By the EIE Editorial Staff

Barn cats can be amazing allies for horse owners, providing both direct and indirect benefits and a great greeter when you visit your horse at the barn! The barn environment may also be a place where cats who are otherwise unadoptable can live a happy and fulfilling life. Here are some of the benefits of having a barn cat.

Pest Control

• Natural hunters: Their primary benefit is keeping rodent populations in check. Mice and rats can damage feed, spread disease, and even gnaw on horses' tails and manes. By taking care of these pests, barn cats help protect your horses' health and well-being.
• Deterrence: Even their presence can deter rodents. Their keen senses and reputation as predators scare away unwanted critters, reducing the need for other pest control methods.

Cost-Effective

• Sustainable solution: Compared to traps, poisons, or professional pest control services, barn cats are a more natural and cost-effective solution over time.
• Low-maintenance: While you'll need to provide food, water, and shelter, they generally take care of themselves, requiring minimal intervention. A great idea is affordable pet insurance.

Other Benefits

Specifically for Horses

• Reduced stress: Some horses seem to be less anxious with cats around, which can be helpful for nervous or easily spooked horses.
• Pest control around feed: Rodents can contaminate feed with droppings and attract other pests. Barn cats help keep feed areas clean and safe. Reduced risk of disease: Rodents can carry diseases harmful to horses, and keeping their populations low minimizes the risk of transmission.

However, it's important to remember

• Not all cats are suitable: Choosing barn cats with the right temperament and hunting skills is crucial. Consider adopting feral cats with strong hunting instincts. Many rescue organizations call them “working cats” and may be available through your local animal shelter.
• Proper care is essential: Provide them with food, water, shelter, and regular veterinary care, including vaccinations, spay/neuter and parasite control. As these are generally outdoor cats, it is vital that these cats have regularly scheduled veterinary appointments as they are exposed to much more than indoor cats.
• Safety first: Ensure cats and horses can interact safely. Introduce them gradually and provide enough space and escape routes for both.

Overall, barn cats can be valuable additions to a horse farm, offering natural pest control, companionship, and contributing to a healthy environment. But remember, proper care and responsible management are essential for everyone's well-being.

Read more about cats in the special edition of National Geographic’s Secret Life of Cats.

You can find more interesting stories in our section on Health & Education.

There have been impressive advancements in equine dentistry during the past few years. From cavity filling, periodontics, and root canals to orthodontics and oral surgery. Today Dr. Brad Tanner, one of the few boarded equine dentists in the world, treats an overbite in a thoroughbred foal.

Read more: Treating a foal's Overbite with Dr Brad Tanner from Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital

by Alicia Skelding, Equine Guelph

Introduction

The term Biosecurity refers to management practices that reduce the chance infectious disease will be carried onto a farm by animals or people and the spread of infectious disease on farms. All infectious diseases of horses result from the interactions between the animal and its ability to resist disease (immunity), an infectious agent (bacteria, viruses, and parasites) and the environment. These relationships allow opportunities for preventing or reducing infectious diseases.

Horses

New Arrivals

The most common way infectious diseases are spread is when a new horse arrives at a property that is a carrier of the disease. A veterinary examination is recommended prior to purchasing a horse. Depending on where the horse has originated from, the veterinarian may advise for specific tests to be conducted to rule out infectious diseases.

New horses should be isolated from resident horses for thirty days. The horse should be checked daily for signs of illness, including monitoring the horse’s temperature, food and water intake. Separate stable/yard equipment, buckets, grooming supplies, tack etc should be used for new horses and marked with red tape. The new horse should be handled last, morning and night, and hands should be washed upon leaving the horse’s stall or paddock.

Vaccination

Vaccination can be a critical aspect of controlling infectious diseases because in many instances owners cannot prevent exposure. It is important to remember that vaccination cannot prevent disease. Vaccines perform best if the disease challenge is minimized. In some instances, vaccination does not provide protection against infection but merely decreases the severity of clinical disease. Vaccination serves to increase resistance against certain diseases in individual horses as well as horse populations.

A vaccination program is most effective when it is planned to meet the particular needs of a farm. Setting up a strategic vaccination program means:

1. determining what diseases to vaccinate against
2. identify who will most benefit from vaccination, and
3. finding out when they will most need the protection that vaccines provide.

Your veterinarian will provide guidelines for a vaccination program that suits your needs.

