American Farriers Journal
American Farriers Journal is the “hands-on” magazine for professional farriers, equine veterinarians and horse care product and service buyers.
Dr. Clair Thunes of Clarity Equine Nutrition says that even horses with a good body condition score may have nutritional deficiencies. Lewis Horn III
The Importance of Nutrition & Forage on Equine Hoof Health
Dr. Clair Thunes advocates for hay testing & choosing the right forage for each horse
Takeaways
- Understanding the nutritional content of forage is vital for maintaining healthy hooves. Farriers would benefit from carrying a hay probe to help owners better understand what they’re feeding their horses.
- Though genetic predisposition, age, obesity and PPID can increase susceptibility to laminitis, a diet high in non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) raises the risk regardless of breed.
- For a metabolic horse, when low-NSC hay is unavailable, soaking hay for 30-60 minutes can reduce its sugar content. However, hay should be tested to suit the horse’s needs and a ration balancer added when needed.
What a horse eats directly influences the hoof.
During a presentation presented by Triple Crown at the 2026 International Hoof-Care Summit, equine nutritionist Dr. Clair Thunes explained how forage quality, carbohydrate levels and nutrient balance can influence hoof growth and laminitis risk — and why understanding the horse’s natural diet is an important starting point.
The Evolution of Equine Nutrition
Horses evolved to consume large amounts of mature, low-nutrient forage while covering considerable ground, which shaped their digestive systems as they are today.
“If you think about how horses evolved and where they came from, you can put together a diet that at least gets you in the ballpark,” Thunes says. “They evolved eating very stemmy,
low-nutritional-value forage, so they had to eat for more than 16 hours a day and continually move to find their next meal. Billions of microbes in the hindgut allow horses to break down structural carbohydrates that they cannot digest with their own…
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American Farriers Journal is the “hands-on” magazine for professional farriers, equine veterinarians and horse care product and service buyers.
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