How to keep your horse fit, not fat

What is Condition?

Horses carry different proportions of muscle and body fat according to their type and level of fitness or training.  It is our aim, as horse owners, to ensure that these proportions are appropriate to the work we are expecting of the horse and adjust his diet and workload accordingly. Body Condition scoring, using a numerical scale where 1 is “poor” and 9 is “obese”, can be a useful way of objectively assessing condition by looking at the horse’s neck, ribs and rump.  Ideally, you should be able to feel but not see the ribs and the horse should carry “top line” in the form of muscle not pads of fat, so correct work is imperative to encourage muscle development in the right places.

Whatever method of condition assessment you use, it should be both visual and “hands-on” – you need to feel through a thick coat in the winter, which can cover the true picture, and take a good step back from time to time to look at the whole horse.  It is also useful to monitor your horse or pony’s body weight by using a weigh tape or a weighbridge.  This will not only help you in your calculation of how much to feed but is particularly useful in assessing progress, especially when you are hoping to make considerable changes to your horse’s condition.

The Right Condition

Having established your horse or pony’s current condition, the next step is to decide whether that is how you would like him to stay or whether you need to make changes in order to help change his condition.  For this, you will also need to consider the work the horse is expected to undertake and the level of fitness he needs to attain.  A dressage horse, for example, needs stamina and muscle tone for physical effort but may carry more “condition” than a three-day eventer who must gallop and jump.

Show producers are continuously accused of presenting horses and ponies which are carrying too much body fat, in an attempt to ensure they have a “well rounded” appearance.  It can be difficult balancing fitness and muscle tone with levels of body fat, but it must be done; an overweight horse risks damage to joints and laminitis, as well as other health issues, and will often simply not exhibit the enthusiasm for work that a slimmer horse can.  Those who seem to live on fresh air can be a nightmare to keep weight off but it is possible to maintain a balanced diet and control calorie intake, whilst those who struggle to keep the weight on must be fed with consideration to the limitations of the equine digestive system.

Putting it On

A common approach to promoting weight gain is to feed more of the existing feed or to add straights, such as barley or maize, and gradually the costs mount up but the condition you’re looking for may not.  Not only is it unbalancing the ration by adding straight cereals to an already balanced compound feed, but you are also likely to be feeding ever-increasing volumes which the horse’s stomach, with its limited capacity, simply cannot take.

What you risk when feeding large volumes in each feed is that some will pass on out of the stomach and small intestine before it has been fully digested.  This presents a couple of problems – firstly the risk of digestive or metabolic upsets, such as colic or even laminitis, as a result of undigested starch reaching parts of the hindgut that it shouldn’t.  Secondly, the feed will not be fully utilised so some of its nutrients will be lost, resulting in a simple waste of money!  It’s therefore much more efficient, more cost-effective, and safer, to feed for the job in hand by selecting a compound feed formulated for weight gain and condition.

Feeding frequent smaller amounts of a high calorie concentrated feed allows for less starch to be fed in order to promote the desired weight gain.

Oil is another useful concentrated source of calories which is non-heating and helps to increase the energy density of the ration without significantly increasing volume.  Specially developed high oil supplements are now available, which are more palatable and less messy than straight oil, and contain the necessary additional antioxidants which are required by the body to help it utilise the oil more efficiently.

The art with promoting weight gain, particularly for the show ring, is knowing when to stop!  Continue to monitor your horse’s progress and consider the changing contribution that forage makes as the spring grass comes through – be prepared to alter the diet again to one with a lower energy content once your horse is looking how you want him and finding it easier to maintain his condition during the spring and summer months.

Getting it Off

If your horse or pony is at the other end of the scale and you are always struggling to keep that tummy trim, then a different approach will be required.  Feeding less than the recommended quantity of a low energy mix or cube will deprive your horse of essential nutrients needed for health and well-being whilst still providing some calories that he doesn’t need.  The fact that your overweight horse is dull and lacklustre may not be so much to do with lack of energy in his diet but with a lack of vitamins and minerals.  An ideal solution here is to choose a feed balancer, such as Fibregenix Lami Low-Cal.
This provides a very concentrated source of nutrients without extra calories and enable you to feed a balanced diet to ensure your horse is receiving all the nutrients for overall health and body maintenance.  With correct work, you should be able to encourage weight loss, whilst the protein content of the balancer will help promote muscle tone.  So, on a fully balanced diet, and losing some weight, your previously dull good doer should develop a brighter outlook on life!

