Feeding on the day of an event

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jump_racing

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Just wondering how many of you limit the amount of food your horse eats before an event? Mine has his morning feed and haynet if i have to walk the course before dresage he will travel with a net but otherwise not. he is aloud a small pick of grass once he gets there but other than water and syringing his mouth out ( which i do before each phase) he doesn't eat again until after we're finished although if there is a massive wait he will get a small net which is taken away 1.5 before he does anything. I hhave taken some of what I do from my job in racing but also it makes sense to me for him not to have a massive belly of hay ! Sorry for ramble, am interested to hear other peoples opinion and this!
 
Ours always have a haynet whilst travelling and it is only taken away a short time before competing - however, both boys are not pigs and won't gorge themselves on hay anyway. Whilst you don't want them doing fast work on a belly stuffed full of hay, you do need fibre going through the system, for lots of reasons, including the risk of ulcers. Studies have shown that up to 93% of racehorses suffer from gastric ulcers, which would indicate that many racing regimes are not the best for ensuring gut health!

With the pony, who is a bit more of a gannet, I will feed from a tricklenet on the lorry, to slow her consumption down so she is not stuffed to the gills before doing fast work!
 
Mine has raced and has been treated for ulcers since I've had her. She ALWAYS has food available at an event because I don't want her doing anything on an empty stomach and causing acid splash. Haynet when she travels there and available right up to the last minute including before XC.

If she's at home and hasn't been eating hay in the stable (ie just come in from the field), I will give her half a scoop of Alpha 20 mins before I ride to act as a buffer and also give her a haynet whilst I groom/ tackup.
 
My event horses have always been fed a normal breakfast, traveled with hay, had the hay until coming off the box to be tacked up, between phases they have the net again, they do not tend to be greedy this way as they know it is there, much the same as at home they have ad lib so eat fairly slowly, unlike the ponies who think it is their last meal and eat until it has gone.

The risk of ulcers is reduced and I have never had a horse struggle xc, certainly not due to being full of hay anyway, the last horse I was taking out had some ulcer symptoms so he was given a small feed of alfalfa between phases, went like a rocket xc and always recovered well afterwards.

Racing is slightly different I traveled the pointer without hay, except on the longer journeys but he didn't want to really eat much once he was wound up anyway so barely touched it, he also seemed to know when he was running so hardly ate breakfast, the restrictive diet given to most racehorses is why so many suffer from ulcers but I do appreciate they dont want a belly full when running, eventing is sprrad out over most of the day, if I was concerned I would remove hay an hour before xc but in my experienced most will only have a pick so it makes little difference.
 
O yes I know racing is probably not the best profession to follow in term's of feeding! My idea is pretty loseley based on what they do. I just think you wouldn't go for a run just after eating! what do people do from Novice and above as its probably not so important at the smaller levels !
 
I've got a friend just started competing at 3*. She actively sought vet advice on this and was told to allow access to hay for majority of time. Nets get taken away once final preparations/tacking up starts.
What you find with a lot of horses is that once they are very fit for the bigger stuff their hay intake seems to naturally decrease a bit.
 
jump_racing said:
I just think you wouldn't go for a run just after eating!
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But horses are trickle feeders and are designed to be eating 16/18 hours a day, it's not a 'meal' to them, it's just nibbling fibre. In the wild they'd run after they'd been grazing all day, if running were needed.

Horses are unlike people, they produce acid all the time and not just when they eat, hence they need a buffer to soak it up.

Mine is competing at BE90 at the moment but I would do exactly the same if competing at Novice, as I have in the past.

What others have said above, they tend to just pick if it's available all the time rather than gorge.
 
We have followed the same regime at BE Novice, with both horses able to finish very close to the time, so it doesn't seem to slow them down! And whilst you wouldn't go for a run straight after a full roast dinner, some runners do have a small snack 30 minutes or so before running. But a bit of an irrelevant comparison when the horse's digestive process is SO different from ours.

I wonder if the 'no hay' regime dates from the time when a lot of horses were 'meal fed' their forage, rather than getting it ad lib. If a horse's forage is rationed then it is more likely to gorge when finally given it, whereas if forage is always available then they are only likely to nibble at it, as said above.
 
