This week we move on to study and learn about the basics of Nutrition of horses.  This is an introduction to the topic of Nutrition and Nutritional Management of horses and is presented as a generic approach.  Once you learn the basics of nutrition, there are many opportunities for you to continue on your learning journey in this area and learn about many job opportunities as well.  There are many staff needed to run feed stores, feed companies, and with experience and further education, you can pursue careers in the nutrition industry as a consultant, feed developer, marketing and promotions, feed analysis, and many more.

Once you have the basics down, you can continue to learn about specialized feeding programs that will be necessary for the broodmare, the growing foal and weanling, the young equine athlete, the senior horse, and the horse that may have health issues that can be helped/prevented by nutritional interventions, such as colic, ulcers, metabolic syndrome, allergies and a long list of other ones.  Overfeeding  is as bad as under-feeding and we can also have “overfed but under-nourished” as can be seen with horses that are overweight but may be lacking in priority vitamins/minerals/nutrients for their category.  Other horses may need nutritional support for specific issues as well, such as skin problems or hoof quality issues.  So, consider this week a start down a fascinating pathway of learning about nutrition and one that can take you into many careers and help support the horses in your care.

Just a reminder of our schedule, to help keep you up-to-date and getting quizzes and learning activities completed prior to the end of the course.

Week Five – Unit 4: Nutrition (December 6 – 10)

Week Six – Unit 5: Facilities Management and Unit 6: The Equine Industry Community (December 13 – 17)

To help you with time management, please write this timeline into your calendar to keep you on schedule.  If you find yourself falling a bit behind, do not be too concerned as you can catch up the following week.

Gayle