42. Horse Nutrition Q&A: Straw, Diarrhoea, Feed Safety & Muscle Building

What happens when your horses live on mostly straw for 10 days… and one of them decides to protest with full-blown diarrhoea? 😅 In this Q&A-style catch-up, Dr Nerida and Orla unpack a very relatable “whoops” moment and use it to teach one of the most overlooked fundamentals in horse gut health: fibre diversity.

They break down why straw is a very different beast to hay (hello, lignin), why some horses cope while others fall apart, and why “just add a product” isn’t always the smartest first move. From there, the conversation goes behind the scenes of the feed industry, mixed-species feed mills, the very real risk of ionophore contamination, and how to ask the right questions of manufacturers. Then it gets nerdy (in the best way) with least-cost vs set recipes, why crude protein can be misleading, and the lysine + leucine muscle-building “bricklayer and bricks” analogy you’ll love.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Why restricting forage to one source can trigger loose manure/free faecal water in some horses
• Why gut “fixes in 3 hours” are usually not how physiology works (and when electrolytes can confuse the picture)
• How to read a feed label to spot vague “least-cost” ingredient wording
• Why protein quality matters (especially for young horses, broodmares, and performance horses)

🐴💛 Want help making sense of your horse’s diet? Download MyHappy.Horse on the Apple App Store (link below) and take the guesswork out of balancing protein, lysine, and the bigger nutrition picture.

And if this episode made you go and check the back of a feed bag… we’d love you to leave us a quick rating and review. It helps other horse owners find science-based feeding help. 🧪❤️

Download MyHappy.Horse here: https://apps.apple.com/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324