I was wondering if anyone would share their horse diets? I dont’ ride endurance, but we do go on some fairly vigorous trail rides, and I was looking to change my horses’ diets. I wanted to tailer it somewhat to more of a slow-burn type energy source (as opposed to a speed event type Give-It-All-To-Me-Now type diet.
I’ve been googling some, but COTH is always such a wealth of information. 
If you go to www.aerc.org and click on the “education” tab there’s tons of information and links there, and the links in the thumb-tacked post at the top of this page are great too.
In general I will tell you that horses are burning the hay/forage/grass that they ate a day or two prior on the day of ‘the big effort.’ So it follows that our job is to make sure that they have plenty of hind gut fill (i.e. hay and grass) in the day or two leading up the big trail ride or endurance ride.
We can certainly get into all sorts of details about equine nutrition, electrolyting, etc., but the horses that tend to do the best metabolically are those that “tanked up” prior to the ride, either at home, on the trailer ride, or in the camp before the ride – or some combination of the above.
Hope that helps!
–Patti
Dr. Susan Garlinghouse has some great articles about nutrition for endurance horses. There may be a link from AERC but, if not, here’s one: http://www.allcreaturesanimalhealth.com/site/view/212994_EquineNutritionArticles.pml Read down the list for specific subjects.
The series called “Beating the Metabolic Pull” would be good for you to read in preparation for one of your longer trail rides or trail-riding weekends/camping, etc. Especially the first article, about hydration.
Garlinghouse and aerc.org are great resouces.
Generally, most endurance riders feed lots of hay (often free choice grass or grass/alf) and try to limit the amount of concentrate feeds(grain, etc). Alot of endurance riders feed soaked beet pulp as a way to add calories and water without adding tons of NSC.
Appetites increase at the change of seasons, so give green forage and/or hay, as much as they will eat. It takes about a week to fill the hind gut, and I feed out free hay (they’re on grass as well) and keep it coming until they leave some, then I know they are ‘full’, and that their intake will slow down.
This has worked well for my horses which do low level endurance up to 50miles and treks 25-30 miles for 3 days. They also get 2 small meals of ‘muesli’ each day which contains an assortment of seeds, oil and minerals with an electrolyte mix added.
I love seeing the horses with that contented, well fed look, and demeanor.
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
