hay, use low-calorie forages like mature grass hay and straw, balance vitamins and minerals correctly, and how exercise and winter can make such a difference.

This episode also covers practical tools for managing laminitis-prone , insulin-dysregulated , cresty-necked and easy keeper horses, including use of forage testing, slow feeders, track systems, controlled grazing and the importance of measuring body condition, body weight and cresty neck score over time.

If you have agood doer or an overweight horse that needs to lose weight safely, this episode will help you understand how to create a weight loss diet that protects gut health, supports the hindgut microbiome and keeps your horse (and you!) as happy as possible.

📲 Download the MyHappy.Horse nutrition app to check your horse’s calorie intake and make sure your weight loss diet is properly balanced https://apps.apple.com/au/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324 ⁠

💖 If you found this episode helpful, please follow the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast and share it with a horse owning friend who is struggling with getting their air fern to lose some weight!.

🌾 And here is Sammy Julliand’s work on hay assessment using the human senses https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751731118003725