Controlled NSC for Senior Horses and Ponies

(Editor’s Note: This article on controlled NSC for senior equids is provided by BUCKEYE™ Nutrition.)

As horses age, they often experience physical changes that require adjustments to their nutrition and management. Some senior horses with reduced dental quality might require changes to their diet and forage sources as adequate chewing becomes more difficult. Others might become exceptionally easy keepers once retired from riding, requiring careful management to prevent obesity, while some might lose weight or muscle as they age.

Additionally, senior horses can experience changes in their metabolic status that make careful monitoring of their diets necessary.

Common Metabolic Disorders

Metabolic disorders can take many forms in the horse, and sometimes a single horse can have more than one metabolic disorder.

One of the more familiar metabolic disorders to horse owners is Cushing’s Disease or PPID (pars pituitary intermedia dysfunction). PPID is a condition affecting the pituitary gland.

Insulin dysregulation (ID) is a metabolic disorder that can coexist with PPID in potentially 25% or more of cases. ID is also a core component of equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) and results in an increased risk of laminitis.

Insulin dysregulation refers to high basal or ‘resting’ blood insulin concentration, an exaggerated insulin response to consuming starch and sugar, as well as tissue insulin resistance (cells fail to respond to insulin appropriately).

Understanding of these metabolic disorders is consistently evolving through research. Appropriate management of these conditions in affected horses is essential to decreasing the risk of negative health impacts, such as laminitis.

How Can These Horses be Managed?

For horses suspected of the above metabolic disorders, it is recommended to work closely with your veterinarian and nutritionist to develop an effective treatment and management plan.

Horses affected by metabolic disorders can have very individualized requirements as well as responses to methods of management and treatment. What works for some will not work for all.

Not all insulin dysregulating horses and ponies require strict management, while others may. There are prescription medications that can be helpful in the management of these metabolic disorders, and we are involved with ongoing research seeking to identify new methods of diagnosis, treatment, and management.

Outside of pharmaceuticals, diet changes are often necessary to decrease the amount of NSC (non-structural carbohydrates = starch + sugars [water soluble carbohydrates]) fed daily. Reducing starch and sugar in the diet helps to promote a lower and more stable blood insulin concentration, decreasing the risk of adverse effects, namely laminitis.

The commercial feed that horses consume is an important consideration, especially for those highly sensitive individuals.

Is there an Ideal NSC Value for Metabolic Horses?

Most dietary guidelines for horses with insulin dysregulation recommend feeding a diet low in non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs). However, it can be difficult for owners and equine managers to know how low is low enough, especially for horses and ponies who are highly sensitive and at increased risk of complications such as laminitis.

Recent research conducted by the University of Kentucky, the Waltham Petcare Science Institute, and Mars Horsecare/BUCKEYE™ Nutrition has suggested that, as a guide, the NSC threshold for severely insulin dysregulated horses is no more than 0.1g of NSC per kilogram of body weight per meal.

For a 1,100-pound (500 kg) horse, this equates to a maximum of 50 grams of NSC per meal. Exceeding this amount is more likely to result in a significant rise in insulin levels.

Introducing LOW ‘N STEADY™

In response to these findings, BUCKEYE™ Nutrition has developed LOW ‘N STEADY™, the first ration balancer formulated specifically to meet the nutritional needs of those more severely insulin dysregulated horses by staying below this recommended NSC level.

LOW ‘N STEADY™ contains just 8.5% NSC, but importantly, when fed as recommended, delivers 48 grams of NSC per 1.25-pound serving for an idle 1,100-pound horse—coming in under the 50-gram threshold.

For especially sensitive insulin-dysregulating individuals, we can further reduce the grams of NSC per meal by splitting the recommended feeding rate into multiple daily meals.

Fill in the blanks of the equation below in Figure 1 to determine how many grams of NSC per meal your current feed (on an as-fed basis) provides! Then check out the grams of NSC per meal delivered by LOW ‘N STEADY^TM in Figure 2.

It is also important to evaluate forage as a source of dietary NSC, as forage should make up the majority of the equine diet.

It may be necessary to take steps to reduce the NSC content in the forage you are feeding. You might have to change the forage, as different individuals may require different levels of NSC in their forage to maintain an ideal metabolic status.

Speak to your veterinarian or nutrition advisor. It can be important to routinely monitor insulin responses, especially for those highly sensitive individuals.

Tailored Care is Key

Managing the health and well-being of senior horses, especially those with metabolic disorders, often requires a mindful and individualized approach.

Mars Horsecare and the Waltham Petcare Science Institute, in partnership with our academic research partners, are continually researching ways to reduce the impact of conditions such as PPID and insulin dysregulation.

Managing these conditions through proper diet and medical care is essential to help reduce the risk of complications such as laminitis.

Working closely with veterinarians and nutritionists allows equine owners to make informed decisions about their horses’ diets and promotes controlled intake of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) to help support stable blood insulin concentrations.

As research continues, tools such as LOW ‘N STEAD Y from BUCKEYE Nutrition provide a valuable option to help meet the nutritional needs of insulin dysregulating horses when paired with adequate amounts of appropriate forage.

Meticulous care, monitoring, and dietary modifications are key in keeping senior horses with metabolic conditions healthy and thriving through their golden years.