Association between nutritional values of hays fed to horses and sensory properties as perceived by human sight, touch and smell.

ABSTRACT: Although hay is the foundation of most equine diets, horse owners rarely ask for biochemical analysis and the routine practice is to choose hay based on its 'perceived' nutritional value. The present study aimed at exploring the relationship between sensory properties as perceived by sight, touch and smell, and the nutritional value of hay measured by biochemical analysis using a 'free sorting task' method. Fifty-four non-expert participants were asked individually to: (1) observe 21 hays samples, (2) group together hays that they perceived as similar for each of the three modalities (hay appearance, odour or texture) and (3) characterize each formed group with a maximum of five descriptive terms. For each modality, results were recorded in a contingency matrix (hays × terms) where only te

SUBMITTER: Julliand S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6700712 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature