Hi
Woop its Spring aready!
If you’ve ever spoken to me about your horse’s nutrition, you’ve probably heard me say:
Before spending a ton of money on feeds and supplements, let’s start with knowing exactly what’s in the grass you’re feeding.
Rather than guessing—or buying supplement after supplement trying to fix a problem—we can analyse the pasture, understand what your horse is actually getting, and balance the diet from there.
It can save you money, avoid unnecessary supplementation, and most importantly, give us a much more accurate starting point for your horse’s nutrition.
Don’t guess what’s in the grass. Find out. 🌱🐴
Understanding Your Pasture Analysis: What Do All Those Numbers Actually Mean?
🌱 Spring is one of the best times of year to get a pasture analysis done!
Why? Because understanding exactly what your horse is eating allows me to calculate their nutrient intake far more accurately and formulate a nutrition programme that meets their individual requirements.
If you’re a DL Equine client wondering what to include in a pasture analysis, give me a shout. I’m happy to help you work out what information we need.
But what if you’ve already had a pasture analysis done and are looking at the report, scratching your head and wondering what all those abbreviations and numbers actually mean?
Let’s break it down!
🧂 MINERALS
From major minerals to trace minerals, your analysis gives us valuable information about the mineral content of your pasture.
These minerals are essential for everything from bone development and muscle function to metabolism, enzyme activity and overall health.
Knowing what’s available in your pasture helps me identify potential deficiencies, imbalances or excesses and work out what, if anything, needs to be supplemented, allowing us to balance your horse’s diet rather than simply guessing what supplements they might need.
🌿 DM = Dry Matter
This is one of the most important figures on your report.
Dry matter (DM) is what’s left once the water has been removed from the grass. It represents the actual nutrients and plant material your horse is consuming, rather than the water content.
Why does this matter?
Horses generally need to consume around 1.5–2% of their body weight in dry matter each day, depending on their individual requirements.
Fibre is absolutely essential to your horse’s digestive system.
• Keeps the gut moving: Fibre provides bulk and stimulates normal movement of digesta through the digestive tract.
• Encourages saliva production: Chewing forage stimulates saliva, which helps buffer stomach acid and supports normal digestion.
• Feeds the hindgut microbes: Fibre travels into the hindgut, where beneficial microbes ferment it and produce volatile fatty acids (VFAs), an important source of energy for your horse.
• Supports gut health: Providing a variety of suitable fibre sources helps maintain a diverse and functioning hindgut microbial population, which in turn increases whole body immunity and health!
This is why forage is the foundation of a horse’s diet. Pasture, hay and other appropriate fibre sources all have a role to play.
💪 CP = CRUDE PROTEIN
Crude protein is an indirect estimate of the protein content of your pasture, calculated from its nitrogen content.
But here’s something important: crude protein doesn’t tell us exactly how much of each amino acid your horse is consuming.
Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and their availability and balance matter just as much as the overall protein figure.
Protein is essential for:
• Building and maintaining muscle.
• Tissue growth and repair.
• Enzyme and hormone production.
• Immune system function.
• Transporting nutrients throughout the body.
Growing horses, pregnant and lactating mares, and horses in heavy work can have increased protein requirements.
For most horses, pasture combined with suitable hay and other forage sources can provide a substantial proportion of their protein needs. The key is assessing the whole diet and ensuring that the essential amino acid requirements are met.
🌾 ADF = Acid Detergent Fibre
ADF measures two major components of the plant cell wall: cellulose and lignin.
Cellulose can be broken down by microbes in the hindgut, providing energy for your horse.
Lignin, on the other hand, is largely indigestible and limits how much of the plant material can be utilised.
Generally, the lower the ADF value, the more digestible the forage is likely to be.
This gives us a useful indication of the potential digestibility and feeding value of your pasture.
🌱 NDF = Neutral Detergent Fibre
NDF includes cellulose and lignin, as well as another plant cell wall component called hemicellulose.
Why do we care?
NDF is particularly useful because it helps us estimate how much forage a horse may be willing or able to consume.
As NDF increases, forage intake potential often decreases because the forage tends to be more bulky and takes longer to digest and pass through the gut.
In general, lower NDF values are associated with greater intake potential, although this also depends on other factors such as the horse, forage maturity and palatability.
Looking at ADF and NDF together helps us build a much clearer picture of the quality of your pasture.
⚡ DE = Digestible Energy
This is the energy your horse can obtain from its diet after accounting for energy lost in the faeces. Think of this as your pasture calories!
Every horse needs energy to maintain basic bodily functions, with additional energy required for exercise, growth, pregnancy, lactation and other demands.
