Ep. 102: Horse Feeding Trends Explained: Forage-Based, Grain-Free & Everything in Between – Part 1

Episode Notes

Feeding your horse shouldn’t feel overwhelming, but with all the buzzwords floating around, it’s easy to wonder what’s truth and what’s fiction.

On this episode of Beyond the Barn, host Katy Starr chats with Dr. Kelly Vineyard, PhD equine nutritionist, to break down today’s most talked about feeding trends - like forage-based, forage-only, grain-free, low-starch, organic, and natural diets, and what those terms really mean for your horse’s health.

• The key differences between forage-only, forage-first, and forage-based feeding (and what’s right for your horse)
• What grain-free and low-NSC actually mean (and when they matter most)
• Why social media can make horse feeding sound more complicated than it is

If you’ve ever felt confused by feed labels or online advice, this episode will help you cut through the noise and get back to the basics - feeding your horse for health, not hype.

🎧 Listen now and be sure to follow so you don’t miss Part 2 where Katy and Dr. Vineyard answer real horse owner questions, bust common feeding myths, and share practical tips for balancing a forage-based or grain-free diet.

Have a topic idea or feedback to share? We want to connect with you! Email podcast@standlee.com

Read full episode transcript

Katy Starr (00:01):

Hi, I'm Katy Starr and you're listening to Beyond the Barn. Join me on this journey as we bust equine and livestock nutrition myths and sit down with some of the most intriguing experts from across the country. We'll also take you behind the scenes of how premium western quality forage is grown and brought to your favorite farm and ranch retail store. I'm so glad you're here. Welcome back to another episode of Beyond the Barn, Dr. Vineyard. Thanks for joining us back here in the studio again today.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (00:35):

Hi Katy, thanks for having me.

 

Katy Starr (00:37):

So, today we're actually going to be discussing kind of some, I don't know if you want to call it hot topic, trendy things going on in the industry. It's been going on, I think for at least the last couple years, but forage-based feeding, we hear about that terminology a lot, and there's a lot of terms that go with it. One thing that I wanted to bring up before we get started on this is a comment that I saw when I was doing my research and looking at the way that people communicate with each other in like the Facebook groups and Reddits and online. I saw a comment that stuck out to me, and I feel like that's what is going to be so important for our discussion today. And it was, "there is so much info out there, I get overwhelmed" from a horse owner. And so, when I saw that, I was just, I feel like it's so important for us to touch on this topic, talk about these words, what they mean to really help horse owners decide what's best for their horse and how they should be caring for their horse. And kind of like what you talked about previously, not overcomplicating our feed programs. Right. And so, I think that'll really set us up for good discussion today.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (01:51):

Yes, I totally agree. I feel like one of my passions is to help make feeding horses less complicated for horse owners and help horse owners understand where they can get good info versus bad info, because there is so much info out there. I agree. Like I understand why people get overwhelmed, sometimes I get overwhelmed . And I always have to go back to some key points, and maybe that's something we can certainly talk about is which info is good info, and then what info might not be worth your time, .

 

Katy Starr (02:26):

Right. So, before we actually get started on the discussion, I just want to remind listeners that any of the topics that we cover on the Beyond the Barn podcast are more generalized and not specific to any individual horse or any specific situation. Be sure to always work with your veterinarian and nutritionist before making any drastic changes to your horse's feed program. Or you could reach out to talk directly with us, Dr. Vineyard, our PhD equine nutritionist on any specifics that you would like to know. So, Dr. Vineyard, why don't you tell us a little bit about what usually even sparks a feeding trend in the horse industry?

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (03:06):

I think a lot of feeding trends for horses actually originate in human nutrition. I think we've seen this over the years. Even back when I was getting my PhD, my area of research was feeding Omega-3 fatty acids to horses. And that came straight from human nutrition. And this was many years ago now that I did my PhD research. And that's happening today too. So, now some of this is forge first or forage-based feeding or grain-free feeding trends. I definitely think that has originated from human nutrition, this move to more whole food based feeding, things like that, and more kind of a natural diet. There's all sorts of those types of diets out there for people. So, I think it's natural for us to sort of want to apply that to our horses. And then you pair that with social media, and specifically TikTok or these Facebook groups. And then there's a platform that we can just disseminate all sorts of information, whether it's good or bad, out to the world. And it's a greatly powerful tool to disseminate information. But now we have to be a little more discerning because it's so easy to disseminate information and there's really no filter there. So, I think that's just like the spark is human, and then the fire is social media. And then you've got a trend for sure. .

