Ep. 116: 3 Horse Feeding Mistakes That Increase Colic Risk (and How to Fix Them)

Episode Notes

Colic is one of the most common reasons for emergency veterinary calls for horses and many risk factors are tied to everyday feeding and management decisions.

On this episode of the Feeding Fumbles & Fixes series of Beyond the Barn, host Katy Starr and Dr. Kelly Vineyard, PhD equine nutritionist, discuss common feeding mistakes and management practices that can increase your horse’s risk of colic, including:

• The commonly overlooked daily factor that can disrupt normal gut function faster than expected
• The forage quality issue that could be working against your horse’s digestive health
• How even minor changes in your feeding routine can create major ripple effects in your horse’s hindgut

It is always better to prevent potential issues than deal with the consequences later. Building a strong feeding foundation is key to supporting your horse’s long-term digestive health, so you can feel confident you’re giving them the best care possible!

🎧 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

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Check out our other Beyond the Barn episodes on colic and digestive health –

• Ep. 110: When to Call the Vet – What Horse Owners Need to Know About Equine Emergencies with Dr. Erica Lacher
• Ep. 090: Prevent Digestive Trouble - Why Consistency in Feeding Horses Matters
• Ep. 080: Why Every Horse Owner Needs an Emergency Disaster Plan: Expert Tips with Dr. Briana Hamamoto
• Ep. 074: How to Prevent Gastric Issues by Supporting the Horse's Gut Microbiome
• Ep. 015: How Proper Nutrition Management Can Decrease Your Horse’s Risk of Colic

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

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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):

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 help make improvements for your horse ownership journey. In this episode of the series, we're covering horse feeding mistakes that can increase colic risk. 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 to talk directly with our PhD equine nutritionists on any specifics you'd like to know. Colic is one of the biggest fears horse owners have, and for good reason. It's one of the leading causes of emergency veterinary calls in horses.

 

Katy Starr (01:24):

Research has shown that many colic risk factors are tied to everyday feeding and management practices. Horses have incredibly sensitive digestive systems, especially in the hindgut, where billions of microbes help ferment or break down fiber and support gut health. And studies have shown that abrupt feed changes over even just a couple of days, can significantly disrupt that microbial balance. In this episode, we're talking about some common feeding fumbles that can increase colic risk and some practical fixes that can support a healthier digestive system. Today we're talking about three horse feeding mistakes that can increase colic risk and how to fix them. So, Dr. Vineyard, let's talk about mistake number three that can increase colic risk in horses, which is ignoring water intake.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (02:18):

Okay. And I think that this is a mistake because it's really easy to get focused on feed and forage and water is often an afterthought, right? We know we have to feed our horses every day with their feed and their grain and water is taken for granted. So, you've got your trough out in the pasture or paddock, you've got your water bucket in the stall. That's actually one of the most essential nutrients for a horse is their water. Because without it, things will go downhill very quickly. You know, a horse requires a lot of water every single day, and then the total amount is going to differ based on their body size, the time of year.

 

Katy Starr (03:00):

Activity level, probably too.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (03:02):

Activity level. And another very big variable in water intake is whether or not your horse is eating dried forages like hay or pasture like fresh grass. Fresh grass is about 70-80% water. So, horses that are on full-time fresh pasture, they will drink less because they're getting quite a significant amount of water from their fresh forages. Whereas, you know, horses that are eating dried forages only, you will notice that they will drink more on average, but it's going to be somewhere from 8-12 gallons a day, just depending on these variables.

 

Katy Starr (03:35):

And I think about, we've talked about this before, but that I think really hits home when we're going into winter. Mm-hmm . And we are on hay a lot. Horse owners maybe don't always think about the fact that it's not summer, they're not going to get dehydrated. All is good. Right. But the winter's kind of where it can sometimes sneak up on you if you're not paying attention, especially if you're not watching and seeing how much water they're drinking.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (03:57):

That's right.

 

Katy Starr (03:58):

And so, consequence if they're not drinking enough water, what are some of the things that can go wrong?

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (04:04):

Right I mean, in terms of colic risk, which is what we're talking about today, water is a really essential part of maintaining proper GI motility throughout the track. If a horse is eating feed material, hay, concentrate, and that's not properly hydrated, it can't move along the tract, that's not lubricated enough, the way that it's supposed to. And that increases risk of impaction very quickly.

 

Katy Starr (04:28):

So, it gets stuck in the digestive system and the impaction happens and they can't push it through the rest of their body.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (04:34):

In very simple terms. Yes.