Quarantine

Quarantine, in which a horse is completely separated from contact with other horses, is a smart strategy for limiting the transmission of disease. It’s a good idea when you have a sick horse to separate him from his apparently healthy barn mates. When you have a new arrival they should be quarantined from resident horses.

When setting up a quarantine facility whether it is one stall or many, consider how you will best limit the spread of infection.

• Limit the amount of shared airspace between quarantined horses and the general population – ideally by placing the isolation stalls in a separate building.
• Limit movement of insects, by screening doors and windows and using insecticidal sprays.
• Equip the quarantine facility with separate feeding, mucking and grooming equipment.
• If possible, your quarantine barn should be downwind of your main barn.

Quarantine is not strictly for sick or new horses, horses that have left the farm for showing or breeding purposes also have the potential to bring home germs. These horses should be isolated for at least two weeks, making sure there is no noseto-nose contact.

Humans

Personnel

Assign specific individual(s) to care for affected horses. Ideally a caretaker should not be responsible for both healthy and exposed/affected horses. If unavoidable, care of healthy animals should be completed first; exposed animals next; affected animals last. Disposable gloves, plastic booties and barrier clothing should be used when working with sick horses.

After handling sick horses, gloves and booties should be disposed of in a sealed trash container and clothing placed in a covered hamper. Hands must be washed under running water with liquid soap for a minimum of 15 seconds.

Visitors

Ideally there should be only one entrance / exit into your farm, marked as the main entrance. Parking should be away from horses to help keep disease-carrying organisms from being tracked from car floors or tires to your horses. If the farrier or veterinarian needs to park closer, be sure their tires and shoes have been disinfected. Ask all visitors to wear clean clothes and shoes. Give visitors plastic shoe covers, or brush dirt off their shoes and spray with disinfectant. If you have many visitors, such as a farm tour or open house make a footbath for them to walk through.

Records of visitors to your farm with date, time, name and purpose of visit should be kept. On larger properties, record details of horse(s) the visitor came in contact with.

Away From Farm

Coming into contact with a diseased horse at an event/activity is another way in which horses can be infected with a disease. When attending events take your own equipment (buckets, tack, grooming supplies), do not share your equipment or use communal water troughs. Monitor your horse’s health while at the event. Avoid tying/yarding your horse with other horses thereby minimizing direct contact and always wash your hands if you have touched other peoples horses. Good records of horse movement should be kept as well as disinfecting equipment, tack and transport vehicles after returning from the event.

Management Practices

Manure and Bedding

Waste management procedures are not limited to organisms shed in feces but are applicable to all infectious agents. Manure on wheelbarrow tires, tractor tires etc is a potential source of the infectious agent and can be tracked everywhere on the grounds if tires are not properly cleaned and disinfected. Do not put waste material from the stalls of affected horses onto open-air manure piles/pits. Do not spread manure from affected horses onto pastures.

Equipment/Supplies

Horse-specific equipment (fed-tubs, water buckets, halters etc) should be clearly identified as belonging to an individual horse and be used only by that horse. Shared equipment (lead shanks, lip chains, bits, twitches, thermometers etc) should be cleaned of organic debris and disinfected between horses.

All equipment should be thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned with detergent and water, rinsed, disinfected and followed by a final rinse. This should be done in an area with minimal foot and traffic flow that can be cleaned and disinfected after this procedure. Cloth items (saddle pads, towels, bandages) should be laundered and thoroughly dried between each use (disinfectant may be added to rinse water). Equipment that cannot be effectively disinfected (sponges, brushes) should not be shared between horses. Multiple dose medications should be labeled for use by a specific horse and not shared.

Disinfecting

The number one rule for disease control is cleaning. This means the removal of all manure and feed, followed by washing, scrubbing, rinsing or pressure washing, all surfaces with hot water and detergent. This is followed by the use of a disinfectant.

There are three steps in order for this process to be effective. Step one: remove loose material. Surfaces must first be cleaned in order for disinfectants to be effective. Ensure all manure and dirt is brushed off the surface. Step two: wash. Wash the item or surface with warm soapy water and rinse thoroughly and dry. Step three: disinfect. Once the item or surface is dry, disinfectant can be applied.

Tack items and footwear can be wiped with a disinfectant wipe or can be sprayed with disinfectant and wiped over with a clean dry cloth. Horse transport vehicles and floors of stables can be sprayed with disinfectant made up in a spray bottle or large surface sprayer.