 

Katy Starr (04:30):

Got some fuel there that burns. . And so, obviously as we discussed, it can be confusing for horse owners to know exactly what they should be feeding their horse, especially when you hear all of the different terminology and the buzzwords that exist out there and the different interpretations, right. That people have. So, we're going to talk through some of these definitions, what these words mean, but then also understanding that there's no book, there's no bible for it, if you will, on what exactly something is. But I think if we can talk through this, it'll help people understand a little bit about what the terminology means and how they're trying to feed their horse. So, first off, how would you define forage?

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (05:14):

Well, there is a book definition for forage, and that's pretty straightforward, right? Basically a forage is the fibrous part of plants that horses eat in their natural grazing environment. So, grasses, legumes, and obviously the most common forms of forage in our modern horse diets are going to be their fresh pasture and then their long stemmed hay. But forage also includes chopped hay, hay cubes, pelleted hay. It's still that fibrous material of the plant. It's just packaged in a cube or a pellet. And other fibrous materials like beet pulp, that also is considered a forage too.

 

Katy Starr (05:53):

Excellent. And so, this is also, I feel like an important part of, of the conversation, because I hear this quite frequently in discussions with horse owners. But can you share the differences between a ration balancer versus forage balancer versus like a vitamin mineral supplement? Because people use these words interchangeably, but then they also use them differently. So, can you help us understand that a little bit better?

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (06:18):

Yes, I agree. It can absolutely be confusing. I like to blame some companies for that because the way these products are marketed sometimes can be quite inconsistent. But that actually goes back to there is no, I think established set definition of some of these terms. But I would say in general, I can give you how I define these different things. So, let's talk about a ration balancer first. Well, let's first talk about, there's two key aspects that I need to know about a product and how I'm going to categorize it. Number one is what's the daily feeding rate? Is it in ounces or is it in pounds? If something's fed in a very small rate, like in a few ounces per day, then certainly that's going to be a vitamin mineral supplement is fed in ounces. Something in pounds is more like a ration balancer. And then the other key aspect is whether or not a product contains added amino acids or added protein.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (07:10):

And that to me signals the ration balancer definition. So, a ration balancer will contain protein as well as vitamins and minerals. A vitamin mineral supplement obviously is just vitamins and minerals. And then you've got your forage balancer. And that's sort of is a little bit more of a fuzzy definition. It sort of depends on who you ask in my mind, a forage balance or is a little trickier. Because number one, it depends on what type of forage are you trying to balance. If you are trying to balance a low quality grass forage, you may need some additional protein to fill in the gaps of some low quality grasses that may not have enough amino acids for certain types of horses. So, then your forage balancer would contain some protein, right? Or if you're trying to balance a legume like an alfalfa, maybe your protein needs are are covered. And so, really you're just looking at a vitamin mineral supplement to be a forage balancer. So, again, forage balancer kind of falls in the middle, but to me, generally balancers are fed in pounds, supplements are fed in ounces.

 

Katy Starr (08:17):

Excellent. And then let's also talk about grain versus concentrate, because I know that that's used interchangeably between people when they're discussing that.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (08:27):

