From the Inside Out: Health Begins With Food (Part 2)
In Part 1 of this two-part series, I focused on pets’ health and wellness from the outside in, emphasizing just how important an ecologically vibrant environment is for horses and dogs. For Part 2, I’m looking inward and diving into how we can support the horse’s health from the inside out.
You are what you eat
We’ve all heard that expression.
It was originally proclaimed in 1825 by influential French food commentator, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, who stated,
Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.
Horses in general are considered grazers, eating grasses and other low-growing vegetation. Wild horses – as well as horses not confined to stalls/turned out 24/7 – can also demonstrate browsing tendencies, consuming shrubs, weeds, leaves, and even bark. Researchers have suggested that horses may browse for medicinal purposes as means to supplement their diets.1
This fact always leaves me thinking; I’m certain that horses probably know more about their food needs than we do.
Hippocrates
More than 2,000 years ago, Hippocrates, the Greek philosopher, said,
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.
He is also credited with recognizing the link between the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and overall health:
All disease begins in the gut.
I couldn’t agree more.
However, modern life makes following Hippocrates’ advice sometimes daunting.
Saliva: a horse’s essential stomach acid buffer
A horse’s saliva contains sodium bicarbonate, which is an important compound that assists in neutralizing stomach acids. Saliva, with its stomach buffering capabilities, is nature’s way of preventing and reducing ulcers in horses.2
Horses can produce up to 10 gallons a day of saliva. Chewing activates saliva production, and what your horse chews on is important.
Research has highlighted that horses chew more times (3,000 – 3,500 chews) and produce more saliva (4 – 5 liters per 2 pounds of hay) eating hay/forage than with feed. When horses were fed a concentrated feed, the number of chews was reduced (350-450 chews), and the amount of saliva was only 1 – 2 liters.3
To summarize, feeding a diet of mostly forage/hay can help reduce gastric ulceration, especially of the squamous portion of the stomach.
Stomach → small intestine → hind gut
The equine digestive process begins with the stomach breaking down food with stomach acids and enzymes. Food then moves to the small intestine, which is responsible for the digestion and absorption of proteins, fats, soluble carbohydrates, starches, vitamins, and minerals.
The hind gut – a large fermentation vat that digests fiber and other complex carbohydrates – is where bacteria and yeasts help synthesize nutrients like B vitamins and amino acids. Microbial fermentation in the hind gut produces short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), like butyrate, that are a significant energy source for horses.
Gut health begins with food
The horse’s GI tract is best suited for continuous grazing – 17 hours (or more!) per day. This is due to the stomach and small intestine being designed to process small amounts of food continuously, instead of in larger, periodic meals.
Horses also need to be able to move around. Feral horses can cover over 20 miles per day eating and walking.
Quality forage and hay is essential, which is determined by crude protein, fiber, non-structural carbohydrates, and mineral content.
For example: an easy keeper or an insulin-resistant horse often needs lower non-structural carbohydrates in their forage or hay, whereas a young, growing horse generally needs more protein than many adult horses do.
Knowing the key minerals in your hay will highlight (if any) gaps there are that might need supplementation.
Important note: Vitamin E content in hay is notoriously low. If your horse is not getting fresh forage 8 hours per day, you will likely need to supplement with vitamin E.
On the bright side, hay testing through companies like Dairyland Laboratories or Equi-Analytical is relatively easy.
I have long advocated for dealers and farmers testing their hays, so that horse owners know the product exactly and whether or not it is suitable for the variety of horses in their care.
Component Feeding
I am a big fan of component feeding; it gives owners a tremendous amount of control and allows you to customize a feed plan for each horse. The process steers away from “complete” feeds and leans into building a diverse diet with individual ingredients.
The process of component feeding is generally comprised of:
Base: Alfalfa pellets, teff hay pellets, or timothy pellets are great options, or a combination works great, too. A relatively new option is sainfoin: a forage similar to alfalfa.
Fat Source: For added omega 3s, consider flax or chia. Rice bran offers more protein (13-17%); although, it does have a high non-structural carbohydrates content (NSC), which is not the best choice for horses with insulin resistance and/or Cushing’s disease.
Vitamin E/Multivitamin: Adding a vitamin E supplement and a multivitamin mineral is a great way to make up for nutrients that your hay may lack. Depending on your hay analysis, you may also need to supplement selenium. This is important information to have when looking for a multivitamin mineral!
Because the primary ingredient in component feeding is a pelleted or cubed forage, the amazing digestive process of horses is continuously supported and respected. If your horse’s hay is primarily a timothy, Bermuda, or orchard grass, using a pellet, like alfalfa or sainfoin, can increase the diversity of microorganisms in the gut.
Unfortunately, and often, large boarding barns and training facilities are unable to administer component feeding due to the added challenges for staff and management. If your horse is in this situation, the simplest way to incorporate this feeding system is by adding some alfalfa, sainfoin, or timothy pellets to the commercial feed that is already being fed to the horses across the barn. This way, your horse’s essential biology of digestion is still being well supported by the added production of saliva and, therefore, more stomach acid buffering.
