Ep. 109: 4 Horse Feeding Mistakes That Increase Laminitis Risk

Episode Notes

***Complete our short survey by Wednesday, March 11, 2026 to be entered for a chance to win Standlee free product coupons and some fun Standlee swag – https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/btb2026podcast***

_______________________________

On this episode of the Feeding Fumbles & Fixes series of Beyond the Barn, host Katy Starr chats with Dr. Kelly Vineyard, PhD equine nutritionist, to discuss four common horse feeding mistakes that can increase laminitis, including:

• Why some horses at the highest risk for laminitis look healthy and fit
• What current research is teaching us about meal size, carbohydrate load, and metabolic stress
• How everyday feeding and management decisions can strain the hoof long before any soreness appears

Dr. Vineyard also talks about how metabolic testing works, what body condition scores really mean, and why meal size and NSC intake per feeding matter, especially for at-risk horses.

🎧 Listen now on the Beyond the Barn podcast

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

_______________________________

Episode References – 

~19:07 – Dr. Erica Macon Research - Identifying possible thresholds for nonstructural carbohydrates in the insulin dysregulated horse  |  Insulin dysregulated horses metabolic responses to forage pellets

_______________________________

Resources to Learn More – 

More about sugar and starch sensitivity in horses:

• Podcast - Ep. 096: The Problem with One-Size-Fits-All Feeding Plans for Metabolic Horses - Part 2
• Podcast - Ep. 095: Metabolic Horses Aren’t Always Fat - Here’s What No One Tells You - Part 1
• Podcast - Ep. 088: NSC, Sugars, Starches, Fructans – Are They Good or Bad for Horses?
• Podcast - Ep. 057: How to Prevent and Manage Laminitis
• Podcast - Ep. 006: Successful Strategies to Help Limit NSC (aka Sugars and Starches) in Horse Diets
• Podcast - Ep. 005: Are Horses Carbohydrate Sensitive?
• Blog Post - Cresty Neck – A Precursor to Metabolic Disease in Horses
• Blog Post - How to Avoid High NSC Intake for Horses in the Spring
• Blog Post - Laminitis in Horses: Symptoms, Causes, and Feeding Strategies to Support Hoof Health
• Nutritional White Paper - Carbohydrates and Horses — What Do I Need To Know?v
• Webinar - Spring Into Action! What to Watch Out For: Metabolic Disease Prevention & Management
• Webinar - My Horse Is Carb Sensitive, Isn’t It?

Product Solutions Recommended by Dr. Kelly Vineyard – 

• Standlee Alfalfa Cubes
• Standlee Alfalfa Compressed Bales
• Standlee Teff Grass Pellets
• Standlee Smart Carb Performance

_______________________________

*Views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Standlee Premium Products, LLC.*

_______________________________

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.

 

Katy Starr (00:27):

Five years, hundreds of conversations and an incredible community behind it all Beyond the Barn wouldn't be what it is today without listeners like you who tune in, share the podcast with your friends and care about feeding animals well. We have loved bringing you practical nutrition advice and stories from people making a difference in the equine and livestock industries. To celebrate and to say thank you, we're giving away Standlee free product coupons and some fun swag. For your chance to win, all you have to do is rate and review the Beyond the Barn Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and fill out our short survey linked in the show notes. That's it. Thank you for being part of our journey. We truly couldn't do this without you. Welcome back to the Beyond the Barn podcast. We're back to our Feeding Fumbles and fixes series. It's all about learning from real life feeding mistakes and experiences and finding simple practical ways to make improvements for your horse ownership journey.

 

Katy Starr (01:28):

In this episode of the series, we're covering horse feeding mistakes that increase laminitis risk. And just as a reminder, any of the topics 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 can reach out to us and talk directly with our PhD equine nutritionist on any specifics you'd like to know. Laminitis is often thought of as a hoof problem, but today we know it's far more complex. In many horses, laminitis begins as a metabolic issue driven by changes in insulin and hormone signaling long before the feet ever show pain. What's especially concerning is that some horses at risk look completely normal, good appetite, good energy, and no obvious red flags.

 

Katy Starr (02:24):

Yet inside the hoof changes might already be happening. In this episode, we're going to discuss proactive ways to reduce laminitis risk for your horses. Thanks for being back with us, Dr. Vineyard.

 

Dr. Vineyard (02:37):

Thanks for having me.

