Happy Horse Nutrition27 Okt 2025

24. Ingredient Variety and Why it Matters in Horse Nutrition

Join Dr. Nerida as she explores why ingredient variety is absolutely critical for your horse's health. In this episode, which comes complete with Lucky the Goat 🐐anecdotes, Dr Nerida reveals the three reasons diverse diets keep horses healthier, happier, and more resilient - and why feeding just one or two ingredients is putting your horse’s health at risk.

What You'll Learn:

Why horses chew bark and fences (and what it tells us about their diet)
The THREE critical benefits of ingredient variety: balanced nutrients, toxin dilution, and microbiome diversity
How different forages and feed ingredients work together to meet nutrient requirements
Why nitrate and mycotoxin testing is essential for racing stables and performance horses
The downsides of monoculture pastures and why horses need species diversity
Protein combining: how different proteins work together as "Tetris pieces"; and
Dr. Nerida's personal feeding program for her daughter's OTTB (with multiple forage and fiber sources)

Dr. Nerida reveals that the more ingredients in your horse's diet, the better chance you have of meeting complete nutrient requirements - it's like putting together a puzzle where each ingredient fills specific gaps. She explains how ingredient diversity protects horses from toxins (like nitrate in hay or mycotoxins in moldy feed) by either allowing them to avoid problem forages or diluting toxins to safe levels. And she explains how horses with diverse microbiomes can handle stress events like competition and travel without developing colic or diarrhea, while horses on limited diets are far more vulnerable to dysbiosis.

📲 Discover and download the MyHappy.Horse app: https://www.myhappy.horse

🤍 And ask your nutrition questions 24/7 with Dr Nerida AI: https://www.myhappy.horse/nerida-ai

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and review! It really helps us to get grounded, science-based information to horse owners… and it is their horses who benefit the most! ❤️

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