Feeding a high-protein ration balancer shouldn't make your horse hot, but it will help ensure he has all the nutrients he needs while recovering from his injury. | Photo: The Horse Staff

A. I am sorry to hear that you’re having to manage a lay-up; they’re rarely much fun and how the horse will cope with the restricted movement is a major concern. Often when horses are relegated to stall rest they’re fit, so this complicates things and makes it more likely that they might behave inappropriately. Exuberant equine behavior increases the risk of the rehabilitating horse becoming reinjured or the handler getting hurt, so I understand your desire to ensure diet isn’t contributing to the chance of this happening.

Horse people have long believed high-protein diet makes horses hot. But, good news! That’s not true. Protein doesn’t make horses hot. The caveat is that some high-protein feeds might also provide more calories, and feeding more calories than a horse requires can cause unwanted excitability.

However, high-protein ration balancers tend to be somewhat low in calories and are designed to have a feeding rate of a couple of pounds per day. I would expect a ration balancer to provide less calories per pound than your previous performance feed. Therefore, switching from the performance feed to a ration balancer will reduce dietary calories and might help your horse remain calm while laid up