Ep. 122: 5 Horse Nutrition Myths the Internet Keeps Getting Wrong

Episode Notes

On this episode of the Feeding Fumbles & Fixes series of Beyond the Barn, host Katy Starr and Dr. Kelly Vineyard discuss some common horse nutrition myths that keep making their rounds across the internet, so what’s the truth? Here are a few questions covered in this episode: 

• Is beet pulp just a filler?
• How accurate is a hair mineral analysis for horses?
• Is soy inflammatory? 

Whether you’re researching horse nutrition online, evaluating your horse’s current feeding program, or just curious about what’s true and what’s not, this conversation offers research informed insight to help you ask better questions about what you’re feeding to your horse. 

🎧 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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Additional Resources:

 ~2:45 – Learn more about beet pulp

• Ep. 048: Beet Pulp – What Is It and Why Do Horses Need It? - Podcast
• Beet Pulp for Horses: Nutrition, Benefits, and How to Feed It - Blog Post
• A Legacy of Sweet Success: The Standlee and Amalgamated Sugar Story - Blog Post
• Beet Pulp: What Do I Need To Know? - Nutritional White Paper
• Research Shows Soaking Beet Pulp Reduces Sugar Content - Nutritional White Paper 

~7:14 – Learn more about alfalfa

• Ep. 007: Alfalfa Misconceptions – Myth vs. Truth Part I - Podcast
• Ep. 008: Alfalfa Misconceptions – Myth vs. Truth Part II - Podcast
• Ep. 016: Am I Feeding My Horse the Wrong Type of Hay? - Podcast
• 3 Common Misconceptions of Feeding Alfalfa to Horses - Blog Post
• Sustainable Agriculture - It’s in Every Bag and Bale of Standlee Premium Forage Alfalfa Products - Blog Post
• What Type of Hay Should I Feed My Horse? - Blog Post 

~16:07 – study in Germany referenced about hair samples from four different horses and sent them to three different labs to see if mineral status could be evaluated - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36283587/ 

~16:53 – study out of the Netherlands referencing mineral and toxic heavy metals levels in the liver and hair of horses - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9597333/ 

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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 has 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 make improvements for your horse ownership journey. In this episode of this series, we'll be discussing five nutrition myths the internet keeps getting wrong. And as a reminder, any of the topics we cover on the Beyond the Barn podcast are more generalized and are 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 nutritionist on any specifics you'd like to know. Have you ever noticed that the more times you hear something, the more it starts to sound true? Maybe it's something like alfalfa makes horses hot, or another piece of horse nutrition advice that seems to pop up everywhere you scroll online. 

 

Katy Starr (01:23): 

After a while, you stop questioning it because you've heard it so many times that it starts to feel like common knowledge. It turns out there's actually a name for that. Psychologists call it the illusory truth effect. Research has shown that simply hearing a statement over and over again makes our brains more likely to believe it's true, even if we already know better or there's little evidence to support it. That's not because we're gullible, it's just how our brains are wired. Think about your favorite social media platform. The fifth time you see the same nutrition claim in the comments, it starts sounding less like someone's opinion and more like an established fact, but everyone says it and the evidence supports it are two very different things. The good news is that once your brain works this way, you can start asking better questions. Instead of accepting a claim because it's popular, you can ask what's the evidence? 

 

Katy Starr (02:18): 

And that's exactly what we're doing today. We're counting down five horse nutrition myths the internet just can't seem to let go of, and we're putting each one to the test, not by how many times it's been shared, but by what the research actually tells us. The goal of this episode is to bust these common myths that keep circulating on the internet and share the truth behind them. Dr. Vineyard, so myth number five, that people on the internet keep getting wrong, beet pulp is just a filler. So why don't you explain to us a little bit more about that and why it's wrong? 