 

Katy Starr (02:39):

So, today we're talking about four horse feeding mistakes that increase laminitis risk and the goal of this episode is to give you practical science-backed fixes you can apply to support the health of your metabolic horse. So, Dr. Vineyard, why don't we talk about starting with mistake number four that can increase laminitis risk in horses assuming that your horse is metabolically normal and feeding them that way. Can you explain a little bit more about that?

 

Dr. Vineyard (03:09):

Well, yes I can explain this because I'll be the first to admit I have made this mistake and I really don't want anybody else to make this. And the reason that assuming your horse is metabolically normal and just proceeding that way is a mistake, is because many insulin dysregulated horses actually look completely normal on the outside. They look healthy. They may have a BCS of five, maybe they're in full work as my horse is and have no history of laminitis whatsoever. And I have seen this time and time again. Unfortunately, sometimes you don't find out your horse is insulin resistant until your horse suffers from a bat of laminitis and you know, at that point it's too late. Right? And this actually happened to a dear friend of mine last year. She has a beautiful warm blood mare. They were showing successfully fourth level dressage, athletic horse, full work, getting ready to move up to FEI and boom, all of a sudden the mare developed laminitis and you know, despite being in a healthy body condition, being in full work and sadly she never recovered and it really hit us both really hard and it's a horrible situation to go through.

 

Dr. Vineyard (04:17):

So, that actually prompted me personally to test my own horse. He's a 11-year-old warm blood gelding and full work body condition score of five, no history of any issues. But I decided to do metabolic testing on him and guess what? He was insulin resistant and I was shocked a little bit but also really glad that I tested him because I did make some changes to both his management and his feeding regimen to help reduce his laminitis risk for the future.

 

Katy Starr (04:47):

Right. And when you say you tested him, did you work with your veterinarian? How did you do that?

 

Dr. Vineyard (04:53):

Absolutely, yes, definitely metabolic testing has to be done through an equine veterinarian, I called my vet and I said, Hey, can you just come out? Let's do an oral sugar test and that's one way to do metabolic testing. So, she came out and helped me do that and yeah, that's how we diagnosed him.

 

Katy Starr (05:09):

Excellent. So, what is the consequence, I guess, of assuming that your horse is normal? Because we all have thought that I think for a long time, but new science is coming out and showing us otherwise. So, what's the consequence of assuming that our horse is completely normal because they look normal?

 

Dr. Vineyard (05:27):

Right, well we know that, you know laminitis, one of the ways it can develop is from repeated metabolic strain that's due to this prolonged hyperinsulinemia, so like elevated insulin like for a long time in the horse's body and it maybe not just from like a single event like getting into the feed room or something like that. And so over time that chronically elevated insulin starts to damage that kind of lamella of the hoof. And when the insulin dysregulated horses are kind of fed stuff that are higher in non-structural carbs that repeatedly spike their insulin because they can't handle it very well, each of those spikes will increase the strain on the lamellar tissues and can lead to long-term damage.

 

Katy Starr (06:12):

Hmm. Yeah, that doesn't sound good at all. And so, what is our fix or solution for this? What is your recommendation?

 

Dr. Vineyard (06:21):

Well, you kind of already mentioned about working with a veterinarian for testing and absolutely this is what I encourage owners to have this conversation with your veterinarian and ask them, does my horse have any of the other risk factors like a certain breed disposition or maybe some fat deposits? And that's actually personally my horse. He had these two little fat pads behind his shoulder. He was like very fit and a very good body condition. But these little weird fat pads, I kind of was always like, I don't really like looking at those. And so that was a little bit of a tip for us also that maybe he needed to be tested. But yeah, talk to your vet, see if metabolic testing makes sense for your horse. As I mentioned, there are different ways to test. You can take a fasting blood glucose insulin sample or you can do the oral sugar test. My preference is the oral sugar test just because it gives you a little more information. It's a dynamic test, it is more involved, there's multiple sampling involved but you know, it does give you a little bit more of a complete assessment of their metabolic status, especially if they're in the early stages of insulin dysregulation. But you know, at the end of the day, once you know your horse's metabolic status with confidence, then you can make better informed decisions, you know, going forward about their diet and their management.

 

Katy Starr (07:37):

And so, mistake number three that can increase laminitis risk in horses is ignoring body condition and allowing obesity.