 

Katy Starr (04:36):

Okay. And so, a fixer solution, I know that could probably be as easy as make sure that they have clean water, right? But what if we have trouble getting them to drink water? I mean, that's part of it too.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (04:48):

I mean, I think we all know that it's important to have water out for horses all the time, but a lot of management systems have automatic waters and sometimes you forget to check those every single day. I know my own personal horse has an automatic water out in his field and recently it got a leak and it was leaking out and although it was on, the bowl wasn't holding water. Mm-hmm . And thank goodness we catch it every day or we check it every day, or we could have missed that. And three days without water could have been disastrous. So, even auto waters, you should check every single day water buckets in the stall. It's a good idea to dump them out and freshen them every single day. The horses poop in them, they drop feed material in there, it can start to ferment in the summer. So, definitely fresh water in the buckets, water troughs in the field. What a big pain to dump those and clean them, believe me I know.

 

Katy Starr (05:40):

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (05:40):

But it's totally worth it. I mean, certainly, you're not going to do that every single day, but you need to do it on a regular basis kind of based on when that water starts changing color or you're getting algae or you know it's no longer fresh and clean. And then say all your water's clean and you're providing it and your horse, you're still concerned, your horse isn't drinking enough. You can feed mashes, you know, whatever your regular feed routine is, just add water to it. You can also add some things that soak up water really well, like a beet pulp or alfalfa cubes or hay cubes. And that's really helpful. Like in traveling or you know, in a cold snap when horses sometimes will stop drinking because they're stressed or they don't like cold water, you can also feed supplemental salt or electrolytes, which will basically raise the sodium level in their blood, which can trigger the thirst mechanism. So, that will also help keep a horse drinking. Don't rely on salt block for that because we really can't control that intake. So, to really drive the thirst mechanism, top dressing salt or electrolytes is going to be the most effective way instead of a salt block.

 

Katy Starr (06:44):

Excellent. Yeah. Okay, so mistake number two that can increase colic risk in horses, making abrupt dietary changes.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (06:53):

Yes. And I, again, if you've been around horses long enough, you probably are familiar with this concept, right? That anytime you make a dietary change, you need to do that slowly. I had an old feed manager or barn manager that used to call this hot swapping when you transition a horse from one type of grain to another just in a day and don't have any kind of transition. And I always love that term hot swap. We want to avoid hot swapping.

 

Katy Starr (07:18):

Yes.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (07:18):

Abruptly switching grain most of us are familiar with, that's something to avoid. I do want to point out the same goes for forage, and that's where I think a lot of people may be making this mistake unknowingly that when you get a new batch of hay in, or if you're even transitioning to pasture, that's also a big change in feed. And it, it really all comes down to this transition period that we want to make it easy on those hindgut microbes to make the transition. So, think about even transitioning hay, that's actually a bigger colic risk. And that's been identified in some kind of studies that have looked at colic risk in horses, 14 days after a hay change, horses are more likely to have colic than after a concentrate change. And it kind of makes sense when you think about the proportion of a horse's diet, which is forage versus concentrate. Maybe 90% of their diet is forage. And if you transition that say from like an alfalfa hay to a straight grass hay, that is a really big change for 90% of their diet. So, that, I just want to make sure people consider forage also when you're talking about making these slower dietary changes.

 

Katy Starr (08:31):

Right. And so, what's happening in the horse's digestive system at that time? What's the consequence if we are being abrupt about it?

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (08:40):

Right. I mean it really does come down to the hindgut, which is where fiber is fermented in the hindgut of the horse and those microbes. So, changing the microbe source of food can sometimes change their behavior and it also can change the population density of different types of fiber digesters or carb digesters and the proportions of those. And if there's a very abrupt transition in the food source, there's going to be an abrupt transition in the microbes behavior and population. And one of those changes could be their fermentation rates and what's the byproduct of fermentation, gas. So, more gas production all of a sudden, what does that lead to? Increased risk of gas colic. So, you know, pain due to gas buildup in the hindgut. And so, that's what we're trying to avoid is these dramatic shifts. More gas production, excess gas production is really what usually leads to the colic in these kind of hot swap situations.

 

Katy Starr (09:39):

Right. So, and you mentioned 14 days. So, talk to us a little bit about what's our fix or solution here? What's the ideal thing, transition period that we should be looking at for concentrates, but then also for other forages and pasture changes and things like that?

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (09:55):

Yeah, I mean, I think a good rule of thumb I've always used for concentrate is try not to change more than one pound a day. And if you want to be conservative, you can reduce that to a half a pound a day, especially if you have a horse that has a history of colic. I would say be conservative and change no more than a half a pound a day. So, if you're feeding four pounds a day of a concentrate, that would take you eight days to transition at a half a pound a day, or four days to make the transition at one pound a day. When you're talking about forage, you don't have to be quite that conservative a pound a day that would, that might take you a month to change or you know, if your horse is eating 30 pounds of forage. Right? But I like to look at it, you know, as a proportion of their forage component of their diet and make that transition at least over four to five days. So, kind of break it into quarters day one, 25% of your new hay leave 75% of your old hay, day two 50/50, day three 75/25, and kind of work that over a four day period. Again, if you want to be conservative, you can do the 25/75 for two days, then you do a 50/50 mix for two days and then continue on. If I have a horse that has a history of colic, I take the more conservative route. Typical horses, it should work pretty well over about four days if you take that approach.

