Are there any free, quality resources you all would recommend for brushing up on the topic of equine nutrition? I took animal nutrition classes in college, but unfortunately don’t remember as much as I’d like. I’m looking for something beyond the basics. Thanks!
I got a lot of great help from a Purina sales rep who stops out at our boarding barn every month. I know it is self-serving for them, but he helped us make a successful plan for putting weight on our horse and had good recommendations for the others. Just a thought.
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Thanks! I’m interested in learning more about how to improve my own horse’s diet, but also just general information about equine nutrition! Unfortunately I don’t believe a sales rep comes to my barn, but good thought!
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There are also good resources from university extension offices!
I just recently started listening to the “Feed Room Chemist” podcast. The speaker is Dr. Jyme Nichols who is the director of nutrition for Blue Bonnet feeds and Stride Animal Health. She has a masters and doctorate. She does a really good job picking relevant topics and making the connection between peer reviewed research and real world applications.
Most of the podcasts are 25-35 minutes, so I listen to them while I’m driving.
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www.thehorse.com has TONS of articles on pretty much anything.
If you want to get very science-y about it, the National Research Council (NRC) Nutrient Requirements for Horses is free to read online. Sometimes that link doesn’t work to click on, for reasons I can’t figure out, but if you type in “nrc working doc horse” in a browser you’ll find it.
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Caveat Emptor with feed reps/salesmen. You’d be astonished at some of the horrible advice some of those reps give out 
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Check out course materials for an Ag college or university, for equine nutrition.
Keep in mind that unfortunately, so many college nutrition classes are using REALLY outdated and incorrect information.
Basic nutritional needs have not changed that substantially in many years. What has changed is the number and variety of prepared feeds that are available.
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Feed Your Horse Like A Horse. Her website has gone a pseudo science but the book is good, readable, and standard best practices.
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True, the horse is the horse that was first domesticated all those years ago.
But research done 30+ years ago, has sometimes (maybe even a lot) been found to be lacking, misleading, and downright wrong. The idea that high protein diets cause DOD issues in foals was put out by the research who conducted flawed research, and while he quickly realized that and tried to get the word out, it’s failing. Just today I had a convo with someone whose vet told them this week, to keep protein low for her 7 month old WB or she’s going to cause growth issues.
I regularly see discussions with people taking current nutrition classes who are being told outdated and incorrect information
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The nutritional needs haven’t changed but the research has. It wasn’t that long ago COB was the thing to feed. I remember getting a bag of grain and my barn manager was so confused as to why I’d spend all that money on something just because it had molasses pre-mixed into it 
And even though we have known for years that corn can cause gastric upset in horses most feed manufacturers still use it in their feeds.
The mineral requirements may be out of date too.
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Also workload has changed. A horse that’s working 8 hour days ranching or harness can burn up way more calories and carbs than any competition horse. My guess is hay has also overall on average gotten better ie higher digestive value.
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to be fair, it’s starch in general, which means all cereal grains can do this. Corn just has the least nutritive value of them all
I wouldn’t be so sure. In general, food plants have less nutritional value than, say, 100 years ago, due to over-farming, selecting for certain phenotypes without considering what’s inside, and lots of "mono"culture fertilizing (ie just NPK). Grasses in general likely weren’t 600 cal/lb 1000 years ago, or went from DV of 60% to 80%. I could be wrong, but it’s an interesting thought.
omgosh, some of the stuff that comes up on even the first pages of searches are horrible! Wiki should be taken with a little grain of salt.
And WEIRD - your comment doesn’t have any link but when I quoted it, there’s that link to Top 10 Horse Reins - what the heck?
Ok the link didn’t show in MY comment either, but here’s a screen shot of what I see when I highlight your comment and hit the Quote button
About hay. When I was a kid everyone mostly fed local which meant random pasture grass of dubious origin. Farmers even cut and baled the freeway meridian. Timothy and alfalfa were available but much more common now.
For sure, there are places where “ditch grass” is the only local hay, or “meadow grass” which is just whatever is growing in a field that a farmer just happens to cut for hay.
A lot more farmers are definitely more specialized when it comes to horse hay, not just in how it’s stored, but how the fields are taken care of. Demand drives a lot of that, and the more horse owners become educated and want to put their money into better quality hay, to spend less on feed and supplements, the more farmers will work with that