When choosing a disinfectant, it is also important to refer to the specific product claim including the spectrum of activity. It is important to read the labels carefully and to follow the directions including accurately calculating the dilutions and respecting the recommended contact time.

Environment

Vermin control is critical, as pests can transmit a number of diseases. Rodent, bird and insect control should be evaluated and upgraded as necessary. Screens should be installed in stall windows. A control program may include the use of traps, repellants and/or insecticides/rodenticides. Non-equines (goats, cats, dogs) should not be permitted within the primary perimeter.

Conclusions

Every horse owner needs to do everything they can to reduce the risk of an infectious disease from being introduced to their property and horses. Taking basic precautions is common sense and once you are in the habit, they are quite easy to implement. Reducing the incidence of infectious disease in our animals, saves time, money and enhances the quality of life for both horse and owner. Prevention is always easier than cleanup.

Equine Guelph is the horse owner and caregiver’s Centre at the University of Guelph, supported and overseen by equine industry groups, dedicated to improving the health and well-being of horses.

This article originally appeared on Equine Guelph The University of Ontario, Canada, and is published here with permission.

DOWNLOAD a PDF of this information.

You can find more informative articles in our section on Health & Education.

Isolate Sick, New & Travelling Horses Checklist

Your isolation plan involves both physical structures and your management practises.

A sign is located at the entrance of the farm/barn area that identifies horses are in isolation

Access is restricted to official visitors

Sign in & sign out sheet for personnel

A stall is ready that has been cleaned, disinfected & filled with fresh bedding

A separate barn or paddock with shelter is used (best practice)

If the end of an aisle in main barn is used (not ideal),
then there needs to be several empty stalls between the isolated horse and other horses

All equipment, tack, buckets, grooming tools, medication and other tools are labelled (i.e. with red tape) & kept in a separate area

Isolated horse is worked with last each day & hands are washed before & after

Separate manure pile for isolation area & is not spread until well composted

All personnel are educated on biosecurity protocols & visitors are made aware of protocols
(limit number of personal & only necessary visitors should be allowed, such as the isolated horses’ owner or veterinarian)

Disposable examination gloves, disposable shoe covers & protective clothing are available for personnel & necessary visitors

Pets & wild animals are prevented from entering the isolation area

New & travelling horses are isolated for 2 weeks

Equine Guelph would like to extend thanks to Dr. Josie Traub-Dargatz and Dr. Alanna Kirby, Colorado State University for input and content review of this infosheet.

To learn more about equine biosecurity, register for Equine Guelph’s online course and visit the biosecurity risk calculator online tool. Isolate Sick, New & Travelling Horses

This article originally appeared on Equine Guelph The University of Ontario, Canada, and is published here with permission.

You can DOWNLOAD a PDF of this checklist.

You can find more informative articles in our section on Health & Education.

In this excerpt from RIDE BIG, human performance coach John Haime describes how confidence is a choice, and how it impacts whether we ride big or small.

THE LEARNING CURVE OF CONFIDENCE

Without confidence, achievement in competition is unattainable. When pressure is greatest, confidence is best tested.

THE STORY OF RIDE BIG

“Riding Big” has nothing to do with riding a small pony or a big Warmblood. And no, it’s not about a long or short stride, or competing in a big or small competition.

When I refer to Riding Big and riding small, I am often asked where this idea of “big” and “small” came from. In 2018, I was sitting with some riders at the edge of the international ring in Wellington, Florida, watching a Grand Prix show jumping class. As the competitors completed their rounds, one of the riders at my table asked me what I thought about each rider and how he or she rode. I explained that when I watch a class, I quickly assess all the riders by their body language entering the ring, how they approach the first fence, the level of risk they are prepared to take throughout the course, the quality of the rollbacks, their body posture and how it changes through the round, how they seem to handle early difficulties.

Watching the riders, it was clear to me that they entered the ring looking “big” or “small” and would either grow—or shrink—in the saddle from the time they enter the ring to the time they depart. The competitors were either riding confidently, and trying to win the class, or they were tentative, and trying not to lose the class. It was a simple way to explain whether the riders were riding with confidence or not. The people at the table easily understood this idea, liked the simplicity, and we had fun assessing whether each rider was Riding Big or riding small.

DO YOU RIDE BIG OR RIDE SMALL?