Oh, you've hit a nerve. This is my big pet peeve. in equine nutrition, grain and concentrate are two very different things. Okay. And I understand it's just kind of easy to use the terminology grain for anything you put in a bucket and you feed to your horse. But terminology matters. And so, I would love it if horse owners quit referring to anything that went in a bucket as grain. Grain specifically is defined as the seed of a cereal plant. Oats, corn, barley, those are grains, those are whole grains. A concentrate certainly can contain grain. Absolutely. But there's usually going to be, some other ingredients can be considered a concentrate. Concentrates are energy dense, they're usually less fibrous than forage. They are supplemental, they're going to be fed in a bucket. But they're designed to provide energy, essential nutrition. But it's more of like a complete mix of different ingredients. A concentrate feed, a concentrate can be grain-free. A concentrate can be high fiber, but it's something that's not forage. It's usually less fibrous than forage. Just this natural plant material. Maybe rice bran is considered a concentrate or you know, a commercial high fat, high fiber feed is a concentrate, but that is absolutely not a grain. Right? So, that's sort of my definition. A grain is strictly limited to, that's corn, oats, barley, whole seeds from a plant - concentrate, you could call oats a concentrate. So, all grains are concentrates, but not all concentrates are grain .

 

Katy Starr (10:01):

Yeah.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (10:02):

If that makes sense.

 

Katy Starr (10:03):

And I think you just hit the nail on the head with that. Because I think that's exactly what it means. And so, when people hear others talking about that, I think making sure that you have that frame of reference because I mean, they're not all the same. They don't do the same things for the horse. And so, I think that helps breaking that down a little bit. And so, let's get into some more of the, I guess, lingo or trendy terminology, trendy feeding programs that have been very popular over the last few years. So, let's talk about what does an all forage or a forage only horse diet mean?

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (10:42):

Sure. Well, pretty straightforward. A forage only diet means the horse's calorie and protein needs are being primarily met by forage alone with no added concentrate. So, we just described what a concentrate is, right? So, that's forage only. They're getting almost all of their nutrient needs met by forage. This is where it comes in. Now, this is a little bit of about my opinion because there's no set definition of whether or not if you add supplements like salt, all horses need salt. So, the addition to me, even when you add salt or maybe a vitamin mineral supplement only to correct forage imbalances and vitamins and minerals, I think that's still is considered under the umbrella of forage only. You're feeding those in ounces. You know, you're feeding a few ounces of salt, a few ounces of a vitamin mineral supplement. You still have all of the horse's calorie and protein needs coming from forage.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (11:35):

To me, that still can be considered a forage only diet. And this type of diet can work really well for certain classes of horses. Right? So, number one, adult horses at maintenance. Your pasture pets, great candidates for forage only diets. Your super easy keepers like pony breeds, morgans, draft crosses. These horses can do well on forage only diets. And horses just maintain on pasture. Maybe they're not being asked to do a lot forage only diets work really well in those scenarios because they don't need the extra calories from a concentrate. They don't need maybe the extra nutrition like a broodmare would or a performance horse would.

 

Katy Starr (12:17):

Right. And I think sometimes people want to just do the best by their horse. Right? And sometimes that can mean loving them a little too much. And so, if everybody else is feeding a concentrate or adding something in there, and even if they're not doing more with their horse, if it is a horse that's just out there living its best life, it doesn't have a lot of high energy needs, they want to still feed them concentrate. But is that a situation where we can get in trouble with maybe our horse getting a little overweight but not realizing it?

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (12:53):

It sort of depends on the concentrate. I mean, if you're talking about a ration balancer, no, I don't think you're at risk of making your horse overweight by feeding a ration balancer. And I would argue that you should be feeding a ration balancer because that makes it very easy to meet that horse's nutrient requirements. A lot of people don't think about when they have overweight horses restricting forage. But that actually is where your mind should go initially. If you have an easy keeper on a all forage diet and you're worried about them gaining too much weight, look at the forage intake and the calories they're taking in from forage. And there are many, many easy keepers on forage only diets that are overweight that some forage needs to be restricted.

 

Katy Starr (13:36):

Or the type of forage that they're feeding into.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (13:38):

Or yeah, they may need to think about switching the type of forage to a less calorie dense version. So, certainly it depends on what you mean by concentrate. Do you want to feed grain to a,

 

Katy Starr (13:48):

If there's added grains in the diet to where it would be higher energy.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (13:50):

Yeah, absolutely.

 

Katy Starr (13:53):

Okay. So, it obviously just depends on what it is specifically that you're feeding, what the ingredients are, how much are in it and things like that. And so, then how about forage-based or forage first horse diets?

