290. Equine Nutrition With Christina Reynolds

Sure.

Um, I do want to mention also, because I told you about my kind of career progression, but, um, let me tell you too, about like how nutrition advising and stuff goes on because it's a little different in, well, actually that's, it's, it's sort of different in the equine world compared to the human world.

So in the human world, you have a, an RD, a registered dietitian, and that's somebody who went to school for it, has the certification, the letters after their name, and they may or may not have like a master's or a PhD in And then you've got a bunch of people kind of running around being nutrition advisors.

And that's anybody can be a nutrition advisor, you know, like you could be a TikToker or, you know, whatever

is cool that

week.

So in the equine and livestock world, a nutritionist, like kind of capital and nutritionist, is There's no real industry definitions on these, but this is what is also like accepted by the industry.

So a nutritionist, somebody who's calling themselves a nutritionist typically should have a PhD, maybe a master's with some industry certifications and like extensive experience.

And then also you get folks like me who have come up, they have a degree, they have some industry certifications and they work for a feed company.

And then you have some who, Maybe do all that and they're independent and then you have some folks who can like take an online course and then they can call themselves whatever they want because there's no like industry rules about it.

So whenever you're hiring somebody to do this stuff you're you can ask these questions like you can be like hey like what are your certifications and you know you can ask those questions and they shouldn't be they shouldn't be offended by it.

Um, so I am not a PhD, just to be clear, I'm not a doctor.

But what I am is I have a degree in animal science with a concentration in nutrition.

And then, you know, I don't know what we're at now.

16 years of industry experience, and then a certification through the American registry of professional animal scientists for what I do.

So that's where, that's what I am.

And that's what I come to this as.

And then, okay.

So, and then onto your question about like, horses, donkeys, mules, and how their needs differ.

If you go off of all the research and kind of the textbooks and the NRC requirements, they do largely get lumped together.

And I think that that's a good starting point, you know, when we're talking about these guys.

Whether you're talking about a horse, a mule, or a donkey, they do need certain nutrients and they need certain amounts of nutrients.

And so some of the guidelines are fairly accurate going across all three.

or if we want to be fair and include Henny's in that group.

But we do know from years of experience and a lot of people that the donkeys tend to be extremely efficient in their digestion and utilization of different nutrients, especially like when you're talking about protein, that there are these protein recyclers and that their years of evolution in the desert and in harsh conditions have made them just like way more efficient at using those nutrients within their body.