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ihatework said:
I've got a friend just started competing at 3*. She actively sought vet advice on this and was told to allow access to hay for majority of time. Nets get taken away once final preparations/tacking up starts.
What you find with a lot of horses is that once they are very fit for the bigger stuff their hay intake seems to naturally decrease a bit.
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A fit horse does tend to eat less fibre, the pointer came here last Feb fit having had a run but looking really poor with no topline, I put him onto adlib haylage and he stuffed himself for about a week, as his work increased he ate less and less but looked so much better, was stronger, more muscled up, his coat improved by the time he was racing he was still on ad lib but was eating less than half of what he did to start with, they do learn to pace themselves.
There are a few trainers who feed ad lib, possibly very few, Henrietta Knight said she fed this way, she based her training methods on her eventing experiences.
Most racehorses get so restricted they do treat hay as a meal, it only lasts a short while for many.
 
If you still wish to restrict hay intake on a competition day, because you are worried the horse will eat too much, then an alternative option would be to feed a small amount of chaff (preferably alfalfa) just before competing, as this will be enough to form a 'raft' of fibre on top of the stomach contents and prevent splash ulcers occurring.
 
Mine eat as much as they want from haynets/ grazing. If I'm on board and there's a bit of a wait down at the SJ/ XC they will stand and graze. Most natural thing a horse can do, helps to reduce stress and tension. Never slowed mine down at all!
 
Although I've never actually managed to complete a ode... I've always given hay right up until tacking up. Never had a problem
 
FWIW, I had this exact conversation with a vet last week at a well known Equine Hospital as my horse was in for scoping. He was adamant that you should feed hay right up to working (which is what I do anyway). As has been said above, he also said that the withholding of feed was largely based on the fact that humans don't like to go for a run after a big meal which in his opinion was an irrelevant comparison since we are designed completely differently from horses as trickle feeders.
 
Many, many years ago a friend of mine was an event groom for a very well known and successful rider. The thinking in those days was to withhold feed and water for a few hours before the horse was due to run! Now this idea has been universally rubished so mine travel with hay which they can nibble until they are tacked up.
 
I never ride/compete/exercise my horse without ensuring she has had her breakfast and has a good handful of alfalfa before exercise. If I am going to an event I pack several small feeds to take with me (depending on how long the day is depends on how many she actually eats) and she will also have access to a haynet.

I go as far as stopping for a snack break during long hacks to ensure she isn't going too long without having anything in her stomach.
 
Breakfast as usual - at least an hour before travelling - hay on the lorry, hay next to the lorry, hay on the way home, dinner on return . . . why would you restrict intake of forage when horses' physiology means that they need to trickle feed?

P
 
Mine has access to feed in the morning as normal, access to hay at all times, and grass if she is so inclined. We got 4 time faults for going too fast in last BE 80, so think it works for us.
 
Mine also has access to hay until being tacked up. I once read (many moons ago) that they actually perform better with a stomach 2/3rds full (or something like that anyway) and it's never done mine any harm.
 
Personally I have always given hay on the trailer and all the way up to competing (including eventing). Also give them a bucket with water hung off the trailer at all times. May give them a little pick of grass if its a really long day but I'd rather just keep them on the hay when out. Never had a problem so far. I figure they gallop about in the wild straight from eating and you don't see them getting colic. If you limit roughage then you're risking colic anyway. Hate seeing some horses standing on lorries all day with absolutely ziltch hay all day.
 
I think the business of restricting even forage before work is old-fashioned thinking based on a misunderstanding of the horse's digestive system (and maybe comparing it to a human getting a cramp?). On an endurance ride, we shovel food in at every opportunity, and free access to water. One instructor (from the eventing side of things) said to me that horses don't say, "Excuse me, Mr Wolf, I just ate, I can't run away just now, you'll just have to wait." :D
 
I have hay available on the lorry at all times, however my mare really only picks at this when travelling. I normally take off the lorry to tack up. They may stand for up to 30mins by the lorry with no hay in between phases.

If it is a long day, I have travelled a long way or very hot day with spread out times I will offer a couple of handfuls of Alpha A and make sure it is very wet. Keeps something in the stomach and gets some liquid down their neck!
 
As Spookypony says, endurance horses are given feed as required throughout the competition day - a British team member I met showed me a huge bucket of Alfalfa in her top horse's stable which he picks at ad-lib and confirmed that he was often offered it at vet checks/water stops in the course of a ride. This was some five years ago - they seemed to be way ahead of other disciplines on the nutrition side!
 
We have always travelled with hay and left them stood with hay right up to the minute we tack up. This winter our mare had a tie back and hobday and the vet advised nothing to eat for an hour before riding to prevent inhillation of food. This isn't always possible so we are planning on taking hay away for last 30 mins and then syringing her throat with water. This seems to work at home when we bring her in after work and rush to hack before dark.
 
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