Advice on feeding for short term stamina

pootleperkin

pootleperkin

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Part of this is also in CR, but not much in the way of replies:

My 8 yr old WB has just come off a relatively busy 3 or 4 days, a local show on Thursday (where he won a riding horse class and was second in another) and a quick trip to a friends for a brief ride through the test yesterday and a jump or two, but today at a Combined training event at Myerscough, he was definitely lacking energy and I'm concerned that his fitness isn't improving particularly - he has been in an increasing workload since June. The biggest problem seems to be maintaining relatively short periods of intense energy, such as jumping an SJ course, or climbing hills.

His background - he is a grass sickness survivour and since then has historically been difficult to get fit, though last year we did get there through masses of hill and fast work to get him to the stage he could manage an XC course. It seems to be taking an awful long time this year to get him back to that point. Would have kept him going last year, but typically for him, he fell over in the drive and skinned his fetlocks so a month of box rest ensued and fitness was lost, then the winter happened!

So on to the burning question - any ideas on what I should feed him? He will obviously continue to get fittening exercise, but I want to feed him a diet that is optimal to support his ongoing fitness.

At the minute, he is being ridden 4 - 5 days a week, sometimes schooling, sometimes hacking - work is being ramped up to include hills. If on the flat, he can hack for an hour and half no probs, with lots of trot and some canter. Add hills (pretty steep - we are in Cumbria!), and I have to get off and walk part of the way to allow him to recover. If we school for ten mins on the flat and then ask him to jump a small course of SJs, he is very puffed and takes a good 5 mins walk to recover to a reasonable resp/heart rate. He is a happy, willing horse in his work.

He is getting a scoop (not sure on weight, standard bowl shaped tack shop scoop - vague I know!) of British horse feeds ultimate performance mix (slow release energy) and top spec top lite chaff to bulk it out, twice a day and on busy days I'll add a half scoop of HDF power cubes, just to add a little more energy, though I'm not sure it has the desired effect. The feed is pretty much soaked in water, as he prefers it this way since GS. He has been on Winergy feeds in the past, which he seemed to do quite well on. He has ad lib Horselyx original lick in the field for vits and mins.

He is out on good grass apart from 4-5 hours around midday, which earlier in the year was to help keep grass weight off, now it's more to let them have morning feed and a nap. He is in good shape - see pics in CR -but I would like him to build more top line muscle, partic. over his back, as since GS that has always been his weak spot. He makes work all look very easy and smooth, but today he was a tired boy and will have a quiet couple of days to recover.

Any ideas? Cheers :)
 
It sounds like you're doing all the right things. What you need us burst energy rather than stamina. I wonder if NAF Ener-G would make any difference? Or perhaps barley? I don't know what impact the GS will have had on his ability to digest - you vet might be able to help you there.
 
Yes, I think burst energy is what he needs, which was my thinking behind giving the HDF (racehorse) cubes, but I think they just tend tend to make him a little silly, rather than provide the the slightly longer burst that he needs. I'll look into NAF Ener-G. I would give some of the feed companies a ring, but was wondering what people had tried and tested before I approached a specific manufacturer.

In terms of digestion, I think I read a paper at the time of his GS (about 5 yrs ago now) that said upon PM of one horse, they reckoned 50% or so of the digestive neurones had been killed. However, as with most things, the body seems very able to compensate for any redundancy, as in terms of his ability to put on weight and the appearance and regularity of passing droppings etc, I would say he is normal, and doesn't seems to be deficient in this area at all, although perhaps he is less efficient at producing energy than he was? Research seems to be lacking in this area.

TBH, I'm not sure if he is just like some other horses that are difficult to get fit, or shows chronic signs of having had GS. As I said, he is a happy horse and very willing, not depressed in any way - generally fit and healthy.
 
Can I just ask what your fitness regime is and what the breakdown in your horse's exercise sessions are in terms of time in walk, trot, canter, interval training etc?
 