Equestrian athletes who Ride Big are riders who:

• know they can do it in a competitive environment
• maximize their abilities
• embrace calculated risk
• are filled with joy and excitement in pressure situations
• are committed to their process
• are in the moment
• are trying to win

A rider who Rides Big grows in the saddle.

At the opposite end of the equestrian spectrum are riders who “ride small.” These are riders who:

• are filled with doubt—they aren’t sure they can do it
• use a fraction of their abilities
• play it safe
• are hesitant in pressure situations
• ride on either side of the present moment
• are distracted by the outcome
• are trying not to lose instead of trying to win

A rider who rides small shrinks in the saddle.

Which rider are you? Do you Ride Big or ride small?

Maybe you are a combination of the two but still falling short of where you’d like to go, or not quite getting what you want from the sport.

The objective of Ride Big is to help you achieve more and enjoy the sport more. And, as a bonus, developing confidence in yourself and your horse can help you build confidence in all areas of your life.

WHAT IS YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL?

Let’s do a little check-in on your confidence. The questions below a good starting point to gauge where you are with your confidence. If you can answer “yes” to at least 15 of these questions, you are likely confident and Riding Big. If you have between 10 and 13 positive responses, you might be shrinking in the saddle, and your confidence is lacking. Fewer than that and you are riding small, have some work to do, and need to build up your confidence.

No matter what your score on the quiz, there are many strategies and exercises that can help you gain more confidence and Ride Bigger.

THE CONFIDENCE QUIZ

Answer each question “yes” or “no.”

1. I feel confident and self-assured about my riding skills and abilities.
2. I clearly understand all my strengths and limitations when competing.
3. I am always aware of how my emotions are impacting my performance.
4. My internal voice is positive and does not create doubt before I compete.
5. I am my own best friend before competition. I always treat myself well.
6. I don’t worry about the results of the competition. I am only focused on my process of doing it.
7. It is easy for me to take some risk in competition to try to win.
8. I believe I can win when I compete.
9. I have a defined plan with steps and actions that helps me believe in what I want to achieve.
10. When I make a mistake in competition, I don’t dwell on it.
11. After I compete, I reflect more on the positive parts of my performance than my mistakes.
12. I tend not to focus on other riders’ accomplishments.
13. I look at failure as an opportunity to grow.
14. I rarely feel anxious or scared when I compete.
15. I prepare well for competition and always test my training beforehand.
16. I perform better in competition than in training.
17. I never feel low when I see how other riders are doing on social media.
18. I enjoy pressure–I feel it gives meaning to my riding.
19. I always pursue excellence over perfection. I know the difference.

SO, WHAT IS CONFIDENCE?

The word “confidence” is frequently used in our everyday lives and often revered as the secret weapon in any performance endeavor. It can be the X factor in how well you perform as an equestrian athlete. The Cambridge Dictionary defines confidence as “the quality of being certain of your abilities or of having trust in people, plans, or the future.”

In my experience, when you boil it all down to its simplest form, confidence is really about “knowing.” No matter what the situation, competitive environment, or degree of pressure, you know in the depths of your heart you can do it and can have the performance you envision. Authentically knowing you can do it fuels the game-changing quality of confidence. So, let’s agree that “knowing” is a simple definition of confidence.

PROACTIVE CONFIDENCE

Proactive confidence is a decision that you will be sustainably confident from all the great, positive experiences you’ve had in your riding life, all the training you have done, all the help from coaches, supporters, and general success at a variety of levels. These experiences, support system, and successes are the foundation of your belief in your abilities. Proactive confidence is the choice you make to rely on a solid foundation no matter what happens. With proactive confidence, your belief in yourself does not disappear and is not shaken by small periods of less-than-ideal performance. The focus is on the all the positives and all the great things you’ve already done. Your proactive confidence should be a wall of “knowing” and belief that cannot be penetrated by short down cycles.

REACTIVE CONFIDENCE

Many equestrian athletes get caught up in what I call reactive confidence—deciding that one small collection of challenging circumstances will overcome all their successes and create a noticeable crack in their “foundation” of confidence.

A young rider once called and explained to me that she was upset that her confidence suffered as a result of not achieving short-term results—in her case, not winning a class for a few weeks. By choosing to make recent, short-term results the foundation of her confidence, this rider decided to only focus on the small picture and forget about all the great results she’d had over a longer period.

