Does My Horse Need a Diet or Exercise Change?

During an Equine Nutrition class, a student requested an evaluation of her horse to determine if any diet or exercise changes were necessary. This case highlighted the importance of assessing a horse’s body condition, weight, and topline when considering adjustments to their diet or exercise regimen.

hand feeding red size representing Does My Horse Need a Diet or Exercise Change?

The Horse Evaluation

Appearance versus Muscle Coverage

The evaluated horse was a 4-year-old Warmblood gelding, measuring 17.1 hands and weighing 1350 pounds. At first glance, the horse appeared to be in good flesh, but upon closer examination, a lack of muscle and coverage in the withers and back areas was noticeable.

Current Diet and Potential Issues

The student shared that the horse’s current diet consisted of 20 pounds of first cutting hay per day and 8 pounds of locally grown oats. While the calorie content seemed sufficient, there was a deficiency in the amino acid balance. The student also mentioned recent saddle refitting and chiropractic visits due to the horse’s back issues.

Identifying the Need for Changes

Increased Workload and Nutritional Requirements

Considering the horse’s increased workload due to the transition to college, it was evident that additional fortification was necessary. A ration balancer was recommended to address the young horse’s dietary needs and help replenish his topline.

Challenge and Counterargument

During the evaluation, another student challenged the recommended dietary change. As an Equine Physiology major, she believed that working the horse in a more collected manner, engaging the hindquarters and developing the topline through exercise, would be sufficient. She perceived the horse as overweight and did not see the need for a diet change.

Understanding the Importance of Proper Nutrition

Comparing Diet Deficiencies

To explain the importance of proper nutrition, an analogy was drawn to a young child on a diet consisting solely of rice. Such a diet lacks essential amino acids, resulting in a rounded abdomen but a lack of muscle mass. In this scenario, simply increasing exercise would not lead to muscle development unless the diet is appropriately supplemented.

Listening to Your Horse

The horse’s physical condition and performance can serve as indicators of dietary deficiencies. Taking the time to observe and assess your horse’s body condition, weight, and muscle development can provide valuable insights into whether diet or exercise changes are necessary.

When considering diet or exercise changes for your horse, it is crucial to evaluate their body condition, weight, and topline. Deficiencies in amino acids or other essential nutrients can affect muscle development and overall health. By paying attention to your horse’s physical cues and seeking professional advice, you can make informed decisions to ensure your horse receives the appropriate nutrition and exercise for optimal well-being and performance.

Ready to ensure your horse is getting the optimum nutrition at feeding time, every time? Find the perfect feed formulated specifically for horse’s needs with our Feed Selector Tool.

Feed Selector tool

Feeding the Maintenance Horse

Vitamin in half
Feeding below the recommended amount of a particular horse feed, is analogous to only taking half of your daily vitamin.

I am fortunate in my job to speak with horse owners face-to-face on a frequent basis. During these conversations, I enjoy hearing about the horses they own and how great their horse’s look and perform.

Occasionally, I will hear someone mention that their horse looks great on hay alone and they only feed a ‘handful’ of grain in the morning and night, just for the vitamins and minerals.

I delicately point out that the analogous human activity would be chopping your daily vitamin into pieces and taking a fraction of one a day. This is an opportunity to discuss feeding rate, calorie requirements, muscle and hair coat quality, and making sure owners have selected the right feed for their horse.

In many of these instances, the horse in question is an adult in good body condition, on a good quality forage and light work load; in other words, a horse at maintenance activity level.  Even though this horse may be able to keep a good body condition score, without balanced nutrition, they will exhibit less-than-ideal muscling, hair coat and hoof quality.

A well-intentioned owner of this kind of horse might feel they need to provide some form of nutrition supplementation to their hay, as they should, but may not fully understand what is needed or the appropriate quantities. Feed, being as complicated as it can be, is often misinterpreted and either under or over fed. Here’s where we can help!

If a maintenance horse is in good or better-than-good body condition (a 6+) from their hay or pasture alone, they really don’t need more calories in the diet. But they do need something to fill in the gaps that the hay or pasture is not providing. These include vitamins, minerals and quality proteins (amino acids) their body needs for normal tissue repair, hair growth and muscle maintenance.

For this horse, a ration balancer is the ideal solution. A ration balancer (sometimes called diet balancer) is a concentrated form of feed without the energy provided by fats, fibers, starch and sugar of a regular feed. Ration balancers tend to have higher guaranteed levels of nutrients, but significantly lower feeding rates. Don’t panic! A protein level of 30% with a feeding rate of 2 pounds per day means your horse gets 0.6 pounds of protein. Compare that to feeding 6 pounds of a 14% regular feed = 0.84 pounds of protein per day. When you do the math, it’s really in line with a “normal” diet.

If this same horse would be slightly below ideal body condition, a feed designed to be fed to maintenance horses would be appropriate for calories and the balance of other nutrients. Be sure to follow the feeding rates and keep a close eye on how your horse responds to the feed, as you may need to adjust within the feeding rate guidelines.

When it comes to calorie management of the maintenance-level activity horse, remember to watch out for those treats, too. Calorie levels can vary widely so all the work you’re doing to manage intake with the feed scoop can easily be washed away with an indulgence in treats!

Feeding a horse at a maintenance activity level doesn’t have to be complicated. With a few pieces of information and the right feed, your horse can look and feel their best, even if they aren’t heading for the show pen.

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