Happy Horse Nutrition

MyHappy.Horse
  • 5.0 (6)
  • NUTRITION
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

The Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast with Dr Nerida McGilchrist makes horse nutrition make sense. A PhD equine nutritionist with more than 25 years of experience, Dr Nerida shares practical feeding advice, explains the science in plain English, and interviews leading experts in horse health, welfare and nutrition. From gut health and supplements to performance feeding and common mistakes, each episode helps horse owners, breeders and trainers feed with more confidence.

  1. 5 DAYS AGO

    51. Equine Joint Health: What Works and What Doesn’t

    If you are spending money on joint supplements for your horse, or wondering whether that corticosteroid injection is really helping, this episode is essential listening. Dr. Nerida is joined by Renee Harbowy and Dr. Brian Nielsen from Michigan State University, two of the leading researchers in equine joint and bone health, for an honest, science-based conversation about what actually keeps horses sound for life. Renee shares the findings from her recently published research study examining whether glucosamine and chondroitin supplements improve lameness in horses with osteoarthritis, and what the results mean for every horse owner standing in front of a wall of joint supplements at the feed store. From there, the conversation covers equine joint health from the ground up. In this episode you’ll learn: What osteoarthritis actually does to joint tissue and why understanding this changes how you manage itWhy movement is non-negotiable for cartilage health, and what happens to joints when horses are stalledThe research on pastured versus stalled horses and what it means for how you manage your horse day to dayWhy nutrition from conception onwards is the foundation of lifetime joint soundnessThe trace minerals most commonly deficient in horse diets and why deficiencies during development cause problems that show up years laterDr Brian’s research on bone strength and the surprisingly small amount of exercise needed to maintain itThe five things Renee considers most important for long-term joint healthThe truth about corticosteroid injections; what they actually do, and the risk of masking pain in performance horsesEarly warning signs that your horse’s joints may be struggling before obvious lameness appearsPractical, actionable strategies for joint health regardless of your horse’s age, breed, or living situationWhether you have a young horse you are bringing up right, a performance horse in hard work, or an older horse starting to show their age, this conversation will change how you think about joint health and what you can actually do to help your horses have a long, sound, happy life! 🧪 Renee's full research paper can be found here (and it is well worth the read, beautifully written and a brilliant piece of science!): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13113781/ 🌟 If this episode helps you look at joint health a little differently, please follow the podcast so you don’t miss what’s coming next. 💛 And we'd love you to share it with a horse friend, especially someone with a young horse, an older horse, or a horse already struggling with joint issues. These are the conversations that can genuinely change how we manage horses for the better. 📲 And if you want help getting the nutrition side right, download the MyHappy.Horse app. It’s like having a practical, science-based equine nutritionist in your pocket, helping you feed with more confidence and less second-guessing. ⁠https://apps.apple.com/au/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324⁠

    1hr 40min

  2. 28 APR

    50. Feeding Weanlings: The Art and Science of Getting Growing Horse Nutrition Right

    There is no time in horse nutrition where you need both art AND science more than when you are feeding a weanling. These funny, curious, chaotic little creatures are walking a tightrope every single day... growing fast enough to reach their genetic potential, but not so fast that they end up with bone or joint disease. Get it wrong, and you are looking at OCD, contracted tendons, physitis, stunted growth, and a horse that never becomes what it was born to be. Get it right, and you lay the foundation for a lifetime of health and soundness. In this episode, professional equine nutritionist Dr. Nerida draws on 25 years of experience and thousands of weanlings from Australian thoroughbred studs to Japan’s biggest breeding farms, to walk you through exactly what your weanling needs and why. You’ll learn: How to manage weanling growth rate and body condition score to reduce developmental orthopaedic disease riskWhy energy intake is one of the most important factors in weanling joint healthHow pasture quality, climate, and compensatory growth affect your weanling’s diet... and how to stay two steps aheadWhy protein quality (not just quantity) is critical for muscle and bone development in young horsesThe fine details about calcium, phosphorus, and trace minerals and why almost every pasture Nerida has tested falls shortThree practical feeding strategies for weanlings depending on your situation; andWhy a balanced diet... NOT a restricted one... gives your weanling the best shot at lifetime soundnessWhether you have one very special homebred foal or paddocks full of youngsters, this episode gives you the knowledge and the confidence to feed your weanlings well. 📱 If you’d like help balancing your  weanlings' diet, download the MyHappy.Horse app on the Apple App Store and start building a diet you can feel confident about. https://apps.apple.com/au/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324   💖 And if this episode helped you, please share it with a horsey friend (especially the one currently with a pregnant mare 😅)

