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Though changing what a horse eats may seem an odd thing to adjust for air quality, research has shown that reducing the amount of protein in a horse's diet can protect his respiratory health. Protein is broken down into nitrogen in the horse's small intestine and then excreted as urea, which becomes ammonia in a horse's stall.

Ammonia can irritate nose and lung tissue, causing excess mucus production and respiratory issues like heaves. Drs. Jessie Weir-Chouinard, Hong Li, Lori Warren and Erica Macon created a study that fed nine horses forage-based diets with three different levels of protein. The highest-protein diet was 12 percent.

The study horses wore harnesses that collected their urine, which was then combined with wood shavings or straw and tested for ammonia levels. Study results showed that the higher-protein diets led to significant increases in nitrogen levels in urine. Straw bedding had higher levels of ammonia emissions than shavings no matter the diet. Shavings absorbed more of the urine, and ammonia, than the straw did.

The scientists concluded that lowering the protein in a horse's diet can decrease the amount of ammonia in his stall. This, coupled with cleaning stalls regularly and thoroughly, can combat ammonia and help keep horses airways safe. Proper ventilation is also key.

Read more at EQUUS magazine.

The post Power Down The Protein: What A Horse Eats Impacts The Air appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Horses stalls overnight can spend multiple long hours with nothing in their stomachs, making them eat more rapidly when fed breakfast. German scientists suggest that horses kept inside should have something to chew on nearly continuously through the overnight hours, whether that's a constant supply of hay or their bedding, reports The Horse.

The Horse also notes that any straw horses ingest should be high quality and introduced slowly; a veterinarian or equine nutritionist should be consulted before adding edible straw to a horse's diet.

Dr. Miriam Baumgartner, of the Technical University of Munich, Germany, noted that horses shouldn't be without food in their system for more than four hours at a time. Horses bedded on non-edible bedding like pellets or sawdust are without something to eat for an average of nine hours each night.

When horses are without food for this amount of time, they “rebound” during the day, Dr. Margit Zeitler-Feicht, Baumgartner's colleague, noted. The duo studied 104 horses that were kept in stalls; those that were stalled on non-edible bedding ate faster with fewer pauses than horses that were kept on straw. They also ingested their evening meals more rapidly than horses kept on straw. The research team reports that this could mean that horses housed on inedible bedding may have compromised welfare.

The team concludes that horses should be offered something to eat continuously throughout the night, whether in the form of hay or edible bedding. To deny them the ability to eat continuously can cause health and welfare issues.

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Power Down The Protein: What A Horse Eats Impacts The Air

Let Them Eat: Preventing Welfare Issues In Stalled Horses