Equine Nutrition 101 - win a copy of ZINPRO's Best of Show DVD

When I got Lucy, one of the biggest learning curves that I had to overcome was horsey nutrition. I remember looking at her after the trainer I was working with left abruptly. I felt like I was all alone with this skinny horse and I had NO clue what to feed her. Obviously she needed to gain weight, and a LOT of it, but I was afraid to feed her the wrong thing and make her either sick or crazy.

I can't even tell you how many hours I spent researching, and it took me about a year to get her to the right weight and come up with the right combination of grain, supplements, and hay, but I am pretty happy with where she is now in her weight and condition.

ZINPRO is a company that specializes in trace minerals. They offered to send me a copy of their Best of Show DVD that takes the viewer through a complete overview of equine nutrition, including how to read a feed tag, how to make sure your horse has a balanced diet, how to recognize if there are any deficiencies, and what individual minerals do for your horse.

Since I am always interested in learning more, I watched the DVD (and took notes! my college professors would be so proud!). It was actually pretty good! There are different sections of the DVD, which is interactive and allows the user to click through at his or her own pace.

The DVD has five parts:

• An overview of equine nutrition
• An informative section about their 4-Plex-EQ product
• A more detailed section about equine nutrition that goes into depth about different requirements in a balanced diet
• How to read a feed tag
• Additional tools and resources

I found the section on how to read a feed tag the most informative, because it also explained the units of measurement that are listed alongside the ingredient. I know PPM means "parts per million" but how does that really translate to my 1100 lb horse? Now I know!

I am a visual person and enjoyed "exploring" different parts of the program. I would have liked to see some video, maybe a vet explaining why he thinks trace minerals are so important (this was explained, but by the narrator), and also maybe a section on different ailments and how they might be linked to trace mineral deficiencies, but other than that I liked the DVD.

ZINPRO has offered four copies to me to give away to four of my readers. If you'd like a copy, leave a comment with a link to a photo of your horse that you feel shows him or her in great condition, and explain why you'd like a copy of the DVD. Four winners will be chosen on Friday 5/13!

This is one of my favourite photos of Lucy. It was taken in October 2010
and her winter coat is peeking through, giving her a lovely chocolate look
speckled with dapples that are catching the light. I love her weight here
and I think she has a pleasant expression on her face and looks happy.

Tally ho!