    1hr 11min

  3. 21 APR

    49. Replay: Bone health and horses with Dr Brian Nielsen

    In this replay episode, we are bringing back Dr Nerida’s chat with Professor Brian Nielsen on bone health in horses, because the ideas in this conversation have huge implications for soundness, durability, performance and long-term welfare. If you have ever been told that long, slow work builds strong bone, or that the safest path is always to wait until horses are skeletally mature before exposing them to speed, this episode may really make you stop and think. Dr Brian explains how bone actually adapts to exercise, why turnout and even very small amounts of high-speed work matter so much, how confinement can reduce bone mass, and why this is such an important issue for young horses in particular. It is a fascinating conversation that challenges some deeply held beliefs in horse management and racing, while also being incredibly practical. This was one of the standout episodes from the early days of the podcast, and now that many more of you are listening, it feels like the right time to bring it back. If you care about raising, training or managing horses for long-term soundness, this episode is well worth your time 🌟   🧪Find the full scientific review here: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/5/789   💛 If you’re looking for more practical help with nutrition and managing your horse, have a look at MyHappy.Horse, our app designed to help horse owners make more confident feeding decisions. https://www.myhappy.horse

    1hr 23min

  4. 14 APR

    48. Is Canola Oil for Horses as Bad as People Think?

    Is canola oil really as bad as people say… or has it simply been one of the most unfairly demonised ingredients in horse nutrition? In this episode of the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast, Dr Nerida is joined by Orla for a fascinating and surprisingly fun deep dive into the real story behind canola oil. They unpack where the wild claims came from, including the viral email that helped fuel decades of fear, and separate old rapeseed oil facts from modern canola oil fiction. Dr Nerida and Orla talk about erucic acid, GMO confusion, the strange myths linking canola to everything from blindness to mad cow disease, and why scary misinformation can stick so powerfully in people’s minds. They also bring it back to what really matters for horse owners: where canola oil fits in equine diets, how its omega-3 and omega-6 profile compares with other oils, and why it can actually be a very useful and appropriate choice in the right situation. If you have ever wondered whether canola oil is truly harmful, or whether this is another nutrition myth that has taken on a life of its own, this episode is for you. Here is the full, crazy backstory canola oil email in case you’d like to read it: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/canola-oil/ If you are tired of guessing and would love a clearer picture of your own horse’s diet, come and see what we do at MyHappy.Horse. Download the app and start feeding with more confidence and a whole lot less worry. Download MyHappy.Horse (7-day free trial available):  https://apps.apple.com/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324

    39 min

  5. 7 APR

    47. Horse Nutrition Q&A: Hair Analysis vs Diet Analysis, Raw Grain Risks, Ulcers & Orphan Foals

    Orla is back in the Q&A seat… and she’s come armed 😅 In this episode of the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast, Orla has curated a stack of listener questions (and kept Dr Nerida completely in the dark), so it’s a fast-paced, practical chat that bounces from industry ethics to real-life feeding decisions you’ll recognise instantly. We start with a big one: what actually makes someone a “nutritionist” in the horse world, and why that label can be meaningful… or totally meaningless. Nerida unpacks the difference between qualifications, experience, and the uncomfortable reality of “armchair experts” giving confident advice that can cost horses their health. From there, the conversation gets wonderfully hearty: Raw/cracked grains (especially corn): why this can be a hindgut wrecking ball when fed inappropriately, and what “gold standard” feeding looks like when welfare and performance matter.Hair analysis: when it might be useful (think toxins/heavy metals), why it often isn’t reliable for everyday nutrition decisions, and why diet analysis beats guessing, every time.Metabolic ponies + ulcers: why so many EMS “good doers” end up with serious gastric ulcers, and the management patterns that quietly set them up to fail (hello, long hours without forage).Orphan foals: Nerida shares a practical, “doable in the real world” approach to feeding orphan foals, including a simple milk-mixing recipe and how frequency of feeds can make or break a foal’s gut.  If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by conflicting advice, marketing masquerading as science, or you just want a clearer path to feeding with confidence—this one’s for you. 🐴💛 Here is the link to the 'How to feed an orphan foal' article from Dr Nerida: https://www.myhappy.horse/blog-posts/rearing-the-orphan-foal   Want to analyse your horse’s diet properly (without the stress)? Download MyHappy.Horse here: https://apps.apple.com/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324 And if you enjoyed the Q&A chaos with Orla 🤪🧡, we'd be so grateful if you'd leave a quick review on Apple or Spotify, it helps other horse owners find the show 🙏🏼