On commercial feeds
My advice: read the labels. Read the guaranteed analysis AND the ingredient list; how much food is actually in the feed?
By-products, like soy hulls, rice hulls, and wheat middlings, in commercial feeds are not whole foods.
Concentrated feeds are commonly finished with a sprayed-on coating that contains vitamins and minerals in the premix, natural and artificial flavorings, and/or a fat source (like oil). Most hay pellets do not contain this coating.
What horses eat affects their microbiome
The equine microbiome is composed of bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and yeasts. Fiber foodstuffs like hay and forage cannot be digested without the gut microbiome.
According to Jo-Anne Murray, professor of Equine Nutrition at the University of Glasgow, horses consuming diets high in fiber from forage have greater microbial diversity in their GI tract than horses eating less forage.4 When concentrates are added to the diet, the number of fiber-degrading bacteria in the gut decreases. This can result in the proliferation of the lactic acid bacteria, which can lead to hindgut acidosis, laminitis, and colic.5
Bacteria are specialized and are based on the host’s food. A diet high in fiber, for example, will have more fiber-digesting bacteria. If the horse is suddenly ingesting more starch, or perhaps a higher sugar content in the grass, the microbial population will change in response.
Each individual horse’s microbiome is unique. The composition of the microbiome in each horse is an accumulation of everything the horse has encountered and consumed during its life. The microbiome is continually being modified in response to endogenous and exogenous factors. These factors include:
Pathogens
Medications
Environment
Pain
Trauma
Bacterial diversity
Bacterial diversity in the gut is linked to GI health, nutrient absorption, and improved digestion.
Horses with lower microbial diversity can have a higher incidence of insulin resistance, obesity, and other inflammatory imbalances.
The diversity of the microbiome is lower in domesticated horses than in non-domesticated horses, as they tend to spend more time in isolation. This factor may contribute to lower diversity in the microbiome of domesticated horses.
Supporting bacterial diversity in the equine gut begins with providing a variety of pasture grasses, horse-friendly pasture plants, and hays (flakes, pellets, and soaked cubes).
The brain-gut connection
The GI tract’s microbiome composition directly influences gut-brain communication, cognition, and behavior. For example, a healthy microbiome can help modulate the stress response and reduce anxiety and depression.
Remember: stress can alter the balance of the microbiota in the gut, which in turn affects the neurotransmitters. Ninety percent of serotonin, the feel-good neurotransmitter, is produced in the gut–not the brain.
Stress increases the neurotransmitters epinephrine and norepinephrine, both of which promote the survival of pathogenic bacteria. This type of gut-based bacteria causes horses to be more hyperactive, anxious, and irritable.
Prebiotics, Probiotics, Postbiotics
Prebiotics are food for the beneficial bacteria in the gut, supporting the bacteria growth and activity. They are a form of non-digestible, dietary fiber. Wild horses get prebiotics from various grasses, leaves, roots, and tree bark. Domesticated horses generally have limited access to plant and food diversity, which directly correlates to microbiome diversity.
Grass hays, alfalfa, and beet pulp make up for the lack of the prebiotic fiber. Other sources of non-digestible fiber include:
Bananas
Dandelion greens
Medicinal mushrooms
Chicory root
Chia seeds
Psyllium fiber
Fulvic and humic acids
Yeasts
Plant-based complex carbohydrates – such as fructooligosaccharides (FOS) found in chicory and mannan oligosaccharides (MOS) found in cell walls of certain yeasts – are often used in feeds and supplements. These specific, complex carbohydrates are also prebiotics.
Probiotics are live bacteria and yeasts that help maintain a balance of beneficial microorganisms in the gut.
By law, active probiotic strains must be measured in Colony Forming Units (CFUs). This unit measurement tells the consumer how many viable bacteria or yeasts there are in a probiotic supplement. CFUs are found on products like yogurt and kombucha. The higher the number of CFUs, the more potent the probiotic activity/more viable bacteria for colonization.
Recommended CFUs daily | BioStar US
Although we don’t know the precise number of microbes in the GI tract of horses, it has been estimated that one drop of cecal fluid from a horse could contain one billion bacteria.
Probiotic supplements providing CFUs in the millions is literally a drop in the bucket. Look for equine probiotic supplements with CFUs of a minimum of 50 billion CFUs per serving.
**Important note: The probiotic strains Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium are easily destroyed by stomach acids. Probiotic supplements containing these strains must be either micro-encapsulated or enteric-coated to safely pass through the stomach. Active yeasts and bacillus probiotics can pass through the stomach without damage.
Postbiotics are compounds that are the result of beneficial bacteria digesting and breaking down fiber. Postbiotics include B vitamins, vitamin K, amino acids, and SCFAs (such as butyrate, propionate, and acetate).
Fermented foods can lead to an increase in postbiotics in the gut. This is one of the reasons BioStar uses fermented turmeric in our Hedgerow GI™ probiotic supplement.
Supporting the gut and the microbiome
Horses need to graze 16 – 17 hours a day; the entire essence of the horse is to move and to eat forage and hay. If you can maintain that basic element in your daily care of your horses, you are going a long way in supporting the gut and microbiome.