 

Dr. Vineyard (07:47):

We do see an obesity epidemic in our horses in the United States and there's been a couple owner surveys that would sort of support that. But you know at the end of the day excess weight puts excess strain on hoof structures, and then feeding excess energy or calories causes fat deposits or adiposity or fat accumulation. And that in and of itself can decrease insulin sensitivity.

 

Katy Starr (08:13):

And so, consequence of ignoring body condition, I think at one point or another, people might feel a little guilty about just loving your horse a little too much. Right. Oh, let's just give them a little more, I don't know if they're getting quite enough or maybe not measuring right, we can kind of accidentally overfeed by doing that. But what's kind of the consequence, I guess, of just ignoring it and just saying, oh they'll be okay. It's better that they have a little extra than not enough.

 

Dr. Vineyard (08:37):

Well, the consequence is that you know, a fat horse will have reduced insulin sensitivity and that is a risk factor for laminitis and an overweight horse also, if they have laminitis, they're more likely to experience founder, which is actually the separation of the lamina and that downward rotation of the coffin bone. You know, laminitis is inflammation and then founder is like the really bad form of it when the coffin bone rotates. So, an overweight horse is more at risk for that.

 

Katy Starr (09:06):

Okay. So, talk to us a little bit about maybe our fix or solution for an obese horse, I guess to kind of help our horses out that might be at risk.

 

Dr. Vineyard (09:16):

Yeah, I mean obviously let's try to keep our horses at a healthy body condition really between that five and a six on the henneke body condition scale that may change a little bit. You know, sometimes if you have like a pregnant mare, you may be okay at a six and a half or you know, if you have a a racehorse they're okay at a four. But most of our average performance horses and companion horses, a five to six BCS is, is considered healthy. But if their ribs are difficult to feel, you know, even if you're like pressing with firm pressure along their rib cage or if their neck is obviously cresty, it's like fills up your hand as you put your hand on the, on the crest or if there's like a crease like above their tail head or behind where the saddle goes and the where the loin area is or the croup your horse is probably obese and you know it's time to implement an exercise and calorie restriction plan.

 

Dr. Vineyard (10:08):

This is where your vet or your nutritionist can help you if you're unsure of the best way to do that. And I always recommend, you know, a good weight loss plan includes regular monitoring. So, get a good weight tape, take weekly measures with your weight tape to sort of monitor your progress and think of it as a mindset shift. You know, you talk about, oh we, we love our horses and we want them to be happy and throw them a little bit extra feet or hay and they're plump and they look healthy. I think the mindset shift needs to happen to think, I want to prolong their life, prevent laminitis and keep them at a healthy body condition score. Even if that does mean restricting their calorie intake or increasing their exercise or whatever that may look like.

 

Katy Starr (10:50):

And that's really the best way I think to love them and care for them too by doing that.

 

Dr. Vineyard (10:54):

For sure.

 

Katy Starr (10:55):

So, mistake number two that can increase laminitis risk in horses, not considering forage or hay sugar and starch content.

 

Dr. Vineyard (11:04):

Yeah, I mean the largest portion of the horse's diet is going to be forage and unfortunately it's not always easy, you know, to test your forage for carb content, especially maybe if you're in a boarding situation or there's an inconsistent hay supply or even with a pasture there's going to be seasonal fluctuations. So, it's, it's actually pretty difficult to like keep a handle on it year round. But that doesn't mean that it's not worth it, especially if you know your horse is sensitive to dietary carbohydrates. So, it's always not top of mind most of us when we think about carbs and restricting them for horses we focus on the concentrate, you know, I want to feed X amount of NSC but I would love for owners to start also thinking about their forage too, because it's a huge mistake to just completely ignore the forage component of the diet because that actually is where the majority of carbs come from in a horse's diet.

 

Katy Starr (11:59):

And so, what is the consequence then if we put that out of our mind, maybe we are just looking at concentrate, we're not paying attention to our forage or hay. What's going to happen if we just go about our merry way?

 

Dr. Vineyard (12:12):

Hopefully it might be fine . If your horse is metabolically normal, it probably will be. But if your horse is metabolic or has a dietary carb sensitivity and they're allowed, you know, unrestricted access to lush spring pasture or fed some of these cool season forages that do tend to have a fairly high non-structural carb content, you know, pushing 15, 16, even 17%, their insulin will spike. And we know that an insulin spike to an unsafe level can increase laminitis risk.

