Feeding the Eventing Horse with Elizabeth Owens

FROM THE ARCHIVES
Many of Australia’s leading eventers have turned to Liz Owens for feeding advice – now you can plan your horse’s feed program on a sound scientific footing… 

Years of experience has taught me that most horse owners have the gift of the gab, and can put the most wonderful spin on their horse’s achievements and level of training. The only time I have been proven wrong in this theory was when I was coaching young riders in a paddock south of Geraldton. When I asked one girl what her pony did, she replied “Not much, but I can make him skip”. “OK, show me” I said and this 9 year old promptly produced 20 very straight, one time changes on her 13hh pony!

This is the exception that proves the rule because ever since, when I enquire what level of competition a horse is at, riders usually inflate the level of work and grade of competition. This kind of thinking maybe beneficial to one’s positive re-enforcement, but is counter productive when you are seeking assistance with regard to the horse’s diet. Before an animal can be classified as an eventing horse, it needs to be in full work and in the run up to a competition. Cantering around the paddock for 20 minutes every pancake Tuesday does not qualify your mount as an event horse and if you were to feed him a diet formulated for ridgy didge event horses, there is a good chance he will develop laminitis.

So, at what point are you riding an eventer and not just doing standard fitness work and training that a young dressage, show jumper or campdrafter may do? If you have a designated flat work, jumping and fast work programme that is increasing in intensity each week and in this programme ride your horse at least 30 minutes per day 6 days per week, then you maybe categorized as an “eventer” at whatever level you are competing i.e. novice, advanced, open and so on. From here we can start to build a diet regime for your horse, and the process goes like this:-
Describe your horse. Not just his colour and favourite foods, but quantitative stuff such as:

How much does he weigh? This is critical information and you need to know your horses “fighting” weight or the weight he performs best at with regard to fitness, recovery and endurance. Weight tapes are OK for amateurs, but if you’re dinkum you need to get your horse weighed over some digital scales. Better vet practices have these now and so do most good studs.

Grazing and eating habits. Horses are individuals. Some eat like vacuum cleaners gulping down feed, while others have a suck and plunge technique whereby they take a mouthful of feed followed immediately by a mouthful of hay. Some, like mine, take hours to consume a feed and refuse feed completely if anything remotely resembling a powdered supplement is added. This is critical information in the design of a diet for your particular horse.

What does the waste product look like? The urine should not be a milky colour or smell too strong. This is a sign of excess protein in the diet or could be an indication of kidney problems. You should know what your horse’s manure looks like when it is healthy i.e. round “apples” that break when they hit the ground, with a slightly glossy, moist but not wet texture. A change in the colour, volume or smell of faeces or urine maybe a sign of digestive or diet problems.
How long since you had his teeth done and what were they like? Good dentition is critical to effective digestion of feed – I don’t care how it is processed. You need to ensure your horses teeth are attended to every 6 months if you don’t want to waste money on feed.

Health history. Incidence of colic, tying up, shelly feet, anhidrosis, respiratory problems or general muscle problems may or may not relate to diet but must be considered when designing a diet for your horse. If the problem is affecting your performance then it is a worthwhile investment to obtain a veterinary opinion in the first instance. I am constantly astounded that riders, who invest countless thousands of dollars and more hours in their horses, refer to the internet guru or some bats-wings-and-foo-foo-dust merchant for a fix when their eventer develops a diet problem!

Describe his current diet. How much does he eat? The yellow dipper is not an internationally recognized unit of measurement. To design a diet, actual weights of each ingredient is required along with an estimate of the amount of time spent actively grazing if he is at pasture. I conducted a study on behalf of the Australian Sports Commission whereby I accurately weighed feed intakes versus bodyweights on 11 eventers over a 5 day period which gave the following results:

This table illustrates the difference in feed intake for horses of similar bodyweight doing similar types of work. In this evaluation, the eventing horses consumed an average of between 1.484 and 2.449% of bodyweight. That equates to a horse of 500 kgs eating either 7.42 kgs per day or 12.245 kgs. This is a big difference and highlights the individuality of horses and how important it is to consider existing eating habits before recommending a diet change. It also illustrates how potentially dangerous it is to blindly follow intake recommendations on feed bags since these are based on an “average” horse and as you can see from the above data, the “average” horse can have a very wide range in his level of feed intake.

