Our nutrition consults are designed to capture the individual aspects of your horse's nutritional needs and performance targets, using a detailed 4-step process:
Information Gathering
Diet Assessment
Recommendation
Follow Up
Information Gathering
The first step in our nutrition consult is information gathering. This allows us to collect information associated with determining your horse's nutritional requirements and current diet suitability, while also learning about any concerns or health targets you wish to support with nutrition. The information gathering stage consists of the client intake form when booking, and the discussion that follows (or on-site appointment).
Client Intake Form [when booking]
Following booking a service, you'll be sent a Client Intake Form - fill this form out to the best of your ability. We'll ask for information on the following:
Horse Information: age, breed, workload, body weight & body condition
Current Diet Information: amounts by weight, the reason behind feeding (ie health target/what the barn supplies/etc).
Current Management Practices: housing information, normal routine (ie stalled at night, fed outside in a group, etc).
Concerns: joint health, senior horse, performance, behaviour, etc.
Guides will be provided to help you classify factors such as your horse’s life stage and activity level, while also providing tips for body weight & body condition scoring (especially important if Remote).
Discussion/On-site Appointment
Following receiving the Client Intake form, we can have a discussion to further identify factors impacting your horse's requirements and go into more detail about concerns you want to address.
The on-site visit gives us a chance to further discuss & identify individual- and situation-specific factors, allowing us to curate a nutrition plan that is truly matched to your horse as an individual. For instance, being on-site allows us to:
Assess body condition score in-person
Take body weight measurements
Weigh/sample feedstuffs
Observe normal feeding & housing practices
Diet Assessment
Following the information-gathering stage, the current diet will be assessed for suitability based on a number of parameters:
Are all requirements met?
Are all nutrients in balance?
Does the diet optimize digestive & mental health?
Does the diet effectively address & support health concerns/targets?
Can the diet be further optimized? (Both a nutritive, practical & economic lens is considered).
Recommendations & Dietary Options
Following assessment of the current diet, a balanced diet will be formulated, with a nutritional and economic comparison, as well as rationale on why we recommend the proposed changes.
We'll discuss dietary options if the proposed changes include a feed change, and will work with your comfort level and budget in mind (as discussed during the discussion in the first stage) when suggesting changes! Product breakdowns and full rationale explaining the science-backed why behind these proposed changes will be included!
Follow Up
We’ll check in within following any new diet or management implementation, support through any palatability concerns and further questions!
Then, a (free) follow up consultation 4-weeks following the initial consult can help evaluate the effectiveness and suitability of the diet! We also believe proactive nutrition is key to optimizing animal health, so this check-in is also great to address if anything has changed in the horse's life (ie, workload increasing through show season) and how to alter their diet to meet any change in requirements!
Still have questions? We'd be happy to help answer them - contact us today!
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