Have you ever stopped and pondered the changes that have occurred over your lifetime in the way we live, the way we think and our perspective on the world around us? Nothing is more fascinating and enlightening then listening to a grand parent reflect on their youth and the world they grew up in. History comes alive and events that you may be aware of from the history channel suddenly are vividly real as that person relates something that is a picture in their mind as clear to them as your memory of yesterday.

That may seem like a strange introduction to an article about feeding horses but as my years of experience increase inversely proportional to my ability to get to 1st base quickly (talking baseball here) I do sometimes reflect on the drastic changes in the horse feed business over the last couple of decades.

Twenty years ago you were lucky if you had a couple of choices to make when it came to selecting a feed for your horse. Jumper, race horse, barrel horse, or conveyance to the back 40 it was the 14% or the stuff for foals. Those were your choices.

It was about 25 years ago when a Swedish researcher named Sune Persson published “On Blood Volume and Working Capacity in Horses” Since then knowledge of equine physiology has dramatically increased. High speed treadmills have made it possible to collect and analyze data while horses perform at maximum exertion levels.

As a result the variety and types of feeds available are mind boggling to many horse owners. Why so many choices? It’s as a result of the information gathered from horse physiology research conducted at Universities like Texas A&M, Cornell and private research organizations like Kentucky Equine Research.

Isn’t a horse just a horse?

Of course in some ways that’s true, but over generations of selective breeding we have created in affect specialists, horses that excel at a particular discipline. Arabians for example in endurance, Warmbloods as jumpers, Thoroughbreds in racing and it goes on and on. (I’m sorry if I left out your pet breed, I’m sure it excels at something too) What we have done is selected and bred horses with certain physiological qualities that enable it to do something extremely well. So what has that got to do with feed? It comes down to the physiology of muscle types.

All horses have 3 basic muscle types. Each has a particular role in locomotion and each muscle type requires specific fuels to perform at peak capacity.

Type 1 muscle fibres are “slow twitch” meaning they contract slowly. They also have a high oxidative capacity meaning that they can burn fat and glucose aerobically. Heavy hunter type horses have a high proportion of Type 1 muscle types making them ideal candidates for high fat feeds with “digestible fibre” (note the emphasis on digestible fibre. Just because a feed says it has a high fibre content doesn’t mean it has good fibre”)

Type llA muscle fibres are a “fast twitch” type with a high oxidative capacity. Thoroughbreds are particularly blessed with this type of muscle, which use energy generated from fat and glycogen (from starch.) As speed increases these muscle fibres come into play more. The faster the speed the more the muscle depends on glycogen and less on fat since fat cannot be metabolized fast enough. Therefore horses with a high proportion of Type llA muscle types need a mix of energy sources in the feed.

Type llB muscle fibres are fast twitch as well but they depend on an anerobic process to produce the energy for movement. Quarter Horses are endowed with a larger proportion of Type llB muscle than most other breeds.

On one extreme is the endurance horse, which uses almost exclusively aerobically generated energy. On the other extreme is the barrel horse, which uses primarily explosive anerobically generated energy. The endurance horse benefits most from added fat in the ration while the barrel horse must have energy produced from muscle glycogen generated from starch. Thus the differences in feeds. In between are your racing Thoroughbreds, jumpers, Standardbreds, 3 day eventers and so on.

This is why to-days feeds are formulated more for specific activities than simply to supply a gross amount of energy. Unfortunately in a rush to capture the market some feed companies put out products that are more marketing oriented (if you go 10 we’ll go 12) rather than based on solid research. In choosing a feed you have a right to know on what research is the formulation based.

The formulation of feeds for specific activities will continue to become more precise as research continues. This should result in horses better able to perform at higher levels of athletic ability while maintaining good condition and health.

References:

This article summarizes information contained in the article
“Exercise Physiology” Dr. Joe Pagan Kentucky Equine Research refer to www.ker.com

Written by Dan Irwin
Brooks Performance Feeds