If you want your racehorse to stay in good physical shape, diet is a crucial ingredient in overall racehorse care. Just like humans, the right food makes them feel energetic, alert and resilient...and the wrong food leaves them sluggish, cranky, and prone to illness. Read on to find out what your racehorse needs to eat to stay at the top of their game.
Bulk Of The Diet As a herbivore, your horse is happiest when he is grazing on pasture throughout the day. A combination of young, baby grasses, with some older, longer grass, is an ideal mixture. Throw in a few weeds and wild-growing herbs, and you've got the ideal horse buffet! But unfortunately, this is not often the case for most racehorses. Fortunately though, you can make up for this with supplemental feed.
The Ins And Outs Of Supplemental Feeds This is an area that pays to examine meticulously. Why? Well, a horse is built to deal with grasses and hay. Its digestive tract does not always cope with cereal grains well. And for a long time, supplemental feed was based on cereal grains like corn, barley and oats. Forages that are low in protein can also cause issues in horses. Health problems such as colic, founder, ulcers and hoof and hair conditions often result from too much grain-based feed.
Care for a racehorse means knowing what their guts require...and a horses digestive tract needs fibre as well as forage in order to function properly. Starch is not easily digestible in a horse's foregut, so it will ferment in their hindgut. This can lead to acidosis, and the potential for colic and founder. When starch ferments in the stomach, it can lead to painful ulcers. High starch rations raise your horse's risk for developmental orthopaedic diseases, and also escalate the level of glucose in their blood after meals, which can lead to conditions similar to metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance found in humans on a similar diet.
A Better Choice For Rations Your horse needs fibre and forage...and there are many alternatives. Soybean hulls, beet pulp and other fermentable fibres are a much healthier choice than grains. Vegetable oils, stabilized rice bran and other high fat supplements are added to these rations to enhance their health benefits.
For optimum dietary racehorse care, shun feeds that have a high glycemic load. So called 'sweet feed' is an example of this. Do not use high-fructan pasture grasses or unprocessed corn. Instead, select a feed that is low in starch. Provide a balanced vitamin and mineral supplement that includes macro minerals and trace minerals, and also be sure they get supplemental salt.
Bulk Of The Diet As a herbivore, your horse is happiest when he is grazing on pasture throughout the day. A combination of young, baby grasses, with some older, longer grass, is an ideal mixture. Throw in a few weeds and wild-growing herbs, and you've got the ideal horse buffet! But unfortunately, this is not often the case for most racehorses. Fortunately though, you can make up for this with supplemental feed.
The Ins And Outs Of Supplemental Feeds This is an area that pays to examine meticulously. Why? Well, a horse is built to deal with grasses and hay. Its digestive tract does not always cope with cereal grains well. And for a long time, supplemental feed was based on cereal grains like corn, barley and oats. Forages that are low in protein can also cause issues in horses. Health problems such as colic, founder, ulcers and hoof and hair conditions often result from too much grain-based feed.
Care for a racehorse means knowing what their guts require...and a horses digestive tract needs fibre as well as forage in order to function properly. Starch is not easily digestible in a horse's foregut, so it will ferment in their hindgut. This can lead to acidosis, and the potential for colic and founder. When starch ferments in the stomach, it can lead to painful ulcers. High starch rations raise your horse's risk for developmental orthopaedic diseases, and also escalate the level of glucose in their blood after meals, which can lead to conditions similar to metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance found in humans on a similar diet.
A Better Choice For Rations Your horse needs fibre and forage...and there are many alternatives. Soybean hulls, beet pulp and other fermentable fibres are a much healthier choice than grains. Vegetable oils, stabilized rice bran and other high fat supplements are added to these rations to enhance their health benefits.
For optimum dietary racehorse care, shun feeds that have a high glycemic load. So called 'sweet feed' is an example of this. Do not use high-fructan pasture grasses or unprocessed corn. Instead, select a feed that is low in starch. Provide a balanced vitamin and mineral supplement that includes macro minerals and trace minerals, and also be sure they get supplemental salt.
About the Author:
The welfare of a racehorse is the responsibility of the racehorse trainer, so it is essential that you find a reputable one if you are going to own a racehorse.
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