 

Dr. Vineyard (02:54): 

Sure. And, I think beet pulp often gets dismissed as a filler, because like it's an empty ingredient, it's just taking up space, it is pretty fluffy in the feed bag. It is a byproduct of the sugar beet industry, of the sugar industry, and that does make it kind of sound like maybe it's bad or it's an after-thought because it's a byproduct, otherwise like a byproduct is discarded, right? Like that's can't be of something of value. So, I sort of get where this myth comes from, but byproduct does not mean low value, especially when it comes to, animal feed. And so in this case, beet pulp is, it provides really highly digestible fiber that horses can use in their hindgut. They can ferment it. It's for energy and it's actually very easily digestible. So the myth that usually happens because, beet pulp, it doesn't really sound fancy. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (03:48): 

So I feel like, maybe we should rebrand beet pulp a little bit and we can call it like a, a highly digestible super fiber derived from beets. And, that sounds way better, right? But, but that's what it is. It's a highly digestible super fiber that comes from beets. And so I guess understanding that when you look at beet pulp fiber and compare it to like say regular forage, typical grass forage, there's more calories per pound generated by the fermentation of that beet pulp. It's about a thousand calories per pound, compared to maybe 800 calories per pound for a typical grass forage. And what makes beet pulp really unique is it's rich in something called pectin and hemicellulose specifically. So those are fiber fractions, which the hindgut bugs love those types of fiber. They ferment very well and that's kind of what makes them a super fiber that leads to the production of short chain fatty acids, of butyrate, and those are used, as energy sources and actually directly by the intestinal cell wall. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (04:47): 

So it really does promote hindgut health as well. Beet pulp, it can be used in a lot of different ways, senior horses that can't chew long stem forage, it can partially replace forage, not fully. Studies show up to 50% substitution for forage for horses that can't eat, long stem hay. You can do really well with hard keepers, horses that need some sort of soft mash. Really any horse can benefit from beet pulp. That being said, beet pulp is not magic either. It's a fiber. It's one of the many fibers we have access to feed our horses. Horses still are going to need some other source of forage. You can't fully replace forage. And also, if you're feeding large amounts of it, like more than a pound or two a day, it definitely will need to be balanced. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (05:34): 

It has a very imbalanced calcium phosphorus ratio. It's really high in calcium, very low in phosphorus. It's, missing some essential minerals. So it still will need to be balanced. It is a useful super fiber. It's not just a filler. 

 

Katy Starr (05:48): 

Right. Well, and I also think about horses in the wild don't eat it or anything, right? But I also think about look how far we've come in advancements with like science and all the things in our lifetime where we're able to discover, hey, we didn't know that this was actually something that could be really good for a horse or we could do this, we could say the same for us as humans in medicine. And so I think if we shift our thinking a little bit with that, then we can kind of understand, oh, okay, that makes a little bit more sense now. We have a better understanding of what this does in the horse's body. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (06:22): 

You know, the whole argument that horses didn't eat that in the wild is, is really the silliest argument that you can ever use for something because there's a lot of things horses in the wild are suffering from. They are not thriving, right? Yes, they're not fenced in, and if your belief is like being wild and free is the main reason for living, then that's like a whole other conversation. But, they have parasites, they are mineral deficient, their lifespan is usually below 10 years of age. They have all sorts of issues with like finding good quality, forage. They're thin. They're not thriving. So let's not use the wild horse health status as our benchmark. 

 

Katy Starr (07:07): 

Right. I think that's such a great point. Okay. So myth number four that people on the internet keep getting wrong. Alfalfa hay makes horses hot. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (07:16): 

Well, I am sure that most people who listen to this podcast don't believe this myth anymore. I think we've talked about it a lot. We have to say it because I feel like this is like the myth that just won't go away. I actually just like read this online literally yesterday. So it is definitely still there. So let's sort of talk about where it comes from. Well, really the myth, it makes my horse spooky or hot or reactive. And, and so that is a myth. There's nothing specifically about the type of, fiber or the protein in alfalfa that makes, like, that's unique to alfalfa that makes horses spooky or hot. But when people believe that myth, they go to great lengths to avoid alfalfa, all the way down to like reading a supplement label. And if there's just a little tiny bit of alfalfa meal, they're like, "Oh, can't feed it, it's going to make my horse hot." So that's where the problem with this myth, because it really unnecessarily makes people avoid something that might be good for their horse. But here's the thing. There is a little kernel of truth, as there is with all myths, from this because alfalfa also is high in digestible energy. So oftentimes, if a horse has a behavioral reaction to eating, alfalfa hay, it could just be from excess calories because alfalfa is richer in calories. It's easily digestible. So if a horse goes, say from like a lower quality grass hay and all of a sudden they start, you start feeding this really pretty, green, digestible alfalfa hay, they all of a sudden have a lot of more calories in their diet and they have to get them out somehow. So, the question to me isn't really like, does alfalfa make the horse hot? 

