Whitfield Equine Nutrition LLC

12/06/2025

I am taking a holiday break 12/28-1/2 and will not be answering messages or email during that time. As always, if you have an equine emergency, please contact your veterinarian 🩵

I’m looking forward to the remainder of December with current clients - some new, some returning - and I’d love to chat if you’re interested in working together in January or February!

Your horse’s nutrition is important through every season, but wintertime brings a unique set of challenges - particularly for seniors, harder-keepers, or those already under ideal body condition (and if you’re in Florida reading this, well - 🤫 and enjoy ☀️)

📸: Sophia Donohue Photography

11/30/2025

Unsure - or surprised - by what is considered heavy work for your horse?

Curious about what it looks like to tailor your horse’s diet to their unique exercise program and your performance goals - in addition to feeding according to their life stage, body weight, & genetic predisposition?

Whether your horse (or pony) is doing the short stirrup, galloping cross-country, or trail riding on the weekend, let’s ensure he/she is eating a diet that supports their physical fitness, longevity, and mental well-being ✨

Thank you to EJS Dressage for sharing these photos by Q2 Photography of her gorgeous Santero 🦄

11/28/2025

A day late, but — happy Thanksgiving 🍁 Wishing you a weekend of quiet moments with your horse or at the barn. Whether we worked together just once or check in monthly, thank you to all the horse owners & riders I’ve worked with in the past year, and to those I’ll meet in 2026 - it’s an honor and joy to be part of your horse’s team. Thank you for entrusting me with their nutrition, and allowing me to do what I love 💛

📸: Sophia Donohue Photography

11/23/2025

Celebrate the bond you share with your horse, every season & every day.

I could write about my story with Whit (and I will), but often what we share with our horses transcends words, time, & space. They take our breath away, and that’s enough.

Thank you to Meghan for helping wrangle my wild prince 🥰 & to Sophia Donohue Photography for taking these photos to honor the 15 years & counting I’ve shared with Whit. Caring for your beloved 28 y.o. with chronic orthopedic, GI, and endocrine disorders is not easy - I wanted to take these photos in spite of (/because of) how tired I often feel as a horse mom & farm girl.

Go spend 10 minutes with your horse - and do nothing but sit still with them 🤍

11/23/2025

My friend & colleague in Canada (so, a natural winter-expert😅) has started sharing a helpful series of winter feeding & care tips ❄️

The cold weather is fast approaching here in the Okanagan (and beyond!), so I’ll be sharing winter nutrition tips to help keep your horse healthy all season long.

First up: water — the forgotten nutrient.

As many horses transition from pasture to primarily hay, it’s important to monitor their water intake. Pasture is naturally 60–80% moisture, while hay contains less than 15%, meaning your horse’s water needs increase significantly in winter.

Research shows that horses drink up to 40% more when water is kept between 7–18°C, making luke-warm water one of the simplest and most effective winter management tools.

Inadequate hydration can raise the risk of impaction colic, especially during cold snaps. A few small management tweaks—like offering warm water, keeping buckets clean, and adding water to feed—can make a big difference in keeping your horse drinking and their digestive system happy.

11/18/2025

For many horses, it’s not hard to meet their daily protein requirement if you’re feeding an ample quantity + quality of hay and/or pasture - complemented by a ration balancer, vitamin & mineral supplement, or concentrate to balance the vitamin and mineral gaps in all forage.

Not all protein is created equally, though - ensuring your horse receives a high quality amino acid profile is essential, translating to how well that protein can be used in the body.

Interested in learning more? Let me know 🦄

Thank you to Back to Basics Equine, LLC for the body clip & photo!!

11/09/2025

🚨 Exciting news!

🌾 I am now offering hay sampling as an NFTA-certified hay sampler. Interested in having your hay tested or talking about how to informally evaluate your hay if an analysis isn’t possible?

🌟 Taking a representative sample via hay probe & sent for lab analysis is the only way to truly know the nutritional content of your hay - but often this isn’t realistic for horse owners or farms. We can still make some valuable inferences based on visual assessment of the hay and your horse’s body condition.

🦄 The foundation (but not entirety) of every horse’s diet should be forage - and a quality & quantity appropriate for them individually. Let’s forage nerd together - in the interest of your horse’s health & well-being.

- Hudson Valley Hay Patrol

11/02/2025

Do you view feeding horses as more of an art or science? 🎨 🧪 A combination of both? What is your favorite myth or feeding tradition, whether you believe it or not? 🤔 Comment below!