I often hear how a rider has lost confidence after a month, a week, or even just a day of so-so riding. These riders let a few mistakes suddenly become the basis for their confidence and tend to allow others to have an impact on their confidence in a negative way. So, for my young rider client, and all the other riders I hear from who have “lost their confidence,” the truth is, you really haven’t lost it at all. You chose to lose it by allowing the short “down cycles” of the sport to be the basis for your confidence.

Remember that anything that involves performance goes in cycles, and there will be ups and downs. This is important to understand, because confidence is built in steps over time, and will last through those small down cycles in your performance if you choose to be proactive with your confidence.

This excerpt from RIDE BIG by John Haime is reprinted with permission from Trafalgar Square Books. For more information or to order the book visit the Trafalgar Square Books website at www.HorseandRiderBooks.com.

Print: Print edition
Kindle: Kindle edition

Visit Horse & Rider Books

There a more really interesting books on riding and all aspects of equestrian living in our section on Books.

In this StallSide episode, Sarah Myer Thompson of MG Biologics sheds light on the science behind equine plasma and its impact on equine health. Joined by co-hosts Dr. Bart Barber and Dr. Peter Morresey, this discussion unravels scientific factors influencing the effectiveness and healing capabilities of equine plasma, offering a deeper understanding of its role in elevating equine healthcare.

Read more: Rood & Riddle "Stallside" Podcast - The Science and Benefits of Equine Plasma with Sarah Myer...

By Kentucky Equine Research Staff

Domestication means that horses, in general, have decreased pasture access, less time with other horses, and very different feeding practices compared to their undomesticated peers. To maximize the welfare of managed horses and avoid unwanted behaviors, owners may implement various environmental enrichment strategies. While big, bouncy balls may immediately spring to mind, olfactory stimulation is a more subtle form of sensory enrichment.

Experts believe horses have a well-developed sense of smell. Using odors to enrich a horse’s life may therefore prove to be an inexpensive, simple means of providing stimulation or fostering quietness.

“Olfactory stimulation may increase behavioral diversity, allowing horses to behave more naturally, to deal with stresses and challenges, and to stimulate species-typical behaviors,” explained Catherine Whitehouse, M.S., nutrition advisor for Kentucky Equine Research.

According to a recent review on olfactory stimulation in horses, some smells may prove valuable in modern horse management.*

• Other horses’ odors: Horses commonly greet one another nose-to-nose and nose-to-body, so body odors are relevant for social contexts. When horses are in isolation—when trailering to an event alone, for example—providing a cloth that was rubbed on a familiar horse’s coat may help calm the horse during this time of stress.
• Equine-appeasing pheromone: The equine-appeasing pheromone may also be calming in stressful situations. “This pheromone is released by nursing mares. It reportedly provides reassurance to the foal, helping it feel safe, protected, and confident in novel situations. Synthetic versions of the equine-appeasing pheromone may help all horses, not just nursing foals,” advised Whitehouse.
• Essential oils and plant-derived odors: One published study showed that lavender decreased heart rate, alert postures, defecation secondary to stress, and salivary cortisol levels. “Lavender is perceived as the best-documented calming essential oil; however, spikenard, a perennial herb from the Himalayas, and roman chamomile were both found to be better at inducing relaxation than lavender in one study,” Whitehouse added. “That said, another found that chamomile did not consistently show a consistent relaxing effect.” Other essential oils tested in horses with variable results were cedarwood and peppermint.

More research on the role of olfactory stimulation in enriching horses’ environments is warranted. This may help horses deal with various stresses in their lives such as social isolation and the introduction of novel objects or new environments.

“Horses are exposed to many stressors in their daily lives, many of which may not be fully appreciated by owners. Stress can lead to a plethora of digestive issues and can affect the immune system as well as the microbiome through the concept of the ‘gut-brain axis,’” said Whitehouse.

She added, “Dietary imbalances or nutrient gaps may be exacerbated under stressful situations, so it cannot be overstated how important it is to provide a complete and balanced diet.”

Digestive support can help neutralize excess acid in the digestive tract and support the microbiome when potential stressors can be neither removed nor minimized in the horse’s environment. EquiShure is a time-released buffer that helps maintain an appropriate pH in the hindgut, thereby stabilizing the microbiome.

Read more: Olfactory Stimulation Enriches Horses’ Environments

By Juliet M. Getty, Ph.D.