 

Dr. Vineyard (08:55): 

It's does my horse need the calories from this alfalfa? And so, because, if they don't, if they're an easy keeper or they're overweight, they probably don't need the alfalfa calories, right? Or maybe they use, need just a moderated amount, not like full ration. But, alfalfa's wonderful forage, it's rich in protein, it's rich in calcium, has a good buffering for the gastric environment. If a horse has gastric issues, feeding too much could have too many calories that you have to be aware of that. Specifically too, when alfalfa is included as an ingredient, let's say like in a feed or a supplement, usually that's going to be in a smaller amount and it's not going to be in enough to like, give too many calories to make a horse crazy, ? So I wouldn't avoid alfalfa, especially in an ingredient list, to keep your horse calmer because that's not going to have that effect. 

 

Katy Starr (09:46): 

Okay. So myth number three that people on the internet keep getting wrong. Too much protein causes OCD in growing horses. So talk to us about what OCD is and what that myth is all about. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (09:57): 

So yeah, this is another myth that is pervasive, especially like in the breeding world, or people who have foals, mares and foals. So OCD is osteochondritis dissecans. So it's technically like a cartilage flap in the joint of a young growing horse. It causes lameness and it causes swelling. It's not good. Like we don't want OCD in our growing horses. So it is sort of like a defect in the cartilage of a young growing horse. And kind of the old adage or the old logic would say, oh, that horse has OCD, you, you fed him too much protein. So that's, you caused OCD by feeding too much protein. Well, I guess the good news is, and there's good news and bad news when it comes to OCD. The good news is there's really no evidence that feeding too much protein causes OCD. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (10:50): 

What the evidence does point to are a couple things. Number one is sporadic growth, uneven growth is, is a big risk factor. And I guess the bad news is genetics actually is the number one risk factor. And that's actually. We do have control of genetics one single day, that day you breed that mare and foal. After that, we no longer have control over that. So you're sort of stuck with the genetics you have. But what we do have control over is nutrition. So I think this myth sort of came from like, well, we can't control the genetics, so now let's control something which is nutrition. Don't try to control the protein so much. That, I guess that's the truth here is what you should try to control is providing a balanced diet that promotes a steady growth rate. So we really want to avoid sort of like this rapid growth and this is what foals do. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (11:45): 

They grow really fast and then they plateau off. And so you have to watch them carefully and OCD kinda comes along and it's like, what I like to say, a perfect storm. So you've got your genetics propensity on board, then maybe you are feeding a lot of calories. Calories drive growth, not necessarily protein specifically. Now, but when you're feeding a lot of calories, oftentimes there's also high protein, and I think that's where protein has gotten blamed in the past, but we should have been blaming the too many calories instead of too many protein. And then sometimes, like say that's straight grain, straight oat, straight barley, corn, those are missing essential minerals that are the building blocks of, cartilage and bone. So if you feed too many calories, not enough building blocks, and then you have a genetic propensity, there's your perfect storm for OCD. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (12:36): 

And so, the bottom line, protein does not cause OCD. Growing horses need quality protein. It's really essential for good growth and development. They need controlled calories and they also need balanced minerals. So it's really like a whole program, not just one nutrient that you're really trying to target when it comes to OCD. 

 

Katy Starr (12:57): 

Excellent. And so you start with essentially your forage foundation and then work from there to balance in those minerals and vitamins and whatever's needed to kind of help stabilize, I guess, keep that growth consistent rather than peaking high peaks and things like that. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (13:16): 

Yeah and the forage absolutely is the essential foundation. That's really not going to change. What you can change is the amount of concentrate you're feeding, specifically formulated for growing horses, and you can either feed a ration balancer, which is going to be low calorie or a concentrate which has more calories. And both can be appropriate just depending on the situation. 

