Look at the whole horse. Look at the whole diet.

Nutrition plays an important role in your horse's overall health, body condition, performance and quality of life. But understanding what your horse actually needs isn't always as simple as choosing the right feed.

Our Equine Nutrition Consultation takes a closer look at your individual horse, their current diet and their nutritional needs, helping you make informed feeding decisions based on the whole picture.

What Does a Nutritional Consultation Include?

A trained member of the MPES veterinary team will visit your farm to gather the information needed to build a complete picture of your horse's nutritional needs.

Assess your horse

• Review relevant health and medical history

• Assess body condition and estimate body weight

• Discuss workload, management and your goals

Look at the whole diet

• Document hay, pasture, feeds, balancers, supplements and other dietary additions

• Weigh feeds and supplements to determine what your horse is actually receiving

Test the forage

• Collect representative hay samples

• Analyze forage using MadBarn's NIR forage analysis technology

• Provide you with the forage analysis results

Put it all together

Your horse's diet and forage analysis are considered alongside their health, body condition, weight, workload and your goals.

MadBarn provides the nutritional analysis, while an MPES veterinarian reviews the results and provides the final recommendations for your horse.

What Happens After the Assessment?

Your nutritional report is generally returned within approximately seven business days. An MPES veterinarian will then follow up with you by phone to discuss the results and recommendations, including specific feeding amounts or a revised ration where appropriate.

The goal isn't simply to analyze a diet. It's to understand whether that diet is appropriate for your horse.

Who Might Benefit From a Nutritional Consultation?

A nutritional consultation may be particularly helpful for horses with:

• Weight or body condition concerns

• Changing nutritional needs with age or workload

• Laminitis or metabolic concerns

• Gastric ulcers or digestive concerns

• Recurrent colic

• Complex feeding programs involving multiple feeds or supplements

• Other situations where your veterinarian feels a closer look at nutrition would be beneficial

A nutritional consultation may also be recommended as part of a broader health or management plan.

In some cases, your veterinarian may recommend a separate medical appointment before or in addition to a nutritional consultation, particularly when there is an active or undiagnosed medical concern.

Why Work With MPES?

Online nutritional tools can provide useful information, but every horse is different.

Our consultation combines on-farm assessment, actual measurements, forage analysis and veterinary oversight to put nutrition into the context of your individual horse.

The goal isn't simply to analyze a diet. It's to understand whether that diet is appropriate for your horse.

What If My Horse Is Boarded?

Please let your barn manager know about your upcoming consultation. We may need information about your horse's usual feeding routine and forage.

Our focus is your individual horse, not evaluating the barn's feeding program. We want to work cooperatively with your barn team to make sure we have an accurate picture of what your horse is actually receiving.

A Note About Your Information

As part of the consultation, relevant information about your horse may be securely shared with MadBarn for the purpose of completing the nutritional assessment. Your email address will also be shared with MadBarn to administer the consultation service.

Information is accessible only to authorized personnel and is not publicly available. The full consent information is provided as part of the online consultation form.

Ready to Take a Closer Look?

If you're wondering whether your horse's current diet is meeting their nutritional needs, talk to your MPES veterinarian about an Equine Nutrition Consultation.

Contact us to learn more or to book your consultation.