NUTRITION & PERFORMANCE
CHOOSE your
horse feedto
R.I.D.E.
54 www.EliteEquestrianMagazine.com EQUINE Health
Continued...
The future belongs to those who
reinvent themselves again and again
over the course of their lifetime.
Nutrition is the foundation for a horse’s
health and performance ability.
The natural basic requirement in a horse’s diet is
long-stem fresh grass. The next optimal solution is
free-choice grass hay, which can still allow them
to mimic their natural grazing behavior. If free
choice is not a possibility horses should receive at
least 1% of their body weight each day in hay,
divided into as many feedings as possible in order
to stay healthy and to maintain good body
conditions.
When horses live in the natural state, they have
a choice in the type and quantity of forage, but
also eat minerals from other sources. In our time
and culture, the horses that share our life are
kept in a domestic state, and don’t have access
to their natural resources regarding nutrition. The
grass we grow is deficient in minerals, and hay is
deficient in minerals and in vitamins too therefore,
even to only meet basic nutrient requirements,
we need to give minerals to a pastured
horse or a multi-vitamin/mineral supplement to
a horse on hay. Fortunately for us horse feed is
now a very developed field of business and we
have many options to choose from. If we have to
feed horses that perform hard work or compete, we
can use fortified grain, which provides vitamins, minerals,
protein and energy. Finally, if we have horses
with certain medical problems like Equine Metabolic
Syndrome (EMS), Cushing’s Disease, laminitis (founder),
we have access to feed formulation that take
care of the problems and should always consult our
Veterinarian to make the correct choices.
I recently have been invited to attend the Purina
Veterinary Convention in Saint Louis, Missouri, where
nutrition experts shared with us their new findings. Part
of the lectures happened at the Purina Animal Nutrition
Center, a state-of-the-art research farm in Grey
Summit, where since the 1920s every Purina product
was tested. The farm is where they house and care
for more than 70 horses, ranging from newborn
to senior and athletes, with a group of rescued
off-the--track Thoroughbreds who help with the
exercise physiology studies. Purina researchers
seek vital new data in areas like digestive physiology,
animal metabolism, growth and development,
exercise physiology, palatability and intake
behavior and life stage investigations. The insights
gained in the research drive product development
and rigorous testing of new diet formulations. The
new formulas developed under controlled scientific
conditions are then taken to the “real world”
in field trials, where they are fed to horses of many
types and breeds that are managed in different
ways. The field trials bring data to do additional
adjustments if needed, before the product is
launched on the market nationwide.
Story By
Alessandra Deerinck
/www.EliteEquestrianMagazine.com