Guest blog Bart van Heesbeen: Prevailing beliefs about nutrition in equestrian sports

In my previous article for HELTIE horse® I wrote about natural nutrition in sports. In this sequel, I would like to discuss prevailing beliefs in the equestrian world and whether they are accurate. In equestrian sports, there are often many different beliefs regarding nutrition. 'He needs a lot of energy' or 'he will gain weight from too much concentrate.' Maybe you can think of more. What's interesting for me is that I can understand these opinions very well, as I also come from the world of sports. Therefore, I want to start with my own belief; 'Everyone always does it with good intentions.' Within his/her knowledge, everyone has the best interest of their horse in mind. As long as we hold on to this belief, we can have a respectful conversation with each other.

To get a good context, we need to understand where certain beliefs come from. In the past, horses were used for work in the fields. Initially, they were fed generous amounts of grain. Primarily oats were used for this, and sometimes barley as well. These are the two grains that were originally the easiest for horses to digest. The horses had to work all day in the fields, which naturally had a huge impact. Concentrate feed was needed to endure this. Due to the work, the negative effects of grains were less significant at that time. Just think about it, if you eat a lot of carbohydrates and you have to work physically hard all day, you won't have any issues. It's a different story if you sit in front of a screen all day working.

The era of concentrates

Later, concentrates were developed, where grains and other products were pressed into pellets. The belief held by many older people is that a horse should be fed concentrates, but is that really true? I don't think it's fair to generalize all concentrates. Each concentrate has a different composition and there are different methods of pressing. When we talk about common concentrates which often contain a lot of grains (especially wheat), soy, corn, and various by-products, I don't believe a horse should be fed concentrates. Shouldn't we ourselves actually be consuming processed food? In my opinion, the reason to feed pellets should be to supplement vitamins, minerals, and trace elements. In an ideal world, this wouldn't even be necessary, as the soil would already provide them, resulting in the grassland and other vegetation also having them. Ultimately, these minerals are then present in the forage. Feeding a balancer and other energy sources separately allows you to regulate the products individually. This way, you can adjust for each horse individually.

Pasture access, is it feasible?

Then we come to the topic of pasture access via grassland. Is this necessary or how do we deal with it? Firstly, we must acknowledge that a horse in nature has access to various types of vegetation. We should question whether we can fully replicate that. A paddock paradise is a fantastic concept that closely resembles natural needs. Sometimes you hear about pasture access every day, but is that feasible? Is this good for the soil and horse? Can we provide good pasture with the relatively limited space where our horses have to roam?

As you can see, these are mainly questions and there is no straightforward answer. The only thing we can say for sure is that horses have certain needs, whether it's nutritionally, socially, free movement, or relaxation. These needs cannot be ignored, and if we don't meet them, it will disrupt your horse's system in the long term. The problem is often that we don't see these effects in the short term. Everything starts with small symptoms of an imbalanced equilibrium, which eventually grows larger. Horses start whispering, but eventually they start screaming. Once completely unbalanced, it takes a while, with the right steps, to restore that balance.

I often relate this to humans; if you've ever changed your eating habits for improvement, you will realize how many signals your body has been giving you. In your daily life, you just wake up and go to bed in the evening, and often you don't really know how you truly feel. 'I'm just tired often, that's just how I am.' Those are things I hear sometimes. When they take a few steps to make changes, they realize the negative influence it had. For example, if you go to a fast food restaurant after making changes, you will feel the negative impact it has on your system. Whereas before you thought it was 'normal.'

This is ultimately the same for your horse; what we perceive as 'normal', is it really normal?

Needs of a sport horse

When we consider this for sport horses, do they have different needs than paddock paradise horses? Or are they ultimately the same animals? The hormone balance of a sport horse must be in order, the stress axis must also be in order, as well as the thyroid axis. If these are disrupted, you will also experience issues in the sport. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, and there are also horses that can jump well or perform well with a disrupted axis. But is this ideal? And perhaps more importantly; can we continue to do this, considering the well-being of the horse? The cause of this is not only nutrition, stress from housing, training, but also the lack of social contact can disrupt the axes. A brief disruption is not as bad, as long as it doesn't become structural. From a nutritional standpoint, horses will start using certain substances that eventually lead to a deficiency, which in turn leads to stress at the cellular level. As you can hear, this leads to a vicious cycle that is difficult to break.

Haylage vs. hay

The last belief I would like to address is the belief that sport horses are better off with haylage because they work hard. In that case, we need to ask ourselves a few things. Does a sport horse really work hard and run as much as it would in the wild? Another interesting question is: Where in nature would they find fermented food? As far as I could research, they have never found that. This doesn't align with the digestion of the horse; the lactic acid bacteria that enter through this ultimately lead to acidification of the intestinal environment. Acidification is something you always want to avoid. This disruption ultimately costs energy. Initially, a horse may be quicker on packed haylage, but in the long run, this will have a negative effect. However, if you feed unpacked hay, it is important that the hay has sufficient protein and is not too high in sugar. A horse that works hard will cope better with a reasonably high sugar content in feed than a horse that only has its own free movement.

In this piece, I have asked many questions, and I invite you to think about these questions and respond. There is no black and white in my opinion. Make your own choices and remember, everyone acts with their best intentions in mind! Let's build bridges!

Want to learn more about this topic or get in touch with Bart van Heesbeen? Visit the website of Kwalituur paardenvoeding.