Protein is not a popular subject. Most "nutrition-talk" revolves around carbohydrates -- sugar and starch, to be specific, because they impact metabolic conditions that are a very real concern for many horse owners. We also talk about fat -- types of fat, essential fatty acids, omega 3s, you know the terms - because horses require a daily supply of essential fatty acids and they also benefit from fat to fulfill high energy needs for weight gain and exercise.

But protein? Just check the "percent crude protein" and figure it's enough, right? Not necessarily. There's a lot more to it than that. To guide you, let's start by looking at what happens to the protein in your forages and feeds, when your horse eats it.

Proteins in the feed are digested down to amino acids. There are 22 individual amino acids -- "building blocks" your horse's cells put together to create new proteins. There are literally hundreds of proteins in his body, all of which rely on not only enough total protein, but enough amino acid variability.

Forages have protein, but their variability is limited; they have lots of some amino acids and not much of others. If a single type of grass as hay or pasture is the only protein source in your horse's diet, the pool of amino acids available to your horse's body will be deficient in several amino acids, making it difficult for him to stay healthy.

Think of it like a beaded necklace

Imagine a bowl full of red, blue, yellow and green beads. You want to make a long necklace with a very specific color pattern. As you progress in stringing this necklace, you notice that you've run out of yellow beads. Uh oh -- now you cannot make the necklace you planned. You either get more yellow beads, or you end up with a bracelet instead of a necklace!

Protein molecules are like long, beaded chains of amino acids, in a very specific order, depending on where the protein is located. Muscle protein looks different than joint proteins. Hemoglobin in red blood cells, looks different that digestive enzymes. The DNA within each tissue's cells dictates the order of amino acids needed to produce that specific protein. If there are enough amino acids available, the protein can be created. If not, then that tissue goes without.

And what about all those unused amino acids -- those red, blue and green beads? Can't they be saved for later in the hope that you'll feed more "yellow beads?" Unfortunately, no. Instead, they get destroyed and cannot be used for protein synthesis. They can be used for energy, glucose production, or stored as fat, but that doesn't meet your horse's protein need.[1]

What about wild horses?

Horses in a wild setting travel for miles each day, grazing on a vast assortment of feedstuffs -- grasses, legumes, flowers, fruits, berries, seeds, leaves, edible weeds, shrubs, and bark, offering a mixture of nutrients, including proteins. Can we duplicate this in a domesticated setting? Not usually, unless you have many acres of untouched land. Therefore, our goal should be to improve the horse's protein quality of the diet by offering more protein-rich feeds.

How do we know if we are creating a high-quality protein?

We need to pay attention to the amino acid profile of the entire diet. Of the 22 different amino acids, your horse's body is only able to make 12. The remaining ten are considered essential, meaning the body cannot produce them, or cannot produce them in adequate quantity. Therefore, they must be in the diet. The 10 essential amino acids (EAAs) are methionine, arginine, threonine, tryptophan, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, valine, and phenylalanine.

We do not know the specific requirements of each EAA for horses. The only one that has been evaluated is lysine, because it is considered "limiting." This simply means that the amount of proteins produced will be limited by the level of lysine. If lysine is low, it's like not having enough yellow beads (going back to our beaded necklace analogy).

There are two other limiting amino acids: methionine and threonine. Exactly how much the horse requires is unknown, but we do have an idea of the levels relative to the lysine content. The general thinking among equine nutritionists is that there should be 2 to 3 times more lysine than methionine, and threonine content should be about the same as lysine.

Most animal proteins are higher in quality than those found in plants. This means that they contain more than enough amino acid building blocks to build tissues for vital organs as well as peripheral, non-vital tissues. But horses do not naturally consume animal protein sources, so we have to get a little creative by mixing several plant protein sources so that they ultimately reflect the amino acid profile of an animal source.

Most grasses have a similar amino acid profile. Cool season grasses, such as timothy, brome, orchardgrass, rye, fescue, and Kentucky bluegrass, tend to have more amino acids than warm season grasses, such as the popular Bermuda and Teff. To improve the protein quality, you can add a legume such as alfalfa (lucerne), clover, and perennial peanut grass (grown in some southern areas of the US).

Consider adding whole foods to the mix

Adding alfalfa to grasses will certainly help, but many horse owners choose to avoid it.[2] Or even if you do include it, the EAA content may not be sufficient for your particular horse. For example, feeding 18 lbs of grass hay plus 4 lbs of alfalfa may meet the EAA need of an average horse on light activity, but it may not if the horse has any compromised health issues.

