Racehorse Nutrition
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With races often won and lost by the tiniest of margins, equine nutrition has come under the microscope in recent years as the experts try to find that ‘extra edge’ which might just make the difference between victory and defeat.
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A traditional diet for a racehorse consisted primarily of hay and oats, but horses in training have such high energy requirements that nutritionists are constantly seeking more effective ways to supply that extra energy.
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If any horse is fed a diet too high in cereals, a carbohydrate overload can occur and this can lead to life threatening conditions such as colic and laminitis.
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Racehorses today are therefore fed a diet which is higher in fat content, providing a ‘safer’ energy source than high levels of cereals. This can also help to reduce the occurrence of ‘tying-up’, where lactic acid build-up in the muscle tissue after heavy exercise can cause a horse literally to ‘set fast’.
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Highly digestible fibres are the mainstay of a racehorse’s diet and each horse should be fed a minimum of 1.5% of its bodyweight per day of fibre. It is the essential ingredient for digestive health. Sadly it is a fact that the majority of racehorses in training today suffer from gastric ulceration due to a lack of good levels of fibre in their diet. A high fat / high fibre diet can prevent this.
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Additional vitamins and minerals are also provided in a modern racehorse diet, although the majority of these can be naturally synthesised by the horse when fed a diet with a high fibre content, while being out in the sunshine not only gives the horse a more natural lifestyle, but also tops up its Vitamin D at the same time!
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A modern racehorse eats a great deal more than grass as scientists seek the key to optimum nutrition.