Recognizing stress triggers in your horse is the next best way to support your horse’s GI tract. Some examples include:
Barometric change
Change in routine
Trailering
Competing
Injury/lay-up
Medications
Change in living arrangements
New hay
New feed
New trainer
Barn drama
Change in barn personnel
The very human stresses we carry to the barn
Just one of these factors can affect the balance of the microbiome in our horses’ gut.
How to encourage health from the inside out
- Hay and forage… and lots of it.
- Horses are designed to move → eat → move → eat → rest → repeat. Turnout, hand grazing, treadmill, and horse walkers (on top of regular exercise) will help support the GI tract and the brain.
- To support horses on dry lots, put small amounts of hay in various places to encourage movement and avoid standing in one spot hoovering the hay.
- Easy keepers can benefit from slow feeders. The Hay Pillow® is an especially great choice for horses who are barefoot, because the horses can eat with their nose on the ground. I also really like the Savvy Feeder™ and the Porta Grazer, which, in my opinion, are better choices than hay nets.
- Identify situations and conditions that can cause stress in your horse. Adding active probiotics can be helpful in times of stress. Certain adaptogenic plants and fungi, like reishi mushrooms, holy basil*, schisandra, orpin rose, ashwagandha*, eleuthero, and panax ginseng, have been used for thousands of years in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic medicine for animals and humans dealing with stress.
*USEF prohibited substances
- Seek out a variety of suitable hays (whether in flake, pellet, or cube form) to provide more diversity of foods to the gut microbiome.
- If feeding commercial complete feeds or forage balancers, top the feed with forage pellets, soaked cubes, or chopped hay.
8. Let your horse get dirty!
The gut microbiome and the skin microbiome are intertwined.
Just like the gut microbiome, the skin microbiome is a living ecosystem of bacteria, fungi, yeasts, and other microorganisms. A stressed GI tract (AKA an unbalanced gut microbiome) can lead to the skin being more easily affected by environmental microbes. Skin microbiota actively communicate with the immune system. They play an important part in maintaining homeostasis.
The skin microbiome is important for health and wellbeing. A good roll in the dirt, grass, mud, sand, clay, or dust exposes the horse’s skin to various microbes. Topical medications and antibiotics can disrupt the microbial balance of the skin.
Skin pH
The skin pH of a horse ranges between 7.0 and 7.4. Human skin pH, on the other hand, is approximately 5.5. Human skin is more acidic than equine skin.
Over-bathing and using shampoos that are either more acidic or higher in alkalinity than 7.4 will alter the skin’s natural pH. This will affect the microbiome of the skin, which, in turn, can bring to the surface skin issues like rain rot, pastern dermatitis, itchiness, and dull or flaky coats.
Human shampoos are designed to work with the slightly acidic pH of human skin. Meanwhile, dish soaps and detergents are too alkaline, which can strip natural oils from the skin and coat. Avoiding shampoos with sulfates and synthetic preservatives is also worth noting.
Here are a few shampoo options that work well with the equine skin pH:
Keep it simple: quantity and quality
Health, wellness, and performance is dependent on the quantity of hay/forage, movement/exercise, and rest.
Read labels for feeds and supplements: the guaranteed analysis AND the ingredients. Quality ingredients in feeds and supplements should be an important part of the decision-making process when choosing what will support your horse’s best life.
Support your horse from the inside out with BioStar:
Hedgerow GI™ combines prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics with fermented turmeric, medicinal fungi, reed sedge peat, and plants commonly found in old English hedgerows for homeostatic support of the GI tract.
Hedgerow Restore™ includes supportive GI stress recovery ingredients (like eggshell membrane collagen) in addition to the same probiotic families, CFUs, hedgerow-inspired herb blend, and dimensional support for gut homeostasis as Hedgerow GI.
Bio Yeast EQ™ is a warming supplement with two strains of live yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisae and Saccharomyces boulardii, providing 100 Billion CFUs. It is microencapsulated to ensure delivery to the hindgut.
BioFlora EQ™ is a cooling supplement with 100 billion CFU’s of beneficial live colonizing microorganisms plus MOS. It is microencapsulated to ensure delivery to the small intestine and hindgut.
Sym-Biota EQ™ provides a blend of active Bacillus strains,
References
1 https://ker.com/equinews/grazing-browsing-horses/
2 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0737080623001958
3 https://www.ukvetequine.com/content/review/the-significance-of-chewing-in-horses/
4 https://thehorse.com/1115660/focus-on-diet-for-a-healthy-equine-microbiome/
5 https://thehorse.com/1115660/focus-on-diet-for-a-healthy-equine-microbiome/colic
About the Author: With over 30 years experience in the equine and human supplement industry, Tigger Montague knows nutrition from the synthetic side as well as the whole food side. She started BioStar US in 2006 with formulas she created in her kitchen. Before she started the company, she was an avid rider and competitor with eventing and show jumping, until she got hooked on dressage in the late 1980’s. She has competed on horses she’s owned and trained all the way from training level to Grand Prix.
