An inaugural University of Kentucky (UK) Equine Nutrition Short Course will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on May 14. The event is for horse owners interested in understanding how nutrition can affect their horses’ health and longevity. The event is presented by UK Ag Equine Programs’ equine nutrition working group within the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.

“There has been increasing interest in how feeds and feeding management affect the risk for metabolic and digestive diseases in horses,” said event organizer Laurie Lawrence, PhD, a professor and equine nutrition researcher in the college’s Department of Animal and Food Sciences. “The nutrition working group has assembled a group of outstanding speakers and innovative, hands-on activities that will give horse owners practical information about desirable and undesirable feeding practices.”

Equine faculty and graduate students from UK, as well as industry practitioners, will present morning session lectures, which will be held at the UK Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at 1490 Bull Lea Road, in Lexington.

Topics include cracking the code on nutrition-related diseases; equine digestion—colic, ulcers, and other digestive disorders; how calories affect body weight and body condition; what’s in horse feed; and horse nutrition myths and mysteries