Again, be prepared to change what you are feeding throughout the year to suit the changing weather conditions, routine and workload.  For the exceptionally good-doer, a balancer may be an excellent year-round solution whilst for others, once the weight is lost, you may find that as workload increases and the nutrient content of the grass drops off in late summer, you need to reintroduce some calories by choosing a low or medium energy concentrate eg lupins or even oil alongside the balancer..  Remember that keeping things balanced is the key to optimising performance.

The Role of Forage

We all know how important fibre is to maintain gut function and satisfy the horse’s natural requirement to chew, so forage, including hay and grass, will be the basis of a healthy diet but will also make a nutritional contribution which should not be forgotten.  For example, feeding forage with a very low nutritional value may mean that even when using the recommended quantities of a compound feed, the overall diet may not be balanced, and this is where a quality balancer such as Fibregenix comes into play.   Feeding a good quality hay that is soft and leafy, will ensure that your horse receives plenty of nutrients as well as essential fibre – this is especially important when feeding poorer doers.

However, your fat pony or native cob type, for example, still has the same requirements for fibre and should be fed a clean, dust-free forage that is stalkier, less digestible and lower in nutrients to ensure that fibre intake is not restricted.  Creativity is essential when feeding good-doers to ensure that even a limited amount of forage takes them plenty of time to eat; small-holed haynets and one net inside another will keep them occupied, whilst low calorie chaffs offer an alternative source of fibre which also takes up chewing time.

Keeping it Right

Having achieved the level of condition that suits your horse and the work you require of him, careful monitoring will help you make the adjustments necessary to keep him that way.  Try to avoid the massive condition fluctuations which may result from any “downtime”, whatever the time of the year, as it will take you longer to achieve your “ideal” again.  Keep a watchful eye, or use a weigh tape, and above all, be prepared to alter your regime accordingly to ensure your horse remains on a balanced diet and is fit and healthy to perform.

Feeding for Condition/weight gain

A horse who is underweight is basically not receiving enough calories from his diet to meet his requirements for work and body maintenance. This could be a case of simply not feeding enough or of not using a feed with a high enough calorie/Digestible Energy (DE) content. Weight loss can be caused by a number of other different factors, for example, problems with teeth and poor worming regimes may cause weight loss, regardless of what or how much you are feeding.

Equally a stressful environment, injury, a horse’s age or extreme heat/cold weather can have an effect. All these aspects of your horse’s management regime should be considered and addressed, where necessary, as changing the diet alone may not provide the solution if the horse is still suffering other problems.

In the wild, horses will use winter to lose some weight in preparation for the inevitable weight gain which occurs in the warmer months when pasture is more available- this is a survival tool which horses today still possess. In most cases, horses will put back on any weight lost over winter naturally with increased time in the paddock and access to spring grass, although some horses can need a helping hand.

Weight gain should be a gradual process and improving your horse’s condition isn’t just about pumping him full of food which may speed up the process but isn’t going to be good for your horse’s health in the long run. Horses are routine animals and their digestive system isn’t suited to rapid changes.

Very often, a look at what you are feeding now will reveal a shortfall, either because your horse is not getting enough feed or because the feed isn’t suitable for the job in hand.  In order to increase your horse’s condition, you need to increase the number of calories he consumes, not necessarily the amount he is eating.

And it’s not just the calorie content and digestibility of the feed that counts. Other nutrients like protein, oil, vitamins and minerals, all contribute to the development of the top line, muscle tone and coat shine that go with outstanding condition.  The skill lies in selecting ingredients that supply these in the most useful and available form so the horse gains maximum benefit from each mouthful.  It is not just a numbers game and high levels of a nutrient, vitamin or mineral are not always the answer, particularly if they are provided in a form that the horse cannot effectively absorb and utilise.

Fats and oils are slow-release energy sources and unlike high starch feeds won’t rapidly increase your horse’s blood sugar levels which can lead to fizzy behaviour. Oils contain 2.25 times the amount of energy (calories) than carbohydrates and can be a great way to increase your horse’s calorie intake without increasing his feed intake.

