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Are You Overfeeding "Fast Food" to Your Horse? Understanding Modern Horse Nutrition

Are You Overfeeding "Fast Food" to Your Horse? Understanding Modern Horse Nutrition

Introduction: Then vs Now 

The dietary and metabolic needs of today’s horses are vastly different from those of the past. Once essential for transport and labor, horses now lead more sedentary lifestyles while often being fed diets designed for livestock like cattle and sheep. This mismatch between what horses are designed to eat and what they actually consume has led to an increase in metabolic and digestive disorders across the equine industry. 

Modern Feeding Habits: A Recipe for Trouble? 

In the wild, horses are natural slow feeders, grazing on low-starch grasses up to 18 hours a day. However, modern horses are often fed improved pastures developed for ruminants, or are stall-fed with commercial concentrates and supplements high in non-structural carbohydrates (NSC), sugars, and starches that horses are not built to digest rapidly. These can be likened to "fast foods".  Due to our busy lifestyles, horses are typically given large, high-energy meals just twice a day, creating a “pulse feeding” pattern. This overloads the digestive system and contributes to a wide range of health issues, mainly caused by spikes in insulin, despite the owner's good intentions. Are you killing your horse with kindness by overfeeding ‘fast foods’? 

Common Metabolic Disorders Linked to High-NSC Diets 

Overfeeding grains and starch-rich (high NSC)  feeds, especially to underworked horses, can lead to: 

  •  Obesity 
  •  Laminitis (founder) 
  •  Colic 
  •  Tying up (rhabdomyolysis) 
  •  Insulin resistance 
  •  Cushing’s disease 
  •  Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS) 
  •  Fizzy or hot behaviour 
  •  Developmental Orthopaedic Disease (DOD) 
 These conditions not only affect horse health but also lead to significant economic losses for owners and the equine industry. 

Why Horse Feeding Has Become Overcomplicated 

With the flood of commercial feeds and supplements available, it’s easy for horse owners to feel overwhelmed. This often leads to fad feeding, conflicting advice, and nutritional imbalances. Horses evolved as herbivores grazing on prairie grasses with low starch content. Today, those natural grasses have been replaced with genetically selected high-sugar pastures designed for livestock, not horses. Most modern pastures are rich in fructans and starch, which can disrupt gut health and metabolism. 

 Learn more at www.safergrass.org 

What Horses Really Need 

To maintain health, performance, and digestive balance, horses require: 

  • Slowly digestible fiber for energy and gut motility
  • Balanced vitamins and minerals 
  • Controlled NSC (sugar & starch) intake
  • Fresh water at all times 
  • Quality digestible protein and amino acids 
  • Suitable levels of digestible energy 
  • Healthy fats and oils 
  • Feeding schedules that mimic natural grazing (“slow feeding”) 
Nutritional needs will vary based on a horse’s age, workload, pregnancy, or lactation status. Use tools like TruGuide, an online horse nutrition calculator, to help balance the diet appropriately. 

Understanding Feeds and NSC Levels 

Horse feeds range from: 

  •  Hay and pasture (for fiber and bulk) 
  •  Concentrates and grains (for digestible energy, protein, and nutrients) 
Most commercial feeds and concentrates are grain-based and high in NSC.  The levels of NSC can vary up to 50%. Grains contain 60-70% NSC.  Most horses require less than 12 % NSC  Testing feed for its NSC content (e.g., through labs like Equi-Analytical) can help you make informed decisions. Not all horses react negatively to high NSC feeds, but if your horse shows signs of poor behavior, metabolic stress, or digestive issues, consider switching to low-NSC feeds (<12% NSC) to support better health. 

Stance Suggestions: Better Feeds Are Available 

 Thanks to ongoing university research and input from experienced horse owners, new low-NSC feeds are being developed. These feeds supply energy without relying heavily on sugars and starches, helping reduce the risk of diet-related disorders while still supporting peak performance.  

Coolstance copra is a new generation feed alternative to grain


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