Poseidon Equine Nutrition Library

Nikita has worked as an Equine Nutritionist in New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore for over 10 years.  In 2016, alongside Equine Veterinari...

Horses grazing on Kikuyu and Paspallum may need extra calcium to meet their nutritional needs. Find out why!

In this video we sit down with our newest equine nutritionist in New Zealand, Nikita Stowers. We talk all things equine gut health, specifically for horse owners in NZ!

The right fuel for a healthy hindgut will help prevent many health issues and ensure your horse is running efficiently, has good energy levels and can perform at their best.

Take a look out the window…what’s your horse chewing on right now? Hay? Chaff? Some apparently random stick or bit of bark? Or that boundary fence post that’s slowly starting to fall apart? Hey, well at least it’s all fibre… and, importantly, it’s all different types of fibre.

As horse owners we only want the best for our horses, yet we all know that owning and caring for a horse can be expensive. Now more than ever, many people are looking for a way to feed their horse that meets all their nutritional needs but is also economical. There are areas of your horse's diet where you may be able to reduce your feed bill, without compromising gut health or optimal nutrition.

An easy to understand video to explain how your horses' gut works, and why it's so important.

During stressful events like weaning, the microbiome (eg. bacteria, fungi etc.) in the gut changes and this may have negative consequences on health. 

With competitions, rallies and outings being kept to a minimum, it’s time to turn social distancing into a positive for you and your horse. 

From a nutrition perspective, this period of reduced stress is a great opportunity to concentrate on feeding your horse to restore balance in their gut. 

One of the most difficult things to find in a drought is forage. The problem is, forage is the most important, and therefore the least negotiable item in a horse’s diet. Their gut needs forage. Without it, the risk of gastric ulcers, colic, sand or dirt accumulation and other hindgut disturbances like dysbiosis (imbalance of the hindgut bacteria) is high!

Gut health can greatly influence the overall health, performance and behaviour of your horse. There are some very simple changes to make in your horses' diet in drought or flood conditions to make sure your horse maintains its gut health. We've listed them here.

Part of the challenge with recognising gut health as a problem for your horse is that symptoms of poor gut health in horses can be very subtle, even when issues are severe, and horses may show different signs for the same issue.