118 Results Found

Nutrition is the foundation of health and welfare, going hand in hand with horse husbandry [...]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of 14-day vacuum aging on the nutritional composition of donkey and horse meat. Longissimus Dorsi (LD), Semimebranosus (SM), and Rectus Femoris (RF), Semitendinosus (ST) muscles were sampled from each...

Shiitake mushrooms have been highly regarded as possessing enormous nutritive and medicinal values. No clinical studies have yet investigated the effect of shitake supplementation on the health of horses. The aim of this study was to evaluate the eff...

Much research has been conducted in an attempt to decrease skeletal injuries in athletic horses. The objective of this literature review is to compile the findings of over three decades of research in this area, make practical recommendations, and de...

Horse grazing may benefit biodiversity, but the impact of year-round grazing on nutrient dynamics has not been evaluated previously. This study compared pasture quality in a forest-grassland landscape grazed year-round by horses with that in exclosed...

Racehorses are often supplemented extra iron with the expectation that the iron will improve overall performance and health. A survey of 120 U.S. Thoroughbred trainers, representing 1978 Thoroughbreds from various regions of the U.S., was conducted t...

This review discusses the scientific evidence that supports the nutritional value of mare milk and how its properties are essentially achieved when mares are managed under grazing conditions. Mare milk’s similarity with the chemical composition...

This narrative review presents examples of omega-3 fatty acids supplementation in horse nutrition. Fats are essential in equine nutrition, serving not only as an energy source but also as functional components influencing health. Among them, omega-3...

Canning is an excellent solution to provide convenient, affordable, nutritious, and safe seafood with a long shelf life. However, many canned products use tuna, sardines, and Atlantic chub mackerel, species that raise sustainability concerns and whos...

Steaming hay is increasingly used to treat low-quality forage because it was proven to reduce inhalable allergens such as mould spores, bacteria, and airborne dust particles. Preliminary results have shown a substantial loss of precaecal (pc) digesti...

Milk thistle seeds contain a mixture of flavonoids known as silymarin, which consists of silybin, isosilybin, silychristine, and silydianin. Until now, there has been no evidence of monitoring the digestibility of silymarin complex in horses. The aim...

In Honduras, many families are reliant on working equids in their daily life. The aim of this study was to evaluate knowledge about, and approaches to colic used by owners of working equids in Choluteca, Honduras using a phenomenological approach. Se...

Veterinarians can recommend milk thistle for the treatment of equine liver disease and laminitis. Milk thistle seed cakes were fed in the range of normal feed doses in this study. The milk thistle seed cakes were fed (twice a day) to the experimental...

Garlic (Allium sativum) is claimed to have numerous beneficial properties to the health of humans and animals. It is commonly used for example to treat respiratory diseases and infections in horses’ lungs. However, in addition to its possible p...

Six Finnhorse mares were used in a digestibility trial, in which six typical horse diets were compared. The diets were: (A) haylage 100%; (B) hay 100%; (C) hay 70% and oats 30%; (D) hay 70% and soybean meal + oats 30%; (E) hay 70%, rapeseed meal + oa...

Since mineral supplements for horses commonly contain macro minerals, although the requirement for such is usually covered by roughage-based diets, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different dietary calcium levels on mineral se...

Equine welfare issues are receiving increasing attention in the UK, but welfare problems can arise from a wide range of causes. In order to identify the most important welfare concerns for horses, we used a Delphi method with 19 equine welfare expert...

The main horse phosphorus excretion pathway is through the dung. Phosphorus originating from animal dung and manure has harmful environmental effects on waters. The number of horses has increased in many countries, and several studies have pointed th...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of shiitake mushroom (Lentinula edodes) supplementation on the hematology and biochemical blood parameters of young Thoroughbred racehorses. The study was conducted with 20 horses divided into two grou...

The purpose of the study was to evaluate seasonal changes in selected trace elements such as Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn, and Al in the coat of healthy Hucul horses kept in south-eastern Poland in two different facilities and fed with locally sourced feed. The co...

Horses have a slow rate of muscle glycogen repletion relative to other species for unknown reasons. Our aim was to determine the expression of glucose transporters (GLUT) and genes impacting GLUT4 expression and translocation in the gluteal muscle. F...

Little is known about the animal- and diet-related factors that could interfere with the plasma zinc (Zn) concentrations of equines. Additionally, the adequacy of plasma to reflect changes in the Zn intake is unclear. In the first part of this study,...

Equine-assisted services (EAS) is a relatively new area of study within higher education requiring the development of a curriculum that best prepares the undergraduate student for the demands of the industry. Further, coursework targeting the specifi...

For an adequate management of natural grasslands, the knowledge and understanding of the dietary habits of herbivores and their trophic interactions are fundamental. During two summer seasons, in a mountain range of a sector of the Coquimbo Region, C...

Horse meat is characterized by high nutritional value, but due to the specific physiology and long lifespan of horses, it represents a significant pathway for the bioaccumulation of toxic elements. The aim of this study was to examine the presence of...