Digestible energy comes from several dietary sources, including carbohydrates, fats, protein and fermentable fibre.
So, how do we know if your horse is getting too much or too little?
Body condition scoring is one of our most useful tools.
Monitoring body condition regularly helps us assess whether the overall energy intake is appropriate for your horse.
Remember, the DE of your horse’s entire diet comes from everything they eat, including pasture, hay, chaff and hard feeds.
It’s not just about the grass!
🍬 NSC = Non-Structural Carbohydrates
This is a particularly important figure for horses prone to metabolic issues.
NSC is commonly calculated as starch + water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC).
It represents readily available carbohydrates, including sugars, fructans and starch.
Why does this matter?
Starch and some sugars can be digested and absorbed in the small intestine. However, when too much starch and rapidly fermentable carbohydrate reach the hindgut, it can disrupt the microbial population, increase acidity and compromise gut health.
These digestive disturbances are one of the concerns associated with high-starch feeding and laminitis risk.
For horses with insulin dysregulation or a history of laminitis, managing dietary carbohydrate intake is particularly important.
A commonly used starting point for these horses is to select individual forage and feed ingredients around 12% NSC on a dry matter basis. Some horses may require tighter restrictions if metabolic or have laminitis.
This is where pasture analysis becomes especially valuable. It helps us understand whether the grass itself is contributing significant amounts of sugar and other non-structural carbohydrates to the diet.
💧 WSC = Water-Soluble Carbohydrates
WSC measures the water-soluble carbohydrates in your pasture, including simple sugars and fructans.
These are looked when managing horses with insulin dysregulation and those prone to laminitis.
However, it’s important to understand that not all WSC behave in the same way.
Simple sugars can contribute to a rise in blood glucose and insulin, while fructans are primarily fermented in the hindgut.
For horses with insulin-related metabolic problems, managing the intake of simple sugars and starch is particularly important. Fructans are also relevant to overall carbohydrate intake and hindgut fermentation, but they are not considered the same metabolic trigger as glucose and other insulin-stimulating sugars, however they should always be looked at in terms of gut health as high levels can cause hind gut acidosis.
This is why looking at the individual carbohydrate fractions, rather than relying on one number alone, can make a real difference when formulating a diet.
🧪ESC = Ethanol soluble carbohydrates
ESC include simple sugars. These are particularly relevant when managing horses with insulin dysregulation and those prone to laminitis as mentioned above the simple sugars contribute to a rise in blood glucose and insulin.
Assessing the ESC content plus starch enables a more accurate approach as an indication of pasture safety for insulin-sensitive horses.
Many at risk laminitic or metabolic horses require pasture and hay that is a minimum of 10% ESC + Starch on an a dry matter basis.
⚠️ NITRATE-N
Nitrate-N measures the nitrogen present in your pasture in the form of nitrate.
High nitrate levels can be a concern because nitrate can be converted into nitrite in the digestive tract.
Nitrite can then be absorbed into the bloodstream, where it interferes with haemoglobin, the molecule responsible for carrying oxygen in red blood cells.
This can result in methemoglobin formation, reducing the blood’s ability to transport oxygen.
Nitrate risk depends on the concentration in the forage, the amount consumed and the horse’s overall diet. The interpretation of nitrate results also depends on how the laboratory reports its figures, so it’s important not to rely on a single threshold without checking the units and basis of measurement.
A result below 1,000 mg/kg is often used as a general screening reference, but it should not be treated as a universal safety guarantee without checking the laboratory’s reporting basis and the relevant feeding guidance. My preferred level of nitrate is less than 500 mg/kg.
If your pasture report shows elevated nitrate levels, seek professional advice before feeding it.
🌿 So, what do we do with all this information?
This is where the real value of a pasture analysis comes in.
A report full of numbers is only the beginning. What matters is understanding how those numbers translate into what your horse is actually consuming.
For example, if your pasture is high in sugar and your hay is also high in NSC, we may need to look at restricting pasture access, choosing a more suitable forage or soaking hay where appropriate to reduce its water-soluble carbohydrate content.
If your pasture is low in certain minerals, we can calculate what needs to be added to balance the diet.
If your horse is struggling with weight, we can assess dry matter intake and energy consumption rather than simply cutting out feed and hoping for the best.
It’s all about feeding the horse in front of you, not simply following a label or guessing what might be missing.
And that’s exactly why I love working with pasture and forage analysis. It allows us to move away from guesswork and towards a nutrition programme based on what your horse is actually eating and what they individually need.
Because every horse, every paddock and every diet is different.
DL Equine — Feeding your horse from the inside out.