    44 min

  6. 30 MAR

    46. Horse Depression, Behaviour and Nutrition with Joanna Lepiarczyk

    In this episode of the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast, Dr Nerida is joined by Joanna Lepiarczyk from Horses Explained for a fascinating and deeply important conversation about horse mental health, equine behaviour, and the role that nutrition and feeding systems play in shaping a horse’s emotional wellbeing. We explore why behaviour is so often a form of communication, why a quiet compliant horse is not always a happy horse, and how chronic stress can affect a horse far more profoundly than many owners realise. Joanna shares her perspective on horse depression, the emotional cost of restricted forage and limited choice, and why the foundations of a good horse life are surprisingly simple: forage, freedom, and friends. We also talk about the importance of constant access to something to chew, forage variety, movement, predictability, agency, and why these are not “nice extras” but core building blocks for a horse’s physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. This is a thoughtful, compassionate, and at times confronting conversation that will encourage you to look beyond behaviour and think more deeply about how your horse is actually experiencing daily life. If you care about horse welfare, equine mental and emotional health, feeding management, and giving horses the conditions they need to truly thrive, this is an episode you won’t want to miss. 🐴   🌟 Joanna Lepiarczyk is an equine behaviour expert, classical riding coach, and the author of Understanding Horse Depression, with a focus on equine mental health, horse personality, and helping riders understand horses more deeply.   🧡 You can connect with Joanna at https://www.horsesexplained.com and follow Joanna’s work @horsesexplained   Joanna’s favourite book is ‘Training Showjumpers’ by Anthony Paalman   📲 To find out more about what we do here at MyHappy.Horse you can go to https://www.myhappy.horse or download the app (7-day free trial availabile): https://apps.apple.com/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324

    1hr 29min

  7. 23 MAR

    45. Feeding Grain Safely to Horses: Cooked vs Uncooked and Why It Matters (a lot!) for Gut Health

    Grains are one of those ingredients that get demonised in the horse world… or are fed completely on autopilot. And neither is an ideal situation. In this episode of the Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast, Dr Nerida digs deep into her PhD research and explains why grain itself isn’t bad — it’s more like a power tool. Used well, in the right horse, grains are incredibly useful. Used carelessly (wrong type, wrong form, wrong amount), and grains can rapidly destroy hindgut health… and in severe cases, even cause death. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why the real issue is starch, and why starch must be digested in the small intestine (and not dumped into the hindgut)How uncooked/poorly processed grains can drive hindgut acidosis, microbial dysbiosis, leaky gut, inflammation, behaviour changes, colic and laminitis riskWhy cracking, grinding, and soaking don’t solve the core problem What “cooked grain” actually means and why extrusion tends to win on digestibilityWhere oats fit and why uncooked corn/maize is a hard no!Which horses should avoid grain altogether (including insulin dysregulation/PPID/EMS, PSSM/tying up) vs when grain is genuinely helpful (including thoroughbred racehorses, high-performance athletes)Grans are incredibly useful ingredients IF you know how to safely feed them. This episode helps you understand why grains are often unsafe AND how to make them safe to feed in appropriate situations. 📲 Want to see how your current feeding program stacks up for gut health? Pop your horse’s diet into MyHappy.Horse and check the gut health score (7-day free trial availabile): https://apps.apple.com/app/myhappy-horse/id6633422324   🌾 If this helped, share it with a horsey friend who’s feeding grain “because that’s what we’ve always done” — and hit follow so you don’t miss the next episode. 🐴💛

    52 min

  8. 16 MAR

    44. Species-Appropriate Horse Keeping & Why Track Systems Work

    Track systems (perimeter grazing systems) can look deceptively simple… but when they’re designed well, they deliver things horses are wired for: friends, freedom, and forage… with extra movement built in.   In this episode, Dr Nerida is joined by the wonderful Dr Katherine Goldberg (DVM, LCSW), a veterinarian and clinical social worker,  to unpack what “species-appropriate husbandry” actually means in the real world, and why track systems aren’t just a “weight loss tool” for good doers, but a way we can help horses to live in a way that truly honours their needs.  Dr Nerida and Dr Katherine talk about the concept of horses being behaviourally starving even when obese, the two welfare rules Katherine won’t budge on, and how meeting these basic needs changes behaviour, safety, gut health, and the horse–human relationship. You’ll also get practical, immediately usable setup guidance on track width, why varying widths can create natural movement patterns, and how separating resources (water, hay, shelter) encourages that nomadic, forage-and-walk lifestyle horses evolved for.  Dr Katherine is the most beautiful human, driven by the desire to help us all create better, happier, more species-appropriate lives for our equine friends in which our horse-human relationships and horse goals, whatever they may be, can flourish! If you’d like to get in contact with Dr Katherine, you can find her at horsesfirststewardship@gmail.com   And if you would like more information on what we do here at MyHappy.Horse you can find us over at https://www.myhappy.horse   Thanks so much for being here 💖💛

    1hr 35min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

The Happy Horse Nutrition Podcast with Dr Nerida McGilchrist makes horse nutrition make sense. A PhD equine nutritionist with more than 25 years of experience, Dr Nerida shares practical feeding advice, explains the science in plain English, and interviews leading experts in horse health, welfare and nutrition. From gut health and supplements to performance feeding and common mistakes, each episode helps horse owners, breeders and trainers feed with more confidence.

Information

  • Creator
    MyHappy.Horse
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    51
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © MyHappy.Horse
  • Show Website
    Happy Horse Nutrition

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