Feeding and exercise

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WindyWitch

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I'm "old-skool"...... I was taught and still continue, some 35 years on, not to exercise within 1 hour of any type of feed, ie hard feed, hay/haylage or coming in from the field. I heard recently that this rule only applies to hard feed. I don't think I'll be changing my way of thinking as it suits me and my horses fine, but is this correct that you can exercise on a belly full of grass or hay? Or is it really down to common-sense?
 
I am "old school" and was taught much the same but over the years have seen the benefit of horses being exercised with their tummies having some fibre in them, I have not restricted the intake of hay/ haylage before exercise for many years but do feed adlib so they trickle feed.
I also feed only fibre based hard feed and sometimes give a small feed directly before normal exercise, in fact the tb has just eaten his breakfast and gone out for a hack within 10 mins of eating it, feeding has changed over the years, most of the rules were based on common sense and still apply but this one can be detrimental especially if the horse is prone to ulcers, or it could contribute towards causing them.

I would limit how much they eat before proper fast work, galloping as in racehorses, but even when we were training the tb he was allowed to pick at his net most of the time.
 
I too have heard the rule of no food 1 hr before etc. But I can understand the benefits of allowing some hay before exercise. If I remember correctly some hay (not hard feed) stops stomach acid sloshing around thus decreasing chances of ulcers and the like or discomfort
 
Mine doesnt get any "hard feed" as anything he gets is fibre based. I have no issues working him after feed. The only time I'd wait a little bit is if for some reason he had been gorging on lush grass and was bloated, but he doesn't have access to that so shouldn't ever be an issue. If I go up after work and hes been out in his bare pen and I think he might have finished his main forage a while ago and had jsut been rooting about, then I will deliberately give him hay/fibre feed so his stomach has something in it before he works. If their stomach is empty and you work them then the stomach acid can splash about which isnt good for them.
 
I think as long as it's hay Haylage or a fibre based feed no harm will be done, my horses have constant access to hay or grass and they are ridden whenever I want to and they have always been fine.
 
My vet recommended that I feed my ulcer prone horse a good handful of chaff before riding to stop acid sloshing about in his tum when doing faster work. He also pointed out that in the wild horses go from grazing one minute to being chased at high speeds by a predator the next and are evolved to cope with it. Basically as long as its fibre, horse should cope.
 
Endurance horses eat and go. During a ride of 80 km or more, holds are 40 minutes long and feed is always available - hard feed as well as hay. Not eating causes more issues than eating and they let you know pretty early on what they prefer to eat.
 
Well how does that work with horses out 24/7 who are grazing all the time - when would you ride from the field then?
 
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