Whitfield Equine Nutrition LLC

03/15/2026

Something I’ve been thinking about a lot this week — we are many things to our horses, ponies, & donkeys: a friend, athletic partner, personal attendant, treat-provider, bill-payer, or all of these. Most of all, we are their advocates — stewards of their well-being.

Advocating for our horses can take many forms — perhaps you’ve made an informed decision (with weigh-in from a trusted perspective like your vet) about not blanketing your overweight pony or donkey for the winter in order to promote calorie expenditure and weight loss while monitoring their daily comfort & access to shelter — while the rest of your barn blankets religiously during the cold months.

Or, perhaps your hard-keeper senior horse’s recent metabolic bloodwork indicates a change in diet is needed, and your barn doesn’t offer an appropriate feed — it might be time to consider supplying your own feed and taking a proactive approach to ensure your horse receives this without complicating feeding time for the barn’s staff.

Maybe your performance horse had a heavy show season last fall, has been uncharacteristically cranky, and then was diagnosed with severe gastric ulcers. It’s hard to watch other riders legging their horses back up for a fresh season while you & your horse are sidelined, but the better choice for our horse to be thoughtful about whether they need some time off during ulcer treatment — or a very light workload.

Having a qualified equine health professional you can trust and ask to weigh in on difficult considerations is valuable — whether that’s your vet, or nutrition consultant for nutrition-related needs. It’s hard to have a clear perspective about our own horses if we’re worried about them, stressed, or under pressure from our trainer or horse community. Having a horse in our care is a constant learning experience — how can we learn from them each day to better advocate for them?

Comment below one small (or big) way you recently advocated for your horse or whether you have someone on your horse’s health care team you can lean on as their advocate 🩵 It brings me joy to advocate for my client’s horses — and my own — though it often sure isn’t easy.

03/13/2026

Having a dry lot, a stall/shelter than can be fully enclosed, and more than one option for sourcing hay – especially the first two – require some homework and investment, but the pay-off is big, especially if you have a few horses at home and are fully responsible for their daily care.

All of these are things we wish we had when we’re in trouble – a pony develops laminitis, a horse is on stall rest, or grass turnout is a muddy mess – and difficult to implement when we’re already scrambling.

Late winter/early spring is a great time to make adjustments to your set-up so that times of stress with our horses (they’re inevitable!) can be less chaotic ❤️

If you do make adjustments, make sure to also spend some time acclimating your horse(s) to them. For example, if your horses live outside 24/7 but you want to avoid a meltdown when someone is injured and needs stall time, spend some time — when everyone is healthy — encouraging them to associate going into a stall with positive experiences (food/grooming with buddies nearby) so that future by-necessity-stall time isn’t overly stressful 🦄

03/06/2026

Last weekend I had the pleasure of talking to a group of students from Emma Willard School at the Cheshire Horse in Saratoga Springs — about what horses eat and how nutrition impacts their health and often, well-being or quality of life 🦄

⭐️ Are you, your barn, or organization interested in having a nutrition seminar or event? I am scheduling speaking engagements for 2026 and currently offer these free of charge — whether you’re located in the greater Hudson Valley or want to do something remotely.

Topics are centered around equine nutrition but can be tailored to a group’s interest — whether that’s feeding seniors, performance horses in your specific discipline, navigating the nuances of forage options and testing, or even a body condition scoring workshop. I work independently, with no ties to feed or supplement companies, so presentations are brand-neutral — and rooted in how current, equine-specific science informs sound feeding decisions.

Interested in chatting? Send me a message, email me at contact@whitfieldequinenutrition.com, or visit my website to directly schedule a time to talk ☎️

02/20/2026

Valentine’s Day was last week, but we all know that every day is for loving our animals…

Love who you love, and most of all, love your horse, love yourself, & love your feeding decisions. They don’t need to be “perfect” — caring for horses is a daily lesson in learning and building on what we used to know — but we can strive to do better by them each day, especially when we surround ourselves with a supportive team 🩷 Happy Valentine’s Day 🦄


📸: The Whitley Archives, February 2010 🤍 Comment if you know where this photo was taken!

02/13/2026

You love your horse. Your horse loves you, and would also love… to see you spend less time stressing about what they eat and more time present with them. Have a qualified equine nutrition professional on your horse’s team to dive into the nuances of evidence-based nutrition to support their health, well-being, and your peace of mind 🩷

📸: The Whitley Archives 🤍

02/08/2026

Horses tend to find alfalfa a very tasty addition to their diet but a lot of myths & misconceptions remain among horse owners… does this legume have a place in your horse’s diet?

Check out the post to learn when alfalfa’s elevated protein, calories, calcium, but reduced NSC might be a good match for your horse’s nutrition program 🌾 💚

02/08/2026

01/30/2026

An excellent post from my colleague and friend in Canada 🍁 Thank you FAR Equine Nutrition for unpacking this important misconception!