 

Katy Starr (13:38): 

Excellent. Okay. That's great. Okay. So myth number two that people on the internet keep getting wrong. Hair mineral analysis is an accurate way to check your horse's mineral status. I am so glad that you put this one on here, Dr. Vineyard. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (13:52): 

Well, it's another one that is pervasive, and I would say maybe a little controversial because there's a lot of businesses that are based on this concept, right? So, the myth is that taking a sample of mane hair, and sending it in the mail to a lab, that will give you good information about what that horse is deficient in, from a mineral standpoint. That's the myth, because that has actually not been shown to be accurate way to look at mineral status in the horse. There's no scientific basis for that in horses. Remember, we're talking about horses. If there's some science on this technology, it exists in humans. So, when there's actually some really good science in horses that have tried to validate these methods and they've kind of come up empty, the truth of the matter is hair does contain minerals, absolutely. You can analyze hair and you will get results for minerals. Like that is the truth and that is accurate, but that does not mean that the minerals in that hair accurately reflect the body status of that horse. It doesn't reflect what they're eating because dirt can contaminate these samples, sweat, shampoo, topical products, like all sorts of things, color of the hair, white hair and dark hair have different mineral content, okay? Which is interesting, right? So, but you get, you send these off and you get a really precise looking report and it looks very official. And I understand why, people want to do it because it's easy, it's convenient. It's a lot easier than doing a ration analysis, which is actually the only way that you can accurately assess a horse's mineral status or taking a liver sample. I don't think any of us are going to do that. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (15:44): 

There are a couple of minerals that you can pull, like selenium for example. The blood is a pretty good reflector of selenium status. So there are some minerals you can pull blood on and look at, but a lot of them, it's not. Calcium and phosphorus, you really can't tell, status from the blood, but that's a whole other physiology talk. But there's a couple interesting studies. These, this one group in Germany actually pulled, they took hair samples from four different horses, and then from each of those four horses, they split them all into three samples and they sent them to three different labs. So like really trying to like look at the repeatability, right? They found, and this is like done in 2022 if you want to look up the study, it's out of Germany. They found really high variability in all the results, not only between the three labs, but like even between the horses, right? So basically what that means is the hair mineral analysis on these horses is not repeatable, it was not standardized, and you really can't trust the accuracy of those results. Another similar study that came out in 2022 from the Netherlands, they compared mineral and toxic heavy metal levels in the liver and then in the hair, and they really did not find hardly any correlation between the two. Liver being very accurate, hair they just weren't correlated. So their sort of conclusion in this study was that our results do not support the use of hair to determine mineral status and exposure to toxic heavy metals in the horse under field conditions. So, those are a couples of the published data that's out there. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (17:25): 

I think one of those areas, I understand why you would want to do a hair analysis because it would be very helpful. But you have to remember, especially if you do these analyses and then that comes with a very pricey supplement that you have to feed to match the quote deficiencies that you have, you just really need to use critical thinking skills in this case. And, the bottom line, the best way to look at your horse's overall balance of their mineral status and their body is test their hay, do a ration analysis, work with a nutritionist if you need to, to get that done. And if you have concerns about a toxicity, work with a veterinarian because there are some validated tests that can be done, in specific situations, diagnostically if you have a true concern. 

 

Katy Starr (18:21): 

Excellent. No, that's great. Thanks for sharing those studies. That was really helpful. Okay, so myth number one that people on the internet keep getting wrong. Soy is inflammatory and should be avoided. So talk to us about this myth, where it came about, and why it's not accurate. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (18:41): 

Well, this is one of those myths that people get very opinionated about. I recognize that. I also recognize there's an awful lot of people who go to great lengths to avoid soy, everything they feed. And so I guess I pick this as the number one myth because I do actually think it's a very damaging myth. I think that the damage comes from unnecessarily avoiding soy because there are some very, very beneficial properties of different types of soy in our modern horse diets. And when you avoid soy unnecessarily, that creates a lot of more challenge to create a balanced diet. It's not impossible. You can absolutely do it. I've helped plenty of people to do it. There's some really good soy food products on the market, but not all horses need to avoid soy, quote, "because it's inflammatory." So that's the myth. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (19:38): 