 

Katy Starr (12:42):

Right. Especially when it's consistent day after day.

 

Dr. Vineyard (12:46):

That's right.

 

Katy Starr (12:47):

Okay. And so, what is our fix or solution for this?

 

Dr. Vineyard (12:51):

Well, I mean the obvious solution is forage testing. You know, either you test it yourself, especially if you're getting a large batch of hay in or maybe you can buy from a supplier that offers a forage analysis along with their hay supply or you know, the alternative is you can purchase forage that has guaranteed carbohydrate levels. And this is actually one of the many reasons I love and recommend Standlee Forage products, especially for metabolic horses, is because the starch and sugar content is routinely tested for it's guaranteed on every single bag. That definitely takes some guesswork away or you know, out of like the forage component of the diet when you're feeding a metabolic horse. And you know, if testing is not an option, the next best thing is to soak your hay 30 minutes in warm water, 60 minutes in room temperature water is a good rule of thumb that's going to reduce some of the soluble carbs. Just be aware, number one, please drain the water , right? That's where the sugar ends up, right?

 

Katy Starr (13:50):

That's where it's all sitting.

 

Dr. Vineyard (13:51):

, that's where it sits. And then secondly, that also can leach some protein and some essential nutrients. So, just make sure they're also getting like a ration balance or a vitamin mineral supplement as well to maybe make up for some of that nutrient loss. And then when it comes to pasture, you know, for these sensitive horses you may need to limit their grazing time. If you don't know you know, what the pasture carb content is, especially during the afternoon and the evening or after a hard frost, those tend to be times when the carb content is higher. And then sometimes for these super sensitive horses, completely eliminating pasture for these high risk guys is really the most effective option to keep the laminitis risk low.

 

Katy Starr (14:35):

Right. And another thing is having them out on pasture with a grazing muzzle. Sometimes folks like to use those as well, which I think can help with that a little bit.

 

Dr. Vineyard (14:45):

I love grazing muzzles for these horses. It does give, you know, lets them still be on pasture with their buddies but they're not eating too much grass too fast. And you know, people worry about grazing muzzles being like a, a torture device or you know, my horse hates it, and I always like to say, well your horse will hate laminitis more. It's way more painful.

 

Katy Starr (15:05):

So, now we're at our number one mistake that can increase laminitis risk in horses and that is feeding large concentrate meals with high sugar and starch content.

 

Dr. Vineyard (15:16):

Yeah, I mean I think everybody knows this, right? , this is the one and it is number one for a reason. because it is such a concern when you pair, you know, feeding like cereal grains or sweet feeds that already contain higher sugar and starch levels, right? And then you pair that with feeding like a big meal of these high carbohydrate feed stuffs. Those are going to produce these huge insulin peaks. And so for an at-risk horse that's a double whammy. You know, , you got a big meal and high carbs.

 

Katy Starr (15:50):

There's been some groups that I've been in where I see people talk about like maybe they're a newer horse owner or maybe they've just gotten a new horse from someone else and they frequently are talking about how oh, they had them on sweet feed, so that's just what I was going to keep them on. And like it almost seemed like it was a standard. I think maybe it was for a period of time years ago that sweet feed was kind of a standard feed for horses.

 

Dr. Vineyard (16:13):

Well sure, I mean it, that was probably one of the more original commercial feeds were grain mixes and then pellets came much later. Horses like sweet feeds, they eat sweet feeds well. And so they definitely are utilized for that reason. And you know, oh my horse loves his feed. Like why would I change this? Because they love some sweet feed, that's for sure.

 

Katy Starr (16:32):

What is our consequence then if we end up not paying attention to our concentrate? And we do have that situation right, where maybe our horse is at risk, but we're like, oh, the previous owner fed him that and it seemed fine at the time, so what's our consequence there?

 

Dr. Vineyard (16:46):

Yeah, well we know that that post meal insulin response in metabolic horses is often, it's exaggerated, it's prolonged, but even a single large high carb meal can produce insulin concentrations high enough to play stress on lamellar structures of the hoof. But then you repeat that day after day and that can just continue to weaken the attachment between the hoof wall and the coffin bone, you know, increasing that sort of structural and clinical laminitis. But even for a non-metabolic horse or like you know, the horse that's metabolically normal and could handle some grain, you know, there's also that experience of grain overload. So, that's like when a horse breaks into the feed room and eats a whole bag of oats. You know, God forbid, I remember one time my neighbor's horse did this and like we all freaked out, you know, it's your worst nightmare call the vet when that happens, right? But if you catch them, but that's kind of a different scenario, even in, in a normal horse, all of this excess starch ends up in the hindgut and that leads to hindgut acidosis. All of those microbes start really going crazy when they get all this extra starch. And that triggers this really awful cascade of events leads to systemic inflammation, which also can eventually lead to a laminitis bout as well in a severe situation.