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (14:07):

You know, again, it sounds like you're saying the same thing a little bit, but if you dig deeper, forage only and forage-based I think can be defined a little bit differently. To me, a forage-based ration still means the majority of the horse's diet, at least let's say 60-70% or more comes from forage. But within this umbrella of the definition, bringing in some concentrates, some ration balancers or other supplements may be included. But you still, on a total diet basis, you have a forage-based diet. Forage is making up over half of that horse's diet. Forage is providing the foundation of calories, foundation of protein, the foundation of fiber. And I'll just go out and say it all horses should be on a forage-based diet. Right? That is how the horse's physiology is designed. Are all horses fed a forage-based diet?

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (14:57):

I think when you get into some of these higher performance horses with high calorie needs or maybe some breeding animals with high calorie needs, you may be getting closer to that 50-50 ratio of forage and concentrate. That's not a forage-based diet. But that also doesn't necessarily mean that it's wrong for that specific horse. Let's take your pregnant broodmare for example. So, you've got, and I've worked with these horses, you've got a pregnant thoroughbred. So, you've got a hard keeper breed. She's in her third trimester of pregnancy. She's got a huge fetus that weighs, you know, pushing a hundred pounds. She's about to give birth. That fetus is growing, that mare has a high energy demand. Her mammary glands are starting to gear up. She's starting to, you know, get ready to nurse that foal once it's born. She cannot eat a forage-based diet and still meet all of her nutrient needs.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (15:47):

She is going to require some extra source of concentrate that can be smaller volume. Because all of that foal is taking up a huge amount of real estate in her gut. Mm-Hmm . And so, some of those mares, we do have to play around with the proportion of forage and concentrate in their diets just to make sure they're getting all their nutrition at that specific stage. You know? And then once they have the foal and once they're done lactating, you know, absolutely things may change. But again, it goes back to what's the end game here? What's our goal? I think everybody has the same goal. We want to do the best for our horses. And so, in that specific part of a horse's life, maybe that one little example is where a forage-based diet doesn't work for all horses. It may work for a lot of pregnant broodmares, but some it may not. And you have to be willing to look at what the end goal is instead of, you know, following a trend in that example.

 

Katy Starr (16:42):

Yeah. And some people might say, and I'm just playing devil's advocate here, right? So, they might say, well what about wild horses? They do this, you know, they have foals and do that all the time. But then we think about what you're hoping that mare looks like when she foals, right? Is she still in good body condition? Is she still going to be able to produce a good healthy amount of milk for the foal versus a wild mare? I mean, she's probably not looking so hot once she gets to that point.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (17:14):

And her foal may not survive either. You know? I mean the survival rate of foals and the wild is, is definitely not as high as it is, you know, with the mares that are domesticated. So, and yes, all you have to do is go look at these wild horses and how they're, you know, usually their body condition is less than a five. And yes, are they surviving? Absolutely, but are they thriving? Not always. And we want our horses, you know, when we know better, we can do better. And we want our horses to thrive and we don't want to hurt them. You know, we don't want to cause you know, an overload of, of concentrate. And so, we certainly have to be mindful of the types of concentrates we're feeding. And you can feed these broodmares with high fat, high fiber diets that don't overload their small intestine with starch and it's perfectly safe. But in those cases, concentrates are needed to help them thrive.

 

Katy Starr (18:05):

Excellent. And another thing that we talked about as we were kind of prepping for this episode is talking about forage-based. Right? But then also forage first because you kind of set that up as more of a philosophy way of thinking.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (18:19):

I think all, again, all these terminologies, but when I think of forage first, and maybe I like, I could also call it forage forward. It's almost like a feeding philosophy. And that philosophy means you begin with your forage. You begin by selecting the forage type or the types that you have available to you. You know, whether that's from your local farmer or whether that's, you know, some like bag forages that you feed. You start there and you feed as much as you can to meet as many of the horse's nutritional requirements as possible. And then you select your other feeds and concentrates to correct deficiencies, you know, meet higher energy demands or to deliver additional benefits. You know, that like we talk about functional nutrition now, you know, are you going to want to bring in some omega threes? Do you need to bring in additional vitamin E because you have a horse with a myopathy? So, it's still a forage-based kind of ration, but forage first takes it a step further I think. And you know, you're probably going to be pulling some analyses on your forage so you can really best design the remainder of your feeding program to compliment the forage you're specifically working with.

