Keeping Condition Right Throughout the Season T
o maintain your horse or pony’s condition, right through to the end of the season, you will need to consider both his feed and exercise regime. At this stage of the season it is
helpful to reflect on how he has looked and performed in the ring up to now. He may have lost condition due to a busy season so far, or could be carrying excessive weight from the good grass that we had during spring and summer.
Either way fine-tuning your horse or pony’s regime, so that he is being fed an appropriate balanced diet, will help you to achieve that winning edge for the shows you still have to come.
Feeding to build Condition
You will already know how your horse or pony looks when he is in ideal condition. He will need to look well-furnished without being over-fat. A well-muscled appearance, with good topline, should be maintained as we head into autumn.
Protein provides the building blocks for muscle development, so it is important that your horse or pony continues to receive enough protein in his diet to help him to remain well-muscled, especially as the protein levels in the grass will be falling sharply. Having reached this point of the season, it is likely that you have had ample opportunity to work your horse or pony consistently in a correct outline. This exercise is essential for building and maintaining optimum muscle and topline.
The amount of protein and calories your hay or haylage will supply depends on the quality of the forage and how much is eaten. If your horse or pony struggles to maintain his condition, it is worth sourcing the best quality hay/haylage that you can and feeding it ad-lib. The more nutrients provided by forage, the less hard feed will be needed to achieve and maintain good show condition. Providing your horse or pony has no history of laminitis,
and doesn’t become over-exuberant on higher sugar forage, early-cut ryegrass hay or haylage is the best option.
If your horse or pony is a picky eater, particularly when travelling and staying away from home, using alternative, palatable sources of fibre will help to avoid him looking ‘tucked up.’ Chopped grass can be used as a partial hay/haylage replacer or even a mash that is high in fibre. The latter is also useful if he doesn’t drink well or needs to drop his belly before going into the ring.
As far as hard feeds are concerned, it is a good idea to consider your horse or pony’s meal size before simply increasing the amount you feed him. A horse or pony’s stomach can hold 400g per 100kg bodyweight. For example, a 15.2hh show hack is limited to 2kg (dry weight) in any one meal. This means that nutrient dense products should be used to help maximise digestive efficiency.
Top specification, conditioning feed balancers are the most nutrient-dense products you can buy, and they improve the utilisation of the rest of the diet which helps to keep hard feed sizes small. The best conditioning balancers will include a high percentage of protein (e.g. 25%). Soya will usually be listed as the first ingredient, as this is an excellent vegetable protein source for horses that is rich in essential amino acids.
To avoid sharp behaviour as you increase your horse or pony’s feed, his diet should be kept low in sugar and starch and free from cereal-grains. Highly digestible fibres (or ‘super-fibres’) and oil are excellent ‘Non-Heating’ calorie sources. They also have the added benefit of promoting stamina which is so important in those end-of-day championships. High Digestible Energy (DE), cereal-grain-free, conditioning cubes, combined with a suitable conditioning feed balancer, is an ideal approach.
16
SEPTEMBER/OCTBER 2019
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