Feeding Practices and Nutrient Intakes Among Elite Show Jumpers

Dietary Transitions Toward Sustainable Horse Feeding

Sustainability is the balancing act of optimizing the use of current resources without compromising the current or future environment. Within the agriculture sector the primary focus of sustainability has been to reduce environmental pollution, specifically greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions, nitrogen emissions, and leaching. For the equine industry the first step towards sustainability is the documentation and critique of current feeding and management practices to permit modifications to enable the industry meet social and legislative obligations. As a monogastric hindgut fermenter on a per kg bodyweight basis the horse has relatively lower GHG emissions compared to ruminants. However, there are several opportunities to further reduce the environmental impact of the equine industry. The majority of these relate to subtle changes, or consideration of, improving feed conversion, using alternative ingredients, and management of fecal material associated with intensive husbandry. To initiate the journey towards sustainability this review documents opportunities with current equine feeding and management practices to reduce the environmental impacts of the equine industry.

A Survey of Pennsylvania Horse Management: Part One-Nutrition

Various aspects of nutritional management can impact both a horse's gastrointestinal (GI) health and caretaker costs. The objective of this study was to characterize the feeding management and GI issues of horses in Pennsylvania (PA). An online survey was distributed from February 27th to August 31st, 2020. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests were used to analyze the data. Nonparametric statistics were used when data were not normally distributed. From 470 responses collected, the average horse age was 15.7 ± 7.5 years, and the most common breeds were the Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred. Of the 345 horses who received premixed feed, 81% were fed on a volume basis. Most horses (95%) received hay on a volume basis, and 57% of horses were fed hay on the ground rather than in a feeder. No difference was detected in the number of scoops of premixed feed (median = 2; P = .284) or the flakes of hay per day (median = 5.7; P = .765) between horses in different exercise categories. The frequency of reported GI issues was 10% (46/470). Owner perceived, veterinary perceived, and veterinary diagnosed ulcers were found in 2.3%, 4%, and 2.3% of horses, respectively. No statistical difference was detected in the number of scoops of premixed feed fed per day between horses with or without GI issues (P = .536). Horses were provided the same amount of premixed feed and forage regardless of reported exercise category. Most equine caretakers fed concentrates on volume rather than weight, a common practice despite most feeding requirements being based on feed weights.