Feeding after exercise

[Box_Of_Frogs]

This may have been asked before but here goes anyway. As most Forum members will, sadly, already know, I am a Wrinkly and a wimpish but happy hacker and the VERY proud owner of Sunny, a lazy, 22yr old one-eyed Section D gelding (aka The FOEC). We have walk, trot, teeny bits of canter hacks and do a bit of schooling when weather permits. Nothing huge. Nothing strenuous. It's always me who gets sweaty and Sunny who is relaxed and happy and dry. Lately though, I have been getting looks off fellow liveries because I will give my boy a feed when we get back to the stable. I know that some advise not to feed a hot sweaty horse but (a) Sunny never gets hot and sweaty and (b) it may be obvious to some but why not?

 

[Super_Kat]

When the horses has ben worked the blood mainly goes to the muscles to get more oxygen to them rather than to the organs to aid digestion so the food just sits there.
Somthing like that anyway I think. probably wrong though, usually am

 

[jhoward]

to be honest if ive had a plod around the block id feed, another way to think of it is if youd just been put for and hours walk/run would you be ready to eat straight away,??

feeding after exercise can bring on colic, and even choke. but id relate these to more strenuos work.

 

[dozzie]

If you are worried check the breathing rate. If its normal and horse hasnt been particularly stressed then I would feed. But I would probably allow 10-15 minutes!




For a cup of coffee!!!LOL!!

 

[hadfos]

I have never had a problem feeding my lad after excercise when he is in light work(would never do it after strenuous excersice)!!!We always walk the last mile home so he is not hot or blowing!!By the time i have untacked,brushed off and put all things away,he is absolutely relaxed and looking forward to his reward(he dosnt get huge feed though as he is fed x2 a day)!!!If heartrate and breathing normal you should be fine to give her a feed,i find it keeps my lad sweet on coming up for work!!!

 

[apkelly01]

This is curious as in my last yard, I would have gone out on the gallops for an hour or so and by the time I came back her the stable hand/helper/worker (I've no idea what to call her

) would have fed the horses already. So when I put Super back in her stable she would eat immediately. Of course I would have finished my work with walk so maybe that helped. She has only ever suffered a mild case of colic once.

 

[hadfos]

I should imagine feeding straight after strenuous exercise would be the same for a horse as for us ie:never swim till at least an hour after food!!As we know we will drown due to cramping of the muscles!!I can only imagine that after hard work the muscles would be encouraged to go into spasm after feeding????

 

[Gentle_Warrior]

In the winter I give H an exdtra feed after a hard ride, we have a good 20 mins walk back to the yard and then by the time I have untacked etc you are talking 30 mins and I give him about 1/4 of his normal feed he gets in the morning - he only gets fed once a day

 

[trundle]

[ QUOTE ]
I should imagine feeding straight after strenuous exercise would be the same for a horse as for us ie:never swim till at least an hour after food!!As we know we will drown due to cramping of the muscles!!

[/ QUOTE ]

That's the wrong way round. Eating immediately BEFORE strenuous exercise is bad, for humans and horses, but eating after exercise is debatable. Riding a sweaty blowing horse straight back into the yard and sticking a bucket of hard feed in front of it is almost certainly a bad idea, but on the other hand, my horse gets fed after she's been schooled in the evenings, and she is fine. "After schooling" of course means, after cooling down at the end of the session, being untacked, doing her stretching exercises, being rugged up, hanging around a bit longer while I put her tack away, being led round to her stable and THEN getting her bucket of food....so its hardly immediate.

 

[Janah]

It has been proved that swimming after eating does not cause cramp.

Jane