The aim of this study was to characterize the routine care, training, feeding, and nutritional management of Chilean corralero horses that participated in the rodeos of the Chilean Rodeo Federation. Forty-nine horse farms between the Metropolitan (33...

Horse meat is a high-quality protein source. A total of 50 two-year-old male horses with similar body weights (300 ± 50 kg) were used: 30 for regional comparison (10 each from Bulgan province region of Mongolia (BPM), Tuv province region of Mo...

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has been used to evaluate the effect of various interventions on the equine microbiome. The aim of this randomised blinded clinical trial was to determine if a prebiotic nutritional supplement would result in a change...

Increasing interest in equine welfare has emphasised the need for objective and reliable behavioural indicators of horses’ affective state. However, research has yielded mixed results regarding behaviours suited for industry use largely because...

This study investigates French chefs’ perceptions and knowledge of horse meat as a sustainable alternative in gastronomy. The research addresses the dual challenges of reducing the environmental impact of traditional meat production and revivin...

Ferulic acid is a bioactive phenolic compound with potential benefits for skeletal muscle health. In this study, Mongolian horses were used as experimental subjects and were orally administered ferulic acid at doses of 5, 10, or 15 g per horse per da...

The natural behaviour of horses is to spend the majority of their time on feed intake The feeding of stabled horses is, however, often far from that, as their feed intake is limited to their nutritional requirements. In order to approach their natura...

This study presents the development of an innovative technology for the national Kazakh fermented milk product “Kurt” utilizing secondary dairy raw materials (buttermilk and whey) combined with horse fat. The research addresses the dual c...

Cultivated carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus) is a valuable component of equine diets due to its high β-carotene content (a precursor of vitamin A) and desirable sensory properties. However, its use may be limited by short shelf life, suscept...

Accurate measurement of equine body weight is important for evaluating medication dosages and feed quantities. Different methods exist for measuring body weight, including weigh tapes (WT), though accuracy varies. Measurements could be affected by ex...

Iron is unquestionably an essential element of physical performance for horses, just as it is for many other animals, including humans. Although post-exercise equine iron deficiency is not a common problem, recent studies showed that equine athletes...

In several regions in Europe, the horse is becoming a common grazer on semi-natural and cultivated grasslands, though the pasturing benefits for animals and biodiversity alike are not universally appreciated. The composition of ground vegetation on p...

The type of diet that a horse consumes is one of the most important factors determining the mineral profile and tensile strength of its hooves, so the quality and nutritional value of the supplied feed are fundamental to achieving satisfactory hoof q...

Identifying key welfare issues for thoroughbred racehorses could lead to an improvement in standards. A lack of scientific information on the relative importance of key issues was addressed by soliciting the views of, first, welfare experts in the in...

We validated a Thoroughbred racehorse welfare index, developed initially from expert opinion, by relating it to horse behaviour recorded in a range of training stables and surveying trainers to investigate the environment and management systems for T...

This review examines the available data regarding the positive effects of microencapsulated essential oils (EOs) on the nutrition, metabolism, and possibly the methane emission of horses. A literature review was conducted on the effect of microencaps...

Horses are large non-ruminant herbivores and rely on microbial fermentation for energy, with more than half of their maintenance energy requirement coming from microbial fermentation occurring in their enlarged caecum and colon. To achieve that, the...

Horses maintained under traditional management systems and dependent on natural forages are often exposed to seasonal and compositional variations that can affect metabolic homeostasis. This study examined associations between forage nutrient composi...

The German Society of Nutrition Physiology has proposed a new protein evaluation system for horse feeds to estimate pre-cecally digestible crude protein (pcdCP) and amino acids (pcdAA) from chemical properties. A total of 71 feeds for horses were che...

To support the overall health of horses, it is essential to maintain an optimal gut health (GH) status, which encompasses several physiological and functional aspects, including the balance and functionality of intestinal microbial populations and, a...

The aim of this study was to examine the nutrient composition and feed hygiene of alfalfa as well as investigate the feed intake, blood, urine and faecal parameters of horses fed alfalfa haylage (AS) compared with alfalfa hay (AH) and meadow hay (MH)...

Vaquejada is a high-intensity and short-duration exercise in which helper horses (HH) are responsible to keep a bull running in a line while pull horses (PH) work to put the bull down after 100 m of running. The purpose of this study was to quantify...

Background: Horses are hindgut fermenters, and it is therefore important to determine the postgastric nutritive value of their feedstuffs and diets. Moreover, it has been demonstrated in other animal species that the fermentation of diets results in...

Exploring new natural-origin antiparasitic alternatives is essential in addressing the resistance issues that have emerged due to the widespread use of chemical or synthetic antiparasitic compounds. This area remains relatively underexplored despite...

Determination of digestibility represents the first step for the evaluation of the net energy content of feed for livestock animals. The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vivo digestibility and in vitro degradability of five diets characterize...