 

Katy Starr (19:26):

Right. And we talked about this a little bit about how, you know, it can be very confusing, especially when there's different interpretations of some of these terms. Mm-Hmm But I think if we can almost try to get away from being so focused on, I want to feed forage-based because that's what everybody else is doing and it seems like it's good for my horse. But thinking about like, what is your end goal with your horse? You know, what are you hoping to accomplish? And so, that way instead of feeling like we're stuck on a term that may or may not mean one thing to one person or another, we're actually looking at what am I hoping to do with my horse and how am I wanting to feed them, get a little bit more specific. And then I think that will help us avoid just getting caught up in trends and actually feeding, you know, for our horse the best that we can.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (20:18):

Yeah. And it's also just taking a look at the big picture, which also includes, you know, your management situation at your barn and are you group feeding or are you individually feeding? Are you in a boarding barn and are you stuck with feeding the forage that they bring in? And you have no control over that. Well, you know, what you do have control over the concentrate you bring in to sort of match that forage. Or are you in complete control and can you go out and source, you know, the winter's worth of hay to put in your barn? I mean, you're really lucky if you can do that. But , not everybody has so many different scenarios of the realities of what your management situation allows from a forage component. But you know, at the end of the day, we want our horses to thrive and we want them to avoid negative health consequences from feeding an imbalanced diet. And there are so many ways you can accomplish that. And then I think for me, you know, a forage-based diet is a great approach. And then being willing to use the different supplements or concentrates or ration balancers, whatever it may be that your situation requires to meet your goals.

 

Katy Starr (21:29):

Yeah. Excellent. So, another term, I say this because I think sometimes when people say forage-based diet lately, I think this next one is what they're wanting to do. So, that's why I say when we think about like, you know, what's your end goal? What are you trying to accomplish? Like getting more specific about those things. But can you talk a little bit about what it means when someone says they have like a grain-free horse feed program?

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (21:57):

Well, that's a great question because again, it a little bit goes back to semantics. So, you know, for me a grain is the seed of a cereal plant. So, grain-free to me would mean an entire ration that doesn't have any oats, you know, corn, barley in it. Someone else may think of grain-free as like a bucket feed, right? Or concentrate free.

 

Katy Starr (22:22):

Yeah. We didn't even have that in here for planning, but yes, now that we're talking, you're exactly right.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (22:29):

Yeah. Is it a concentrate free diet that's very different than a grain-free diet? I actually think this whole grain-free thing is a pretty good little marketing term, but it's not always nutritionally necessary. We can talk about grain, let's say oats for example. Oats have been successfully fed to horses for thousands of years. Now back a hundred years ago, maybe they were feeding too much oats at one time and causing some problems. But as we learn and do studies, now we understand what the threshold is for starch digestion and the small intestine. So, you know, oats in small amounts and, and that the horse can handle successfully. They actually do have a nutritional place in a lot of horse diets. So, if someone says they want to go grain-free, they're just going to have to do their due diligence at meeting their horse's nutritional needs in other ways, you know, fat and fiber is, you can easily do it that way, but if you're going to be a stickler about grain-free and you want to feed a a commercial concentrate, it's going to be a little bit more challenging because a lot of commercial concentrates, even though they're high fat and high fiber and low starch, they may have a small amount of some sort of sort of grain product that either, you know, helps with palatability, it helps add calories.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (23:48):

So, again, it's what your end goal is. And if your end goal is to provide nutrition, I think grain-free is irrelevant. If your end goal is to avoid an ingredient your horse allergic to, well sure. Avoid grain. If they have a sensitivity or something to that effect. But I do think that grain-free term is probably overused, and most people are saying it's a concentrate free diet, not specifically. You know, they're wanting to avoid even, you know, products that maybe are grain-free, but oh no, I don't. I just want to feed hay only. Well that's fine, but you're going to have to balance it with something, you know? Mm-Hmm .

