What is HD, the HorseNutrition quality mark

The difference is in the diet

HorseNutrition, since its beginnings, has differentiated itself by approaching the nutrition of sport horses with dietary formulations in which the energy administered comes as much as possible from oils and fibers, optimally used as nutritional and reserve sources, while reducing the contribution of starches and sugars which are not well tolerated by the digestive system.

The choice of this approach derives from the deep knowledge of the physiology of the horse's digestive system. In fact, horses have evolved as grazing animals and, in the course of evolution, have specialized in assimilating the various types of pastures they found in nature, generally poor in starches and sugars.

Quality fibers

Horses are able to digest, mainly inside the cecum, practically all types of fiber present in food (with the exception of lignin) thanks to a highly developed symbiotic mechanism with the intestinal microflora.

Conversely, starches and sugars, (whole, ground or flaked), although normally absorbed in the more proximal part of the intestine (the small intestine), can cause many problems if present in excess in the diet, causing pododermatitis and some types of colic. Also not to be underestimated are the harmful glycemic peaks and the consequent state of nervous horse that they cause.

Having made this premise, it must be specified that the fiber present in food is not all the same.

Each food has its unique properties

Wheat straw, Italian ryegrass hay, alfalfa hay, beet pulp, are all foods very rich in fiber, but the simple observation of these products can suggest how different they are from each other in terms of dietary properties. We can distinguish fiber into some large categories, which are mainly: lignin, cellulose, hemicelluloses, pectins, gums, mucilages and oligosaccharides. Essentially these types of fiber are fermented, and digested, to a different extent and speed by the intestinal flora.

Furthermore, highly fermentable fiber fractions, such as mannooligosaccharides, also have other important and interesting properties, as they fall into the large category of prebiotics.

Therefore, the addition of highly digestible fiber in HorseNutrition feeds translates into a higher energy density of the diet, a greater propensity of the subject to work even intensely and, ultimately, in a better well-being of the horse.