Feeding a high-quality feed balancer such as Fibregenix that contains the recommended amount of probiotic will help to increase the digestibility of your horse’s fibre which can enable him to get twice as many calories out of the same amount of feed, essentially increasing calorie intake without increasing the amount you are feeding.  The superior form of Actisaf live yeast Probiotic in Fibregenix Prime Original and Fibregenix Platinum Pro can also help to support gut health allowing your horses to maximize yield and efficiently absorb nutrients essential for optimal health.

Feeding a fully balanced diet all year round through work, rest or recuperation, will help your horse maintain internal nutrient reserves (not just fat), avoid huge fluctuations in condition and be a credit to you wherever you go.

WHY NOT JUST MORE FIBRE?

If your horse is given ad lib forage, he should be getting all the fibre he needs to keep his digestive system healthy and his mind happy.  Complementing this with a comparatively small volume of a Fibregenix balancer is the most effective way to promote weight gain and will suit even the most highly strung of horses.

It’s important to be patient when it comes to increasing your horse’s condition, but when feeding a Fibregenix feed balancer you can expect to see a change within 3 weeks, with many of our customers noticing an improvement in as little as a week to 10 days, but certainly, before you finish your first bag. Additionally, investing in a quality balancer such as Fibregenix will help reduce your overall feed bill in the long run.

Fibregenix Prime Original

Fibregenix Platinum Pro

Diet Review

 

Feeding when on stable confinement

What should I now feed him on?

 If he is prone to being a good do-er feed plenty of fibre but still monitor his weight and give him Lami Low-Cal. You’ll be able to feed the recommended amount of Lami Low-Cal to ensure a balanced diet and healthy horse without encouraging weight gain.  We would always recommend Lami Low-Cal for any overweight horse – regardless of their individual circumstances, even broodmares in foal.  If he is the type that will stress weight off or lose a lot of muscle then give him Prime Original, or if he is an ‘oldie’ – Platinum Pro.

Example of a racehorse diet

Per day for a 500kg horse:

500g Fibregenix Platinum Pro

2kg oats (assuming 50% starch) OR 4kg racehorse mix (assuming 25% starch)

500ml oil

7-9kg early cut hay

Unmolassed sugar beet pulp is also a good source of fibre, and will help for condition.  When a horse is on an easy day/box rest, the amount of oat/mix can be reduced, increase hay and continue with 500g per day of Pro and oil to maintain weight.

If feeding a straight, cereal oats would be best as they contain the most digestible starch.  Obviously they need to be prepared as appropriate.  50% starch means that this 2kg per day of oats is assuming that the starch content of the oats is 50%.

Oil – vegetable is fine, although linseed oil is preferable as it contains the correct ratio of Omega 3: Omega 6.  However, any oil will be calorie dense, and will help to promote weight gain and good condition, as well as being an excellent source of long lasting energy to help aid fitness and stamina.  It’s not that there isn’t enough oil in Pro, as the oil in Pro is quite adequate to help keep the skin and coat healthy, but the additional oil is instead of feeding additional hard feed that we appreciate harder working horses may require.  Oil is just a better way of doing this as it suits the horse’s digestive system.

Can Fibregenix balancers help with ulcers?

The jury is out as to whether a yeast probiotic can positively affect the gram positive bacteria (the ones that produce acid). However, as the yeast has to pass through the stomach before it gets to work on the hind gut, it is possible that this could help from this point of view. So although we can’t say ‘your horse will not get ulcers when fed on Prime Original’, we can help you to alter your feeding regime accordingly to help reduce the risk. Hence reduced amounts of hard feed and lots of fibre, combined with the digestive aids in Fibregenix to generally help to settle the gut.

Yeast is a biological buffer, so it takes slightly longer to work than pouring alkaline solution down a horse’s throat.  The yeast manipulates the bacterial population in the hind gut, increasing the number of fibre digesters as well as increasing the number of lactate utilising bacteria.

Another advantage is the inclusion of purified nucleotides. Nucleotides play a role in improving cell turnover, repair and growth. They optimize the natural protective mechanisms of the mucosal lining, helping to maintain a healthy GI tract. Supplementing a horse’s diet with nucleotides increases mucosal thickness and protein levels through increased availability of genetic precursors. Therefore Fibregenix may play a valuable role alongside veterinary treatment, in recovery/repair of the gastric mucosal lining affected by ulcers.