How much does he leave? You need to weigh left overs. For hay as well as concentrate.

What are the ingredients? Include them all, not just the ones you feel it is politically correct to reveal. If you are indeed giving your horse 10 kgs of carrots per day, then you need to include that in the list. Minor ingredients such as supplements and amount and type of salts given are important in designing a diet for an eventer. The type and amount of hay the horse is consuming is perhaps the most important aspect of his diet. Again, a “flake” or “biscuit” descriptor does not constitute a quantitative measure. You actually need to weigh the amount of hay consumed – i.e the amount offered less the amount still lying on the ground/sawdust at the next feed.

How are the ingredients processed? There are many different processing methods and the suitability of one over another for your horse depends on many factors such as:
How fast or slow he eats?
Whether you are chasing weight gain or loss.
What else you are feeding?
What diet related disorders your horse has and his general health history.

So, now we have a fair picture of your horse. Armed with this information you should follow the following rules to arrive at the best diet for your horse:
Base the diet on roughage. 50% of the diet by weight should be long stem roughage. I say long stem i.e. hay, because chewing hay stimulates saliva production which is an important buffer against ulcers which affects many eventing horses, and also because this stimulates water consumption. For mature working horses, grassy hay is preferred, or at most a blend of grassy and legume hay. DO NOT FEED PRIME LUCERNE HAY to working eventers. It is too high in protein, interferes with fluid balance and has been shown to increase recovery time in eventers.

Select your concentrate. This is the non-roughage part of the diet. For eventers it needs to be at least 8% fat or oil content (to improve endurance) and ideally should contain a high level of Vitamin E (to prevent muscle damage). Lower protein is better – maximum 12% unless you are using a 1 kg per day supplement which may then be as high as 16%. Ideally choose a concentrate that incorporates processed or cooked starch which would be steam flaked, extruded, pelleted or micronized grains.

DO NOT FEED MORE THAN 2.5 KGS OF CONCENTRATE PER FEED. Most eventers will need at least 5 kgs of concentrate per day – although there are some notable exceptions. By feeding 3 times per day, you will improve feed utilization and reduce the risk of digestive disorders.

Feed to appetite if you are increasing the workload and you do not wish him to lose body condition. This may mean increasing the daily allowance until at least a double handful of feed is left each meal. Then you know that your horse has consumed all he required.

Do not feed a concentrate closer than 4 hours before an event.

You may feed approx 500 grams of some lucerne chaff prior to riding/competing as an aid in prevention of development of ulcers.

Feed at least 50 grams of salt per day. This should be used in addition to electrolytes in warm weather.

Ensure your horse is receiving at least 1500 iu of Vitamin E per day derived either from the concentrate portion of the diet or as a result of supplementation with a dedicated Vitamin E supplement.

Reduce the amount of concentrate on non-work days. Ideally, remove all grain from the diet if the horse is not being worked. A low starch pellet maybe used if weight gain is an issue.

You should use the same measures described above to monitor the success or otherwise of your diet i.e. weight of the horse, weight of feed consumed or left, appearance of urine and faeces, incidence of health problems. Blood tests may also be a useful tool, if interpreted by your veterinarian, but hair analysis is not a good measure of your horse’s total current nutritional status although they can be a useful diagnostic tool when investigating history of heavy metal exposure.

Good nutrition is not difficult. There are some excellent products on the market, but there are also some very dodgy ones. You do get what you pay for so look for products that contain a full declaration of composition right down to the amounts of each vitamin and mineral, and state the energy level. You should also support those companies that support your sport and regularly sponsor the events in which you aim to compete. They are investing in your sport and deserve your support in at least trying their product. In a well formulated feed, you should not need to add more than salt and perhaps a vitamin E supplement. If you are adding a half dozen extra powders then my guess is you are doing more harm than good and need to go back to basics ie good quality hay, a well formulated concentrate and salt.

Good luck.