Forage is the foundation of equine nutrition and welfare. Hay testing and understanding forage quality enables evidence-based feeding that prevents nutritional deficiency and excess.
Forage quality directly determines horse welfare - hay that is moldy causes respiratory disease, hay that is nutritionally deficient causes condition loss and mineral deficiencies, and hay that is excessively high in sugar causes laminitis in susceptible horses. The lack of hay testing in most horse management is a welfare gap: owners feed hay of unknown composition and adjust based on body condition, missing subclinical nutritional problems that affect health over months. Welfare-conscious equine management uses hay testing to make evidence-based feeding decisions, supplementing mineral deficiencies, limiting high-NSC hay in metabolically susceptible horses, and ensuring adequate protein for the horse's life stage and workload.