01/30/2026

Featuring Kody again 🦄🤍 The beauty of working together over multiple months is being able to track body condition through changing seasons. For Kody, our aim is keep him at a healthy 5-6 BCS, particularly important because he is insulin-dysregulated in conjunction with having PPID.

His owner Kate does a fabulous job caring for a duo with two distinct feeding needs — Kody’s friend Spot is a hard-keeper who requires a great deal more calories to maintain weight.

Looks can be deceiving with a winter coat as thick as Kody’s — as always but especially with winter fluff, hands-on palpation is key 🔑 for accurate body condition scoring. It’s not always easy to score objectively and accurately, though, especially when it comes to our own horses!

🌟 I like recommending that in addition to scoring our horses monthly, it’s valuable on a weekly basis to practice palpating (even if you only pick 2-3 areas to feel) so you become familiar with what fat vs muscle feels like on your specific horse’s conformation.

💻 If we work remotely, we’ll talk about the nuances of body condition scoring so you can palpate on your own with confidence — and a video body condition scoring call comes in handy, so we can score each area in real-time!

01/23/2026

Client spotlight 💡 featuring Kody ✨

Kate contacted me over the summer about her horses Spot (featured a few weeks ago) and Kody. Kody had been diagnosed with PPID and insulin dysregulation, and Kate wisely wanted to make sure she was feeding him an appropriate & supportive diet.

We worked together to do this —

✅ Making sure carbohydrate intake (total diet & per meal) were appropriate

✅ Ensuring his diet promoted a healthy 5-6 body condition, not weight gain!

✅ Meeting his individual nutrient requirements, despite lower calorie & carbohydrate needs

✅ Providing a sufficient foundation of forage, again making sure calorie & carbohydrate content were appropriate in this department

✅ Setting up a feeding routine that worked not only for Kody but for his hard-keeper friend Spot — which isn’t always easy, and requires adjustment & creativity along the way as seasons and horse quirks change!

Thank you for trusting me with Kody’s nutrition 🤎

01/19/2026

While the narrative is changing, underweight senior horses (BCS < 5; ribs are visible) are often overlooked because we assume they’re just “old” and will remain thin despite any previous efforts to gain weight. Unless there is a debilitating, chronic disease process at play, most senior horses can reach a healthy BCS of 5 with the right calories and care — even with compromised dentition 🦷 🤍

And — gaining weight doesn’t need to mean carrying too much weight, a common concern with insulin- dysregulated seniors — the key is being mindful about where calories are coming from (fiber & fat vs carbohydrates) 🔑

⚠️ Remaining below a BCS of 5 carries health risks at any age, including:

• Loss of muscle and topline → weakness and possible decreased mobility
• Weakened immune function → more illness, slower recovery
• Poor thermoregulation → higher risk in cold weather ❄️
• Compromised GI tract health
• Slower wound healing

With constantly progressing science and more senior-appropriate forage & feed options, we absolutely owe it to our older horses to feed them for longevity & comfort. Thin is not a normal stage of equine aging.

But, sometimes a senior horse loses weight despite an owner’s best intentions & efforts - together, we can take steps to put healthy weight back on, & maintain it 🩵

📸: Sophia Donohue Photography

01/09/2026

January inspires - or pressures - many people to make goals. Goals aren’t so meaningful, though, if they’re not achievable!

🦄 With all horse owners, I bring a goal-oriented approach — often our nutrition goals come to light in an introductory conversation, and we solidify them once I’ve reviewed a client’s intake materials. While nutrition cannot reverse the clock on aging, cure medical conditions, or exceed a horse’s genetic potential, there are many different aspects of equine health, well-being, and athleticism we can improve greatly through the diet.

I set 3 basic but crucial goals for all horses:

1️⃣ To ensure the diet is balanced, delivering levels of nutrients that are appropriate for a horse as an individual

2️⃣ To ensure forage quality & quantity are sufficient

3️⃣ To make sure the diet is supporting a healthy 5-6 body condition - addressing nuances within this range on a horse-specific basis

⭐️ Beyond this, there are a number of ways we can go - we always address any nutritionally-relevant health issues (in collaboration with your vet, when appropriate), such as insulin dysregulation, gastric ulcers, a muscle myopathy, or more benign concerns like f***l water syndrome or a lackluster hair coat. 🐴 For under- or overweight horses, we make a concrete plan for achieving a healthy body condition in an achievable number of days.

🏇For performance horses, we can make discipline-specific goals - for an eventer, we may aim to improve endurance on XC by choosing energy sources wisely. For a hunter prone to being excitable or spooky, we’d ensure the diet is not fueling this.

🙋‍♀️ Last - but certainly not least - we might address owner-specific or management concerns. Perhaps you’d like to save 💸 and streamline your supplement shelf; or have a diet plan for your horse moving to a new barn or different part of the country 🌎

And, if the goal that comes to mind for your horse’s nutrition this year is simply to make sure they’re getting what they need - that’s ok, too. Interested in setting goals for your horse’s nutrition this year, and how to know whether they’re attainable? Send me a message or schedule a complimentary call via www.whitfieldequinenutrition.com 💌