 

Katy Starr (18:01):

And so, what is our fix or solution for the concentrate or overload concentrate or too high of sugar content.

 

Dr. Vineyard (18:10):

So, we know now that kind of feeding lower carb concentrates and splitting those rations into multiple small meals is going to smooth out that glucose insulin response to a meal and that reduces metabolic stress. Now for most horses, like even your average, you know, normal horse, that's not metabolic. Keeping a meal size less than 0.5% of body weight is a really good rule of thumb. Your risk of hindgut acidosis and excess starch in the hindgut is going to be low even when feeding a higher carb feed. And for those who didn't want to do the math in their head, that's about five pounds for a thousand pound horse for a meal of concentrate. Okay? So, for a metabolic horse who's at risk, you're going to need to feed less and smaller meals. And so, this means maybe three meals a day is going to work better if especially if they're eating a lot, you know, large amounts of concentrate to maintain weight or maybe it's a broodmare or something like that.

 

Dr. Vineyard (19:07):

And then we know that the newest recommendation for at-risk metabolic horses, based on some research that's coming out of Dr. Erica Macon's lab at Texas A&M is to limit the total non-structural carb content of one meal to around 0.1 grams of NSC per kilo of body weight to keep insulin below that kind of like metabolic or laminitic threshold because they have, you know, altered ability to deal with glucose. So, for perspective, a one pound meal of oats, which has an NSC, you know, around 60%, that's going to deliver 270 grams of NSC, that is well above the threshold that we're looking for, which would be about 50 grams of NSC per meal for a thousand pound horse. Alternatively, you look at a one pound meal of a ration balancer that's at about 10% of non-structural carb that will be below your threshold and that's about 45 grams of NSC. So, low carb feed stuffs, small meals can really help avoid these situations. And then finally, I think it goes without saying, keep feed rooms and feed bins secured at all times to prevent unwanted excess consumption.

 

Katy Starr (20:25):

Absolutely. That is great advice. And I will add in for those of our listeners that haven't had a chance to listen yet, we had Dr. Macon on the podcast earlier last year, episode 95 and episode 96. We had to make it a two part conversation because it was just that good. And so you can learn a lot more about the research that she's doing. It's so fantastic and you can go explore that a little bit more. But Dr. Vineyard, thank you so much for being on and talking to us about four feeding mistakes that can increase our risk for laminitis.

 

Dr. Vineyard (21:00):

Okay, thank you.

 

Katy Starr (21:02):

Today we covered four horse feeding mistakes that increase laminitis risk and how to fix those mistakes. Here are some key takeaways from Dr. Vineyard. Do not assume your horse is metabolically normal based on appearance or performance alone. Proactive metabolic testing allows owners to adjust diet and management before your irreversible damage occurs.

 

Katy Starr (21:25):

Excess body fat reduces insulin sensitivity while added body weight increases stress on the hoof. Making overweight horses more vulnerable to laminitis. Managing body condition is not cosmetic and it is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce the risk of laminitis. Forage is the primary source of carbohydrates in a horse's diet. And ignoring its sugar and starch content can quietly drive laminitis risk, test hay or forage, and use feed management strategies like grazing muzzles or restricted grazing times to reduce laminitis risk. Large, high sugar and starch concentrate meals create dangerous insulin spikes that directly increase laminitis risk. Limiting meal size and non-structural carbohydrates per feeding for at-risk horses is one of the most effective ways to reduce metabolic stress and laminitis risk. If you want to dig a little deeper into feeding strategies for laminitic or at risk Iaminitic horses, we've linked some additional resources in our show notes and we'd love to hear your feedback on our Feeding Fumbles and Fixes series or ideas for future episodes. Reach out to us anytime podcast@standlee.com. Thanks for listening to the Beyond the Barn podcast by Standlee Forage. We'd love for you to share our podcast with your favorite people and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite listening platform. Until next time, keep your cinch tight and don't forget to turn off the water.