I'm not that scientific I'm afraid mbf! He's worked about 4 -5 days a week at present, as I'm mindful that if I overdo it, he gets stiff and not so happy in his work - I'm looking for a lovely soft, happy horse each time I ride and I'm happy to let the fitness take it's time, so long as I keep seeing improvement.

If we have a schooling session, we will walk and trot on a long rein, just going forwards for about 10 mins, then do walk, trot, canter and lateral work in an outline and now that he is getting fitter/stronger, do some collected, then medium trot ( he is just learning this) work followed by going into a light seat and cantering round the field as a reward. Yesterday we managed 50 mins comfortably, which is his best yet and he was just sweating lightly.

Hacking, is usually a flat-ish hack but fairly energetic, with walk trot and canter, for about 1.5 hours. His hilly hack is very hilly, and takes a good two hours. My other hack (sorely lacking in hacking here) is around fields where we can gallop, but unfortunately an inconsiderate farmer is trying to block the bridleway at present :(

I don't have a set routine for him, as I like to take into account how hard he has worked/how stiff he might be, and keep things interesting for him. For example after his big hill hack last week, I knew on day 1 and then day 2 he was likely to be stiff, so he got day 1 off and did some schooling (as, expected, not quite as soft as he can be) followed by a walk out afterwards on day 2.

I do use a bit of interval training - now he is fitter, I'm working up to more. Generally a warm up schooling sesh followed by canter work around a stubble field followed by a walk round it until his breathing is back to normal, then on again until I feel he has had enough.

We went to the Yorkshire Riding Centre today for a jumping lesson and I was really pleased - he has been on high fibre performance mix (and occasional powercubes!) for a couple fo weeks and the NAF energy for the last week and think it might be making a difference - certainly his burst energy and recovery was better and we did about 50 minutes with maybe 20 - 25 jumping efforts. The instructor, who knew his history, commented that she thought he was recovering better than some 'fit' horses she knew.

Things are going in the right direction - he seems to have come on a lot in the last week.
 
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All sounds like you've got the right idea, one thing i would say is check the starch content of the feeds you are giving your horse. With the GS in mind you are probably best to get his energy from fibre and protein rather than high starch, very hard i know. My youngster survived GS and now i check everything for starch/fibre/protein content, even for my older event horse. I know how many of the 'quick release energy' feeds have high levels of starch which can be difficult for them to digest. For my event horse i currently feed her Alfa A oil, Topspec balancer and D&H Staypower cubes, as well as Pro-pell which seems to do her well, but then she is a fairly lazy good do-er who has a tendency to get silly and tense if on a really high energy diet.
 
fabscd - interesting you use staypower cubes - he had them the first year he was in work after GS and seemed to do ok on them. I was recommended Allen and Page feeds, so have just ordered a bag of Sustain, which again is a slow release energy food which they say has this content:
Oil: 6.5%
Protein: 12.0%
Fibre: 13.0%
Estimated DE: 12.0 MJ/kg
Starch: 24.0%

I can't compare it to Staypower in terms of starch, as they don't list it specifically on their website. It is essentially the same in terms of protein and fibre though.

I usually feed Alfa A in the winter, along side whatever hard feeds they are getting. Last year both were not in work at all and survived quite happily on pony nuts, Alfa A and ad lib hay :) Plan to keep them going this year though, as long as there are no disasters!

Both look better in those terms than the performance mix he was on.
 
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Are you looking for a short term boost or a longer time slow release.

Oil based feeds do 2 things 1) they either put weight on or keep the weight on. 2) Oil is a slow release energy.

For my Endurance horses I use Alfa Oil, Baileys Lo-Cal Balancer and Baileys Endurance Mix and /or Baileys Outshine. All give a slow release energy. For an instant boost I use either Barley or a Competition mix.

I would also be looking at bloods to see if his heomoglobin is right. You could give him some Propel or Red Cell as a boost.
 
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