 

Katy Starr (11:16):

Excellent. Okay. So, mistake number one. That can increase colic risk in horses, feeding poor quality forage with low digestibility. So, talk to us about what that is.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (11:31):

Right, and this is probably the number one mistake because poor quality forages are known to increase colic risk in horses. And when you have overly mature hay, basically it has a lot of coarse fiber, it has a higher concentration of indigestible fiber and that has long been associated with impaction colic. And specifically if you're familiar with looking at hay, you know, forage analysis, there's a measure called ADF acid detergent fiber. And if ADF is greater than 45% on a dry matter basis, that is kind of like a cautionary threshold for colic risk. So, especially for horses that have a risk of colic or in the past have had colic issues, I definitely want to avoid feeding hay that is 45% or above ADF. Basically the higher the ADF in the forage, the more indigestible fiber content of that hay.

 

Katy Starr (12:32):

That is so good. Okay. So, consequence, I guess what is happening in the body if the ADF is over that threshold, what potentially could happen if that horse consumes it, especially if they're one that tends to be more prone to colic risk because they've done it before, things like that. What's kind of happening in the body that's actually causing that to occur?

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (12:57):

It's pretty straightforward. It's just less digestible. So, those fibrous stalks of that stemmy, overly mature hay can lead to impaction. You know, it kind of just doesn't get broken down as it should. Overly mature hay is going to also be lower in protein, it's also less palatable. You know, a lot of horses will kind of tell you that your hay is too mature because they're leaving a lot on the ground or in the feeder, maybe more so than they normally would. So, that's actually kind of a good clue that yeah, your hay may be too mature if your horse is leaving a lot, but overly mature hay can lead to impaction colic risk.

 

Katy Starr (13:34):

Okay. And so, that's a tendency to happen is when hay is cut later than it should be probably. Are there any certain hays or types of hays that not necessarily always, but tend to be more cautionary because that does occur more frequently just based off of the type of hay that it is?

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (13:57):

Honestly, I'm not a forage agronomist, I will tell you that for sure. But I have seen good and bad hay of all varieties, even like the most beautiful orchard grass that you can think of. It can also be too mature depending on how it is cut, and how it is under the growing conditions. So, I wouldn't single out a single type of hay. It's more how it's managed.

 

Katy Starr (14:19):

Maybe testing the hay.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (14:21):

Absolutely. I mean that's how you know, right? But there's a few other things you can do. So, number one, be vigilant about hay quality. Have a good relationship with a grower if you're buying it locally or purchase from a consistent supplier. And certainly at Standlee, that's sort of what we are really excited about is having consistent quality and making sure our growers are growing the hay to our standards so it's not overly mature. That's really important. So, be vigilant and know how to identify mature hay when you see it. Again, every variety's different, but here's some clues. Okay so, one, a high proportion of seedheads. And so, a good example, timothy hay. We all know how to identify timothy hay from the little cattails, right? A few cattails are fine, like that's normal to see. But if you have a very large proportion of seedheads, whether it's timothy's seedheads or orchard grass, seedheads or whatever variety, those seedheads starts to come out as the forage becomes more mature.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (15:19):

A high proportion of seedheads is one indicator of kind of overly mature. Another one is stems that are coarse and thick, or bales that like seem stick-like. So, they're sitting out and you poke your hand on it and there's like just sticks. That stemmy thick, definitely telltale sign of overly mature hay. The other thing is high stem to leaf ratio. So, the stems are kind of where the indigestible fiber lives and for structure and the leaves are where the good stuff lives. You know, the the vitamins, the energy, the fat, the carbohydrates. So, you want a high leaf to stem ratio because the leaf is where most of the nutrition is. And then I mentioned this already, but another clue that your hay is overly mature is that your horses are refusing to eat it or they're just leaving the stems. And one thing I have said many times, if you don't want to roll around in your hay, you probably shouldn't be feeding it to your horse. So, and then when in doubt, absolutely you can get a hay test and that can tell you.

 

Katy Starr (16:17):

Excellent. Okay. Well thank you Dr. Vineyard. We appreciate your insight on this today.

 

Dr. Kelly Vineyard (16:21):

Alright thank you.

 

Katy Starr (16:23):

Today we covered three horse feeding mistakes that increase colic risk and how to fix them. Here are some key takeaways from Dr. Vineyard. The digestive tract depends on sufficient hydration for normal motility. If feed material becomes too dry within the gut, movement slows and the risk of impaction increases significantly in the horse. Gut microbes need time to adapt to new feed sources. When dietary changes happen too quickly, fermentation patterns can shift rapidly increasing the risk of excess gas production and digestive upset. As forage maturity increases, digestibility generally decreases because the amount of indigestible fiber rises. That can slow passage through the gastrointestinal tract and contribute to impaction risk for the horse under certain management conditions. If you want to dig a little deeper into horse feeding strategies to minimize the risk of colic, 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 at 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.