Evaluating recent equine research (2005-06)

For the average person, the most difficult part of nutritionally managing their horse can be figuring out what feeds or supplements are advantageous to feed their horse and which ones might be a waste of money. The majority of individuals rely on advertising (which obviously can be misleading), articles in popular press magazines (which often do a good job, of evaluating research but sometimes don't), or their local veterinarian (some of which have a nutrition background, but many do not, and they may find it difficult to stay current on research findings due to their busy schedules). ideally, horse owners would read peer-reviewed research articles themselves to determine whether certain products or feeding strategies actually have merit. However, doing that is both impractical and may result in greater confusion as, to properly review research studies, one has to be familiar with scientific terms and also needs to be able to recognize limitations in research that might limit the conclusions that one can draw from even peer-reviewed and published research. The four papers to be discussed all have appeal to various segments of the equine industry. However, as will be pointed out, there are limitations to the findings of these papers despite them being published in peer-reviewed journals. These limitations do not necessarily negate the findings, but they do prevent one from making too strong of conclusions about the item being tested.