In my 33 years as an equine nutritionist, I’ve fielded a wide variety of questions about what horses can and should eat. My answers, of course, are grounded in science and research. However, when the editors of EQUUS contacted me to ask about the practice of feeding meat to horses, I drew information not only from those fields of inquiry but another adjacent one: history—specifically, historical research I conducted at a very special place: the National Sporting Library & Museum (NSLM) in Middleburg, Virginia.
Nestled in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, the NSLM is dedicated to preserving books, documents and art that chronicle and celebrate traditional “country pursuits.” In addition to activities like shooting and fly-fishing, these pursuits include many equestrian sports, such as steeplechasing, foxhunting and polo. The library itself contains about 20,000 books and periodicals, including thousands on general horsemanship and horse care. These books aren’t lent out, but the visitors can view most of them on site.
