Test Your Nutrition Knowledge

Nutrition is a specialty like any other scientific field. Despite this, it’s common for people with no qualifications to offer nutrition advice. Many things you hear or read over and over again can be wrong.  Take this mini quiz to test your own equine nutrition knowledge. I’ll post the answers tomorrow.

When building a diet and deciding how much to feed, the first thing to be calculated is always:

1. calorie needs
2. protein needs
3. fat requirements
4. starch and sugar levels
5. minerals

The mineral most likely to be present in any diet at levels far exceeding requirements is:

1. calcium
2. phosphorus
3. chloride
4. iron
5. copper

The most common nutritional factor contributing to poor hoof quality is:

1. low protein
2. fatty acid deficiency
3. trace mineral deficiency
4. too much sugar
5. silicon deficiency

Bioavailable sources of sulfur in the diet are:

1. MSM
2. sulfur containing amino acids
3. flowers of sulfur (inorganic sulfur)
4. sulfates
5. Both 2. and 4.

What can cause inflammation in the horse’s body:

1. High omega-6 fatty acids
2. High sugar/starch intake
3. High copper intake
4. Both 1. and 2.
5. None of the above

True or False.   If you feed the recommended daily amount of a balancer or fortified feed, vitamin and mineral  deficiencies or imbalances are impossible.

Deficiency of which electrolyte causes alkalosis in endurance horses:

1. sodium
2. potassium
3. chloride
4. bicarbonate
5. calcium

Compared to hay, fresh pasture always has higher levels of:

1. vitamin E
2. vitamin C
3. fructan
4. water
5. all of the above

The most common trace mineral deficiencies in hay are:

1. iodine
2. selenium
3. copper
4. zinc
5. all of the above

Horses differ from humans and small animals in the way they absorb:

1. calcium
2. protein
3. fats
4. iodine
5. chromium

Assuming an equivalent adult body weight, which of these horses has the highest protein requirements:

1. mare in late pregnancy
2. a 2-year-old in race training
3. yearling
4. mare in early lactation
5. horse recovering from surgery

Eleanor Kellon, VMD