There's no studies that show that soy is inflammatory in horses, okay? So despite what people say, and I really do think this is one of those myths that sort of got shared with us from the human space. And not only inflammatory, I know a lot of people will talk about it being hormone disrupting, and that's also something we see from the human space. We could do a whole episode on that as well, but, or that soy-free is clean and anything with soy is not clean. That's from the human wellness space. There's really no controlled studies that show, like, there are issues with feeding soy-based ingredients to horses. Because first of all, soy is a lot of different things. Soy is not an ingredient. You've got soybean meal, which is one of the best sources of protein we have available in equine diets. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (20:30): 

You've got soybean hulls, which is kind of like in the processing when you're making the meal, you have hulls, which are very rich and digestible fiber, kind of like beet pulp, like that we talked about earlier. A little bit different, maybe not as super, super fiber as beep pulp is, but still very, very digestible fiber. And then you've got soybean oil, which, incidentally contains a, both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. So it's better than corn oil, which doesn't really have any omega-3s. Horses do have an omega-6 requirement. Soy oil is a great, affordable way to raise the fat in a diet for, and add calories, fat-based calories when you need fat-based calories. But really the winner for me is the soybean meal because of the amino acid profile. It's very rich in lysine, methionine, and threonine, which are three amino acids that are typically lower in forages. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (21:22): 

So if you have a sport horse or a growing horse or a broodmare that needs higher quality protein for their elevated requirements, soybean meal can help provide that. Okay, so I do want to take an aside though, it is true that some horses may have a soy sensitivity, okay? That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about your average, healthy horse that doesn't have a reaction when they eat soy. Now, if a horse does have a sensitivity, and you may find that out by doing an elimination diet, take out all the soy of your horse's diet, feed plain hay for a couple weeks, add it back in. If they get hives or if they have a reaction in some way, that's your confirmation that your horse has a soy sensitivity. That's great. There's plenty of options for you on the market to nourish your horse without soy. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (22:13): 

But most, that's not common. That's the exception, right? So removing soy from just every horse in your barn or just saying that we can't feed soy to horses without a clear reason, it's just, it really just makes the diet harder to balance, and it makes it more expensive, and there's no good basis for it. I mean, there are plenty of horses that are thriving on soy-based diets, including many horses that I personally have worked with that have competed successfully at the Olympics. I feed my own horse a soy-based ration balancer. I have no problems with it. He's thriving. So, there are plenty of horses thriving on these diets. So again, use your critical thinking skills in this area. If your horse has a sensitivity, absolutely it makes sense to avoid soy. But if they don't, don't be afraid of it. 

 

Katy Starr (23:03): 

Excellent. No, that is great. Okay. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Vineyard, for giving us some more insight into these common myths that keep circulating the internet. We appreciate it. 

 

Dr. Vineyard (23:15): 

All right. Thank you. 

 

Katy Starr (23:17): 

Today, we covered five horse nutrition myths the internet keeps getting wrong and the truth behind them. Here are some key takeaways from Dr. Vineyard. Beet pulp isn't just a filler. It's a highly digestible source of fiber that can provide valuable calories while supporting your horse's digestive health. Alfalfa doesn't create hot horses, overfeeding energy relative to workload can. The real question is whether alfalfa's calories, protein, and calcium fit that horse's body condition, workload, and overall diet. There is no evidence that excess protein alone causes OCD in growing horses. Young horses need quality protein and amino acids, but they also need controlled calories, steady growth, and a properly balanced mineral program. Hair mineral analysis may be convenient, but it is not a reliable way to assess a horse's mineral status. It does not accurately reflect the horse's current intake or nutrient requirements. A forage analysis, full ration evaluation, and appropriate veterinary diagnostics are better tools. Current equine nutrition research does not support the idea that soy is inflammatory, and soy is not a single ingredient with a single nutritional role. The form of soy, amount fed, total diet, and individual horse response matter more than a blanket avoidance based on claims that are not scientifically supported. If you want to dig a little deeper into some common horse feeding myths and other useful information, 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. 

 

Katy Starr (25:14): 

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.