 

Katy Starr (24:32):

Yeah. And then let's talk about a low starch or low NSC horse diet.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (24:38):

I mean, to me the definition of a low starch diet is any diet that just minimizes the amount of soluble carbs in the horse's diet and the ration. And I mean that's very important for specific types of horses with medical conditions, you know, insulin resistance that have a history of laminitis. Even PSSM horses, there's a lot of different medical conditions where we want to monitor the starch and sugar. There is no universal definition of what low means, unfortunately. So, in general, when you're looking at the total ration, you know, we want it to be less than, you know, 10-12% non-structural carbs. But even for me, I would say what's even more important is when you're trying to manage like insulin response to a meal, it's always about what's in that meal that you're feeding. So, trying to manage the, you know, carb content of your meal is really what's going to have the most impact on glycemic response and some of these medical conditions specifically.

 

Katy Starr (25:34):

Right. That's excellent. And another term that we hear thrown around a lot, what does feeding an organic horse diet mean?

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (25:43):

Well, that's a kind of a open term organic, it sounds appealing, right? Organic, that sounds pretty healthy. But I also think it's important to understand that, you know, some of these terms can be a little misleading because organic actually says nothing about whether or not something's nutritionally sound. Now AFCO, which is the American Association of Feed Control Officials, that's the governing body for all these horse kind of feed products that are manufactured in the United States, they have a definition for organic animal feed and basically they're defaulting to the USDA, right? The United States Department of Agriculture who governs human food. So, AFCO sort of defaults to the human food definition of organic. So, right now, officially, organic products are defined under the human food laws. It's something that's produced through approved methods that integrate cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that foster a cycling of resources, promote ecological balance and conserve biodiversity.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (26:50):

That's like the exact definition from the USDA and that all sounds really great. So, if that's something that's important to somebody, I love that there's a definition for that because I feel like having that definition and that the fact that AFCO kind of defers to the USDA for manufacturers cannot put organic on their bag of feed unless it meets that quality, at least you know what you're getting. You know, this oversight assures people who, you know, want to purchase organic foods, you're getting what you pay for. Okay. So, I, I definitely support having that definition. But again, going back to what I originally said, and even the FDA makes this kind of disclaimer, they, or the USDA, I'm sorry, makes the disclaimer that they don't consider organic foods to necessarily be safer or healthier or more nutritious than conventionally produced foods. So, always keep that in mind. It, it's organic is, is kind of a way of producing, you know, it's more about the practices used to produce that as opposed to the nutritional content of that feed.

 

Katy Starr (27:55):

Excellent. And then how about when people say they want to feed kind of a quote-on-quote natural horse diet, or maybe say like natural supplement, however that kind of comes into play?

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (28:08):

Yeah. I mean, natural is another very broadly defined term. Yeah. It's not clear, I would say.

 

Katy Starr (28:17):

Not clear definition like you would get with organic.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (28:20):

. AFCO does have an official definition for natural, and it's basically a feed or ingredient derived from a plant, animal or mined source that is not produced by or subject to a chemically synthetic process. So, you know, forage, that's natural . There's no chemically synthetic process in the, in the forage and forage products. And like with the Standlee bag forages, those are all considered natural, right? Because there's no chemically synthetic process that's used to kind of make that. However, like if you go look at some commercial concentrates that may have added vitamins and minerals, some of those may not quote fall under that definition of natural because there is some sort of process that goes into creating those minerals. Does that mean it's unhealthy? No. You know, so natural doesn't always mean healthy and unnatural doesn't necessarily mean unhealthy. It really just has to do with where it's derived from.

 

Katy Starr (29:16):

Okay, we're going to pause this conversation here, but we're not done yet. Stay tuned for part two of our discussion, releasing Tuesday, November 4th. In this next episode, episode 103, Dr. Vineyard and I will dive into how to keep a forage-based or forage focused type diet balanced, even in a large herd setting when you're wanting to take horses off grain. And we'll do a little myth busting because not everything you read online about grain, starch, and feeding trends tells the full story. So, hit that follow button and subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss part two of this conversation. It's going to be a good one.