TEACH YOUR HORSE TO SAY
NUTRITION TIPS
for equine athletes
HERB USE IN SPORTING HORSES what you need to know
HOW TO PROTECT HER JOINTS
CLICKER TRAINING
an easy solution to handling problems
SUPPORTING THE
EMOTIONAL HEALTH OF 80% 1.5 BWR PD 5.95CN / 5.95 US
PERFORMANCE HORSES
VOLUME 14 ISSUE 3
Display until July 22, 2019
$5.95 USA/Canada
June/July 2019
EquineWellnessMagazine.com
CONTENTS June/July 2019
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Features 10 16
Social Media
N utrition for the performance horse
Proper nutrition is the foundation for a healthy horse who’s capable of training and performing to the best of his ability.
From resistance to responsiveness — teaching your horse to say “yes”
Tips, contests and more! /EquineWellnessMagazine News, events, and tips! @ EquineWellness Tips, pet photos, and more! EquineWellness
How safety, reward and joy play a role in your horse’s choices, and why catering to these basic desires can encourage her to say “yes” to what you ask of her.
Departments 6 Editorial
46 Acupressure at-a-glance
62 To the rescue
8 Neighborhood news
47 Heads up
63 Events
53 Business profile:
64 Marketplace
14 Bridle fit 27 Product picks 32 Rider fitness 41 Business profile: Treatibles
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Equine Wellness
The Holistic Horse
58 Herb blurb 59 Equine Wellness resource guide
65 Classifieds 66 Equine chakras
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Columns
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A LTERNATIVE APPROACHES 2 common health issues in competition horses Let’s look at two of the most frequentlyoccurring health concerns in competition horses, so you can take steps to prevent them from afflicting your own equine partner.
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H EALTH WATCH Joint health for performance horses
Performance horses endure stress that can affect their minds, gastrointestinal systems — and their joints. Here’s how to protect your equine both mentally and physically.
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The proper trim and hoof care tools, along with regular maintenance, can keep your horse’s feet healthy during performance season and beyond.
Clicker training solutions to common horsehandling problems
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Switch up your training and teach your horse to stay cool, calm and collected with clicker training and the “do it differently” game.
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L EARNING CURVE An introduction to Western riding If you ride English, learn what Western riding really is, and how it might fit into your personal horsemanship experience.
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N EED TO KNOW Herb use in sporting horses
Medicinal herbs can be beneficial to equine health, but competition rules and regulations might prohibit their use in some cases.
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H EALTHY HOOVES Hoof care support for performance horses
S POTLIGHT
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M IND, BODY, SPIRIT Support your performance horse’s emotional health You know how to cater to his physical needs, but what about his psychological ones? Supporting the emotional health of your equine athlete contributes to his performance and well-being.
E ATING WELL Does your horse’s pasture cover all his nutritional needs?
If your horse’s diet consists primarily of forage, your pasture must meet all his nutritional requirements. Here’s how to ensure he’s getting what he needs from his grazing space.
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G OLDEN YEARS Transitioning your horse into retirement
Retirement isn’t just for older horses. Learn to tell when it’s time to stop working your equine, and how to make the transition as stress-free as possible.
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N ATURAL SUPPLEMENTS Antioxidant support for your equine athlete
How free radicals affect performance horses, and why antioxidants play such an important role in preserving good health.
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N ATURAL HORSEMANSHIP The benefits of riding bitless Bits have their uses, but for many horses, they’re nothing but a nuisance. Switching to bitless can improve your horse’s performance and overall well-being.
34 Equine Wellness
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FEATURE
FOR THE
Nutrition PERFORMANCE HORSE
By Nettie Liburt, PhD, PAS
PROPER NUTRITION IS THE FOUNDATION FOR A HEALTHY HORSE WHO’S CAPABLE OF TRAINING AND PERFORMING TO THE BEST OF HIS ABILITY. You spend a lot of time and money training and practicing with your horse in order to master your discipline. You have the right equipment, a great trainer, and most importantly, a wonderful horse. But have you stopped to think about how your horse’s diet affects his performance? The truth is that improper nutrition can cause his performance to suffer. 10
Equine Wellness
It’s the same with human athletes — if a person consumes only junk food that lacks proper vitamins, minerals and protein, the body cannot function optimally and can even break down under stress. Proper nutrition is the foundation for a healthy equine body that’s capable of training and performing to the best of its ability.
WHERE’S THE BEST PLACE TO START? Every horse’s diet is forage-based, and should begin with good quality hay or pasture. The only scientific way to truly know the quality of a forage source is to have it analyzed at a commercial laboratory. It’s fairly inexpensive, but not always practical. Forages with higher values of acid detergent fiber (ADF) tend to have lower digestibility. Forage with an ADF value over 40 to 45 is typically fibrous mature hay that may not be suitable for hard keepers or performance horses. High neutral detergent fiber (NDF) values (above 50 to 55) often indicate lower palatability — typically, the higher the NDF value, the lower the intake is likely to be.
A LOOK AT PROTEIN All proteins are made up of amino acids. The body can make some amino acids on its own, while other “essential” amino acids, such as lysine, methionine and threonine, must be consumed in the diet. Without essential amino acids, protein synthesis will slow or stop, preventing the improvement of strength and muscle tone, among other factors. Thus, diet is a key component for providing high quality protein sources to support muscle development, tissue repair and other metabolic processes.
These values vary slightly for grass versus alfalfa, but they give an idea of how to estimate the quality of a forage, along with its protein and mineral content. If an analysis is not practical, look for hay that is leafy, free of weeds and molds, and is sweet-smelling. Hay with lots of sticks and stems is most likely nutrient-poor and less digestible than leafier hay. While you can’t tell the nutrient value of a hay just by looking at it, you can get a general idea of its quality.
As the intensity of exercise increases, the NRC recommends an increase in total protein intake. For example, a 1,100 lb (500 kg) horse in very light work needs a minimum of 699 grams of protein per day, whereas the same horse in heavy work requires 862 grams of protein. Most feeds designed for performance horses contain 10% to 12% crude protein, which is normally sufficient to meet demands. In a properlybalanced diet, as the amount of feed increases with the amount of work performed, these dietary adjustments are typically accounted for.
ESTIMATING WORK LOAD Many performance horses cannot maintain their weight or performance level on forage alone. That’s where concentrate feeds fill the gap. The National Research Council (NRC, 2007) has set guidelines on how to determine a horse’s work level, defining four categories (see table below).
NRC (2007) GUIDELINES FOR DEFINING THE WORK LOAD OF HORSES
Light
1–3 h/week; 40% walk, 50% trot, 10% canter
Medium
3–5 h/week; 30% walk, 55% trot, 10% canter
Heavy
4–5 h/week; 20% walk, 50% trot, 15% canter
Very heavy
Various; ranges from 1 h/week speed work to 6–12 h/week slow work
The harder a horse works, the more energy his body needs to maintain performance. Remember that each horse is an individual, so it’s important to regularly monitor his condition. Become familiar with the body condition scoring (BCS) system — it’s a scale from 1 to 9, with a score of
Photo courtesy of Buckeye Nutrition
WORK LOAD GUIDELINE
Equine Wellness
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