Adding whole foods to your horse's diet will not only improve the overall protein quality, but can add valuable vitamins, antioxidants, trace minerals, and fatty acids that your horse might not otherwise consume. Here are some examples:

1) Dehulled soybean meal. This is the most commonly added protein source to commercial products. Economical and rich in protein (47%), it is easy to see why it is used to boost the protein content of many feeds and ration balancers. But there are several potential problems with soy:

• Its fat content is high in linoleic acid (an omega 6 essential fatty acid) and low in alpha linolenic acid (an omega 3 essential fatty acid). High amounts of linoleic acid in the diet can increase inflammation.
• Its high phytoestrogen content could possibly impact horses' behavior.
• It is goitrogenic, meaning it has the potential to damage the thyroid gland, making it important to monitor iodine intake. Many horses are allergic to soy, exhibiting respiratory and skin issues.
• Unless organic, almost all soy grown in the US is genetically modified to withstand being sprayed with the herbicide, RoundUp (Bayer). Glyphosate, its active ingredient has been implicated in potentially damaging the microbiome and interfering with mineral absorption.[3]

2) Hemp seeds. High in protein (32%), they contain two main proteins: albumin and edestin. Both have significant amounts of all EAAs.[4] Some other aspects of hempseeds:

• They have both essential fatty acids, linoleic and alpha linolenic acid (ALA), as well as a special fatty acid known as gamma linolenic acid (GLA). GLA belongs to the omega 6 family, but unlike the omega 6 found in soybean oil, it reduces inflammation rather than promoting it.
• They are easy to digest, and highly palatable (great for the picky eater).
• Can be found as a hempseed meal (with some of the fat reduced to make it appropriate for an overweight horse), or as the whole hemp seed fines, which include the ground up fibrous coating.[5]

3) Flax seeds. With 18% protein, they make a good choice to include in the diet (make sure they are ground). But their real claim to fame is their essential fatty acid content which duplicates those naturally found in fresh, healthy pasture grasses. (Remember, the word, "essential" means that they cannot be made by the body and must be in the diet.) Adding flax will, therefore, serve two benefits: provides necessary essential fatty acids, and offers a source of protein to boost overall protein quality in the diet.[6]

4) Chia seeds. They are comparable to flax seeds in their protein content and nearly identical to flax in their essential fatty acid content. In fact, you can feed either ground flax seeds, or chia seeds, depending on your budget and your horse's preference.

5) Split peas and pea protein isolate. Peas that are dried and split are a tasty way to add protein and crunch to the diet. They can be fed raw, but it is good to soften them a bit by soaking them in warm water for a few minutes. Though the protein content is high (24%), it doesn't compare to the protein content of pea protein isolate, with 75% protein. I recommend adding pea protein isolate to the diet for horses who require extra protein due to aging, growth, intense exercise needs, pregnancy, and lactation.

6) Coconut (copra) meal. A good source of protein (20%), it is low in sugar/starch, and high in fat, from coconut oil, making it a good choice for a horse who is underweight or is heavily exercised. Keep in mind that the fatty acid content of coconut oil does not include essential fatty acids, necessitating supplementation from an additional fat source (such as flax or chia).

7) Pumpkin seeds. A tasty treat, supplying 34% protein, and a variety of vitamins and minerals, including a high amount of magnesium. They can be fed raw, hulled, or with the shells on. When fed raw, they contain active digestive enzymes that are helpful for gastrointestinal tract.

8) Whey. Whey is a protein found in milk and is highly concentrated (80% protein). Because it is animal, and not plant, it is of very high quality. It can contain some lactose, and adult horses are lactose intolerant; therefore, they may develop loose manure.

9) Other feedstuffs:

• Beet pulp is not concentrated in protein (only about 7%) but it is a worthwhile way to add a similar amount of calories as oats, without the concurrent insulin response that starch creates. It is a nice carrier feed for supplements. However, most beets grown in the US are genetically modified (GMO), so it is best to choose a non-GMO source.[7]
• Black oil sunflower seeds offer a similar level of protein as pumpkin seeds. However, they are very high in linoleic acid (omega 6) with virtually no omega 3s. Consequently, they can cause inflammation when fed in high amounts. Please note: Whenever you add a new feed to your horse's diet, it is important to start slowly, taking two or three weeks to allow the hindgut microbial population to adjust.

Read more: Whole Food Options to Boost Protein Quality