Feeding for feet

Oct 16, 2019

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Body condition scoring

Oct 11, 2019

HOW CAN I TELL WHETHER MY HORSE IS TOO FAT OR TOO THIN? 

It can be difficult to accurately describe your horse’s condition as people can have very different perceptions of what constitutes a fat and or thin horse. The most objective way to assess your horse’s condition is to give him a Body Condition Score, which involves looking at and feeling areas of his body to determine levels of body fat. As a rough guide, you should be able to feel a horse’s ribs but not see them, however, there is much more to consider than that! You can also evaluate your horse’s muscle development and top line as well as using a weigh tape or weighbridge to find his bodyweight.

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Feeding good doers & weight loss management

Oct 11, 2019

WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO HELP A HORSE LOSE WEIGHT? 

Like any human, in order to lose weight, a horse needs to burn more calories than he consumes. The dilemma with horses is that they are designed to eat and chew for at least 18 out of every 24 hours and need a constant flow of fibre through the digestive system in order to stay healthy.

Losing weight is tough and it’s even tougher if you’re an animal like the horse that is designed to spend most of its life eating. Stop your horse eating for too long and you may end up with a horse with serious health and behavioural problems – problems far more serious than nipping out in your pyjamas in the middle of the night to buy a chocolate bar! Let him eat though and you could be dealing with laminitis and obesity. Finding the happy medium is what managing a good doer is all about and hopefully the following tips will help you to keep your horse in good shape both mentally and physically.

Confined Quarters

The digestive tract of the horse functions most efficiently when it has an almost constant supply of fibrous material to break down. We are all told to eat more fibre to promote regular and healthy bowel movements and the same applies to the horse. Fibre passing through the digestive tract pushes out any gas bubbles that have formed. If the horse is receiving very little to eat to try and control his weight, then the gas can accumulate, causing the gut to become distended which is very painful and may result in colic symptoms. The other problem with enclosing good doers in a stable with very little to eat is the risk of them developing stereotypies or “stable vices”. As horses are herd animals reducing their contact with other horses can cause considerable anxiety and result in problems. It has previously been assumed that boredom was the main reason horses receiving very little fibre started to develop stereotypies as they had long periods of time doing nothing. However, research is suggesting that in fact, some stereotypies are a response to increased acidity in the digestive tract. When the horse chews he produces saliva, which contains bicarbonate that helps to neutralise the acidity in the gut. If a horse isn’t receiving much fibre, he won’t be spending very long chewing and so the gut may remain very acidic. This is the reason antacids are starting to be promoted for use in horses with stereotypical behaviours.

There are several things you can do to try and reduce the risk of these problems occurring. The most important are the basic rules of feeding. We all think that feeding little and often just relates to the concentrate ration but with good-doers it applies to the forage as well. For example, if your horse is a good doer and you put all its hay in at 4 pm and then don’t return until 8 am the next morning, the chances are that your horse will spend from 4.30 pm until 8 am without anything at all. This is really too long to be without some source of fibre and so if you know someone goes to the yard much later, ask them to put a haynet in when they leave. If there really isn’t anyone else to help then try and put the hay in small holed nets, put several nets inside one another and put several nets around the stable so it takes as long as possible for your horse to extract the hay.

Limited grazing

In the summer when most horses are enjoying lots of time in the field, the poor old good doer has to spend more time in the stable. It is the safest place for the overweight horse to be in terms of avoiding obesity and laminitis, but it does mean that they miss out on a lot of valuable nutrients that grass contains. Although hay and haylage provide an alternative fibre source for the stabled horse, they do not provide as many nutrients as grass and as many people tend not to feed their good-doer at all in the summer, it can mean that they miss out on certain nutrients. There are various ways to provide these nutrients as most manufacturers now have a feed designed for good-doers. One option is to use a low-calorie balancer such as Fibregenix Lami Low-Cal which provide a concentrated source of nutrients without the calories that are found in a normal mix or cube. These are fed in very small quantities and can be fed with a simple, low-calorie white chaff. An alternative option is to use a chaff-based feed that has added nutrients. These are fed in much larger quantities and can be fed alongside or instead of hay. Whichever type of product you choose it is important to feed the levels recommended by the manufacturer or your horse may still not be receiving the nutrient levels it requires.

I just give my horse a handful of a high fibre, low energy feed to keep him happy?

One of the most common feeding strategies employed by owners of overweight horses and ponies is to give a token offering of a high fibre, low energy feed. As these feeds are designed to be fed in much greater quantities, a handful provides very little of the vitamins and minerals the horse needs and some calories that he doesn’t need. The table below shows the differences in nutrient levels provided by a concentrated balancer which is designed to be fed in small amounts, and a handful of a high fibre, low energy pellet feed product which is designed to be fed in much larger amounts.

I have a lazy, overweight horse. What do I do?

One of the most common problems with good doers is that they also tend to be lazy. Putting more energy in increases the risk of weight gain which can make the laziness worse. The first objective is to try and get some weight off and then think about trying to generate a bit more energy. Quite often, horses feel better and have more energy once the diet has been balanced as their lethargy was due to a lack of nutrients in the diet. The first step is, therefore, to ensure that the diet is balanced. If this doesn’t generate more energy from your horse, then it is possible to combine a low- calorie balancer with oats. Oats are the cereal most often associated with causing lively behaviour in horses and so adding a few to the diet may produce a livelier horse. Combining the oats with a balancer like Lami Low-Cal means that the balancer provides a balanced diet and so the amount of oats can be adjusted according to the horse’s workload and requirements. When the horse isn’t working as hard the amount of oats can be reduced right down to a handful so that extra calories are not being added when they’re not needed. Make sure that if you try adding oats that you introduce them very slowly as they can have quite a strong effect on some horses and ponies. This feeding regime works very well with competition horses, particularly Warmblood dressage horses, as they are often good-doers but still need lots of energy for the work that they do.

Before and After

If you feel that your horse needs to go on a diet then prepare a fitness and diet plan. It is a good idea to keep a record of your horse’s measurements and so get yourself a weigh tape and measure your horse each week – make sure you are consistent when you measure e.g. at the same time of day and with the tape in the same place each time. Take a photo before you start so that you can refer back to it as small changes day by day are hard to see whereas if you look back after a couple of weeks you should be able to see more of a change. If you have implemented a good exercise programme and a suitable diet you should find that the weight starts to come off.

How to keep your horse fit, not fat

Oct 11, 2019

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.