Thanks to afternoon coffee & textbook reading for this quote and Saratoga Lake for the sunset💡 🌅

10/27/2025

✨ Client spotlight: Misty & Adriane, 3-day eventing team in New Mexico ✨

I met Misty & Adriane while at the American Eventing Championships this summer and am excited to work together over the course of 30 days. Misty is a 20 y.o. paint mare, with Adriane since she was a youngster (swipe to see Misty as a yearling 🥰). Previously doing pleasure & trail riding together, Adriane started eventing Misty ~a year ago, competing at New Mexico/southwest shows before qualifying for AEC and making the trip to Galway Downs in August. What a team!!

Misty is in excellent body condition (6/9, with 5-6 being ideal) and tends to be an easy-keeper. Our primary goals in working together? To:

⭐️ Test her orchard-alfalfa hay and ensure Misty is receiving enough to keep her GI tract healthy without promoting weight gain

⭐️ Balance the diet with a ration balancer, filling the vitamin & mineral gaps left by even a high quality grass-legume hay like Misty’s
🌟 Special request by Adriane for a molasses-free balancer ✔️

⭐️ Misty was diagnosed with PSSM 1 this summer - we’ll address this nutritionally by keeping total diet NSC at 12% or less and supplying sufficient vitamin E

⭐️ Support skin & coat health - Misty’s coat became dull after a stressful summer month & hospital stay, when she was diagnosed with PSSM 1

⭐️ Use fat sources in the diet to promote greater endurance on cross-country

Do you want to want to feel confident that nutrition is providing the best possible support for your (senior) eventer or equine partner with a muscle myopathy? Send me a message! ✨

10/19/2025

Most of my farm calls (NY, NJ, CT, but inquire if you’re outside of this area!) are to gather initial intake information - saving an owner steps on weighing hay and feed and allowing me to body condition score, weigh tape, and chat in person 🌾

I do also value visiting on-farm for progress check-ins, whether at 30 days, 60, or 90 days - depending on program length.

🖥️ How does this process translate for my remote clients? I have detailed instructions for an owner on how to gather intake information and give text or video guidance to make sure things go smoothly - especially for body condition scoring, video can be helpful to verify each area is being palpated & scored accurately.

I love being able to put hands on a horse myself, but my remote clients do tend to get comfortable weighing feed & body condition scoring faster than when I go out in-person 🙃

Reach out if you’d like to learn more 🌾

📸: Sophia Donohue Photography

10/16/2025

The answer - like many things with horses - is: it depends… specifically on your horse’s body condition and metabolic status. If your horse is overweight (BCS > 6.5) and/or you are concerned about metabolic health, it’s key 🔑 to have a conversation with both your veterinarian & a qualified equine nutrition professional to determine whether pasture access, regardless of the season, is ok for your horse, pony, or donkey - and if so, how much.

Cooling fall temperatures in northern climates in particular warrant a close look at your horse’s grazing. While non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) content in pasture depends on a variety of factors - including grass species, maturity, time of day, and environmental stress - an important fall-specific consideration is the impact of temperature 🍁

🧊 Prior to winter pasture dormancy, and when nighttime temperatures dip below 40 deg. F followed by sunny days, grasses do not “use up” their carbohydrate stores overnight as they do usually at warmer temperatures. Meaning: grass remains high in carbohydrate content, even in the early morning hours.

⭐️ The bottom line? Work with your vet & nutrition professional to ensure your equine friend’s pasture access is safe for them and their metabolic health - and if he/she is on approved but restricted access due to metabolic concerns, skip grazing after autumn sub-40 degree nights followed by sunny days ☀️ 🍃

10/13/2025

I’ve posted previously about the importance of weighing your horse’s feed - both forage and concentrate or ration balancer. While it’s only necessary to weigh your concentrate or balancer once - and mark the weight on your scoop of choice - it is important to make sure you’re being consistent about the ✨ way ✨ you or your barn’s staff are scooping.

There can be a sizeable difference between one person’s idea of a “scoop” vs another’s, even when that scoop is labeled. I personally like to shake my scoop each time I fill it to allow the feed to settle - and I glance at it to make sure I’ve scooped to my intended mark.

I scoop a lot of feed, and it can be tempting to scoop by “feel” and not look at what I’m doing when I have a barn to do list as long as a dreaded Walgreens receipt… but feeding precise amounts is crucial for ensuring our horses are receiving the nutrients we think - and want them - to get. I stand by my “scoop & shake” technique - do you have feeding quirks? 😅

📸: Sophia Donohue Photography
👑 Supervision by: Whit