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Article by Dr. Stephen Duren and Dr. Tania Cubitt, Performance Horse Nutrition and Standlee Premium Western Forage Nutritional Consultants
What makes a horse a performance horse? Performance is “loosely” defined as any form of work or forced physical activity. Work or physical activity can include walking, trotting, cantering, running, jumping, and turning. Therefore, a performance horse can include any horse that is actively ridden, trained or that may carry or pull a load. With this broad definition of performance, many of us have horses that are considered performance horses. Since the performance activities of horses vary in both duration and intensity, feeding systems to address the nutrient requirements of these horses must also vary. In the following article, we will begin to talk about feeding performance horses by addressing water and energy needs.
Eachand every performance horse requires five key needs:
- Water
- Energy(calories)
- Protein
- Vitamins
- Minerals
Nutritionistsand horse owners spend a great deal of time and effort balancing the diet forenergy, protein, vitamins and minerals; however, water is the single mostimportant nutrient. Small decreases in the amount of water contained within thebody (dehydration) can lead to serious health consequences, as well as adecline in performance potential. Performance horses must maintain properhydration to transport materials to and from the cells within the body, and tosynthesize and repair body tissues. The amount of water required by aperformance horse depends on the amount of water lost from the body and theamount of water utilized for synthesis of protein. For performance horses,water is lost from the body primarily in sweat, urine, and feces. To replacethe water lost from the body, performance horses should have free access tofresh, clean water.Important to note:Ice cold water shouldbe avoided for horses still hot and sweaty from exercise, since cold water maycause shock to their system.
Ofthe remaining nutrients required by performance horses, energy is the dietaryfactor most influenced by work or exercise performance. Simply stated, the morework a horse performs, the more energy (calories) required to fuel that work.In a sense, performance horses are like automobiles; the more we drive and thefaster we drive, the more fuel that is utilized. Horses derive energy from thefeeds they consume. Hay, pasture, grain concentrates and certain supplementscontain energy (calories) that horses can metabolize and use to generatemechanical energy for muscle movement.
Withinfeed, there are four constituents that can be metabolized to produce mechanicalenergy:
- Starch
- Fat
- Protein
- Fiber
Starchis a carbohydrate that can be broken down within the small intestine of thehorse to form glucose, a simple sugar. Glucose is absorbed from the digestivesystem and can be metabolized immediately to produce energy, or it can bestored as energy within the body in the form of muscle or liver glycogen(sugar), or as body fat. The main source of starch in a performance horse dietis cereal grain (oats, corn or barley). Since the digestive system of a horseis designed primarily to digest fiber and has a limited capacity to digeststarch, there is a restriction to the amount of grain that can be fed toperformance horses. If too much grain is fed in a single meal (more than 5 lbs.of grain/meal/1000 lb. horse) this grain will not be properly digested in thesmall intestine and may result in digestive upset (colic) or laminitis as ittravels further down the digestive tract (1). For this reason, other sources ofenergy (fat, protein and fiber) are also incorporated into a performance horsediet.
Fatis commonly added to the diets of performance horses. Liquid vegetable oil(corn and soybean oil), flax, and rice bran are several fat sources commonlyutilized as energy sources for performance horses. Fat is an extremely usefulenergy source for several reasons. First, vegetable oil is well digested(>90%) by horses. Dietary fat is commonly added to commercial grainconcentrates intended for performance horses. It is common for performancehorse feeds to have between 6 and 12% fat.
TheNational Research Council (NRC, 2007) estimates the crude protein requirementfor mature performance horses at 9-11%, depending on work intensity. Proteinthat is fed in excess of a performance horses’ requirement, can be broken downand utilized for energy. Unfortunately, the use of protein for energy requiresthe horse to excrete the nitrogen associated with the protein. Excretion ofnitrogen requires the horse to drink more water and increases blood ammonia;both situations that are undesirable for performance horses. Thus, feedingexcess protein as a source of energy is not a sound nutrition practice.
Themost overlooked source of energy for a performance horse is dietaryfiber. The digestive systemof the horse is designed to digest fiber, and hay and pasture can provide anextensive amount of energy for the performance horse. In fact, for thedigestive system to function correctly, horses require at least 1.25% of theirbody weight in hay/pasture per day (1). Since the fermentation of fiber is slowand continues constantly, horses get an uninterrupted supply of energythroughout the day. The use of fiber as an energy source has evolved in recentyears. Today, in addition to good quality hay and pasture, we have so-calledsuper fibers that are safe to feed like hay but have the energy equivalent ofoats. Examples of super fibers utilized in horse feed includebeet pulp, a product of thesugar industry, and soybean seed coats, a product of the soybean industry.
In summary, we begin feeding performance horses by providing free-access to fresh, clean water. The next step is to provide adequate energy, but how do we determine how much energy they require? Energy is the only dietary factor that you can visually determine dietary adequacy. If you are feeding too much energy (too many calories), the horse gains weight or becomesfat; on the other hand, if you don’t feed enough energy (too few calories) the horse becomes thin or loses weight. You can’t simply look at horses and determine the status of other critical nutrients. Therefore, if your performance horse is too thin or too fat, it is your responsibility since we have the ability to offer more, or less, feed to properly balance energy requirements. To provide energy to the performance horse, we begin with feeding good quality forage (pasture/hay) and add additional energy with the use of a combination of starch, fat and super-fibers.
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References:
1. National Research Council. 2007. Nutrient Requirements of Horses: Sixth Revised Edition. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.https://doi.org/10.17226/11653.
