Wondering what everyone is feeding their dressage horses? I am needing some help in finding something that will help him with energy and strength, and helping him build muscle. Currently he works slowly on hills, and poles, he has been gone over by a vet, he has no soundness issues. Just lazy at home and needs some help. He gets all the hay he needs, he eats a balancer, alfalfa pellets, and cavalor fiber force. His weight is great as he is an easy keeper. He is a 7 yr old Oldenburg.
TIA
We are a mostly Cavalor barn and once a horse gets past first level work, most need more calories than fiberforce - usually action mix (e.g. my mare), performix, or endurix, sometimes adding more fat on top
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What level is your horse working? Big difference in workload for a training level versus FEI horse.
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How much of each?
It doesn’t really matter what everyone else feeds, because their horse isn’t your horse 
If we know how much of these things he eats, and what "help with energy, strength and muscle really means, then we can figure things out.
What’s his build like - can you post a conformation type pic? A lot of WBs are not forward-thinking by nature, it’s trained into them. Many ARE forward-thinking and have to be taught how to do that properly.
What is a typical week’s riding like? How many days, how many times do you work on strength training vs cardio vs interval training, and what do each of those types of rides look like?
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Mine get Proelite grass advantage, alfalfa, beet pulp, and either Hallway Fiberenergy or Luminance depending on what they need.
Mostly young WBs with a few working 4th level horses.
He’s doing first level work.
My 7 y/o WB in 1st level equivalent of work (eventer/hunter pacer) is getting 1/2lb of RB and 1/2lb of alfalfa, turned out for 12 hrs on pasture grass and overnight in a dirt lot with unlimited hay. Plenty of gas in her tank, though she is a naturally efficient horse that prefers tackling on the world at her own dilly-dallying pace. But I would not conflate that with lack of energy - she has plenty of pep 'n go.
This line would make me suspect something physical at play. It could be lack of sleep, could just be he is growing, it really could be anything.
What specifically makes you think he needs more energy and strength? Are certain things hard for him?
My guys are all fatties (Lusitano, small warmblood, appendix). They all get a ration balancer with aloe juice, their hay, and a flake of alfalfa for their main course. My appendix who is approaching ancient also gets 1/3 scoop of Fibre-max. No ribs to be seen around here; I’d actually like for my younger horses to lose a little weight. I have one barely started under saddle, one hovering around 3rd/4th level, and one semi-retired who only trail rides and does a day or two of training level work per week.
I feel he is somewhat stressed about always being nagged with spur or the whip. He has no physical issues, I am awaiting some bloodwork, but really would be shocked if there is anything underlying. He is a bit of a jeckyl and Hyde, as he has plenty of energy at shows, but returning home somewhat washed out.
I am conflicted about feeding a horse for energy rather than for nutrition and appropriate weight. If you have a generally low energy and easy keeper horse (which I do), I kind of feel like you should feed to meet the minimum nutritional requirements and to keep them healthy but not add anything for “energy.”
My 17.1h 6 year old WB gets 10+ hours pasture; unlimited hay in a porta grazer in his stall; and 1 lb ration balancer with salt, copper, zinc, and vitamin e and a dash of oil to make the powders stick. Right now due to the drought, the hay is straight alfalfa but even that doesn’t seem to make him more energetic.
The nagging is an issue I have dealt with in my own riding and I continually have to check on myself. You have to take your leg off and if the response to a leg aid is not appropriate, add leg and whip if needed and then revert back to passive. I try to ask myself throughout the ride if I am working too hard for the forward, and if I am we go back to walk/trot or trot/canter and forward. Where I find myself slipping back into working too hard and almost nagging is when we are working on new or hard things, but then I make sure I do very short bits of them and then go big and forward again to refresh.
It’s been hot lately and my horse has felt a bit flat and not quite cranky but not “bright eyed and bushy tailed” so I’ve given him a few days off and will go back to a few weeks of <40 minute schooling rides and lots of trail rides.
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What is your riding routine? Arena every ride, drilling him every ride? Get him out of the arena and do some decent work riding in the open fields , hills , trails . That can build strength, stamina and muscle. He may just be bored stiff.
He looks just fine in the picture.
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He does do poles to change things up and he likes the trails, we are going to try some other things like some cross rails, etc. he is not drilled on a daily basis, he works or is ridden 3 days then a day off, repeat. He’s always great the first day back after the day off.
For me, this isn’t a feed issue. This is a rider/trainer issue of paying insufficient attention to the slightest “meh” and not insisting “meh” is not an appropriate reaction or autonomous decision. That the horse is different at shows - adrenaline, excitement, etc.
Lovely creature by the way!
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if you’re having to nag him, you need to go back a bunch of steps to get him hot off your leg. Until you do that, you can’t progress with anything, not the energy, or the muscle development
What has been to done to rule out saddle fit issues, muscle issues, skeletal issues, hoof issues?
His body condition looks fine in the pic. That means it’s not a diet issue, and most likely it’s a training issue, along with a horse who is naturally very laid back. I had one. It was quite eye-opening to me to learn what really needed to be done to get him to generate energy, and it doesn’t happen overnight. What CAN happen almost overnight, if done properly, is getting the immediate response to a given aid that he should give. That doesn’t mean he can maintain that response, that takes time. But there’s no reason he can’t learn in one session that leg means GO, and go NOW. Maybe 2 sessions if he’s like “wait, the rules are changing? Are you SURE?”
It sounds like you need a good trainer to help you with this. If you have a trainer, and are still nagging, you need a new one.
If a (new) trainer isn’t in the cards, then you have to learn to do it yourself
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But what do the rides entail? How long are they? How long is the warmup and what’s what like? How much time spent (roughly) walking vs trotting vs cantering vs lateral work and at which gaits?
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IMHO, this is a training issue, and maybe an endurance issue if we’re talking upper levels. Some horses do really well with 2 days of interval training or hills per week to build stamina.
To answer your question, mine eat ProElite Grass Advantage and Omega.
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Work consists of a 20 minute walk, then some trot, then lots of t/w/t trans, also canter, then c/t/c trans. We don’t do long workouts as he just gets to tired.
He has regular saddle fits, regular massage, feet done every 4-5 weeks, he has no physical issues, I have gone slow with him, as he will never be sold.
He is with an amazing trainer who holds him accountable in his work. We feel he could just use a bit more energy.
If you’re constantly nagging him, there’s a training problem your trainer isn’t helping you address.
Fix that and you fix his energy.
Your rides don’t sound very taxing. I don’t see anything where he’s getting to go out in a field and gallop. Do that. Teach him what going forward and with speed feels like. You need to learn what it feels like too.
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I am an ex event rider, and race horse trainer. I know about speed!
These guys are a completely different animal.
