Nutrition and the Performance of Horses
  by Robert N. Oglesby DVM

The more we learn about nutrition the more the old basics seem to be the best way to feed horses for maintenance or light to moderate exercise. There are exceptions to these easy time-tested rules and one of them is horses performing at a high level of physical effort. Several nutritional problems start to appear at high levels of performance:

• The inability to take in enough calories without overloading the digestive system with simple sugars and starches which may result is disease.
• Increase energy production and catabolism of tissues resulting in performance limiting consequences:
  1. a depletion of energy sources to the muscles
  2. a build up of toxic products
  3. a build up of heat in the tissues
• A loss of excessive amounts of water and electrolytes during prolonged exercise, limiting performance and causing disease.
• The weight of the food and water in the digestive tract which can have both detrimental and beneficial effects on performance depending on the endeavor.

Nutrition, supplementation, and feeding schedules all can affect performance. Feeding for performance has greatly changed the natural feeding patterns of horses and has profound effects on metabolism, performance quality, and even disease.

Not all performance horses face the same problems. There are unique metabolic problems to the sprinter who travels 1/4 mile or less, the middle distance horse who travels up to 2 miles, and endurance type endeavors, ...more. Recent research by the Kentucky Equine Research (KER) group has indicated we can make some improvements over traditional forage and grain recommendations. This article covers how nutrition affects performance, some of the recent findings of KER and then gives specific feeding regimens for various performance horse types, including racing, hunting, eventing, and endurance racing. Also, provided are links for more in depth discussions on specific topics.