News

Wednesday 17 August 2005

Matching feeding level to exercise in horses

Current systems to evaluate the work-rate of horses are crude, leading many people in the UK to over-feed the animals, making them obese. The problem has spurred a Nottingham Trent University academic to research and produce new guidelines for equine nutrition. Dr Andrea Ellis is taking action because overfeeding can lead to conditions similar to diabetes in horses, resulting in laminitis, one of the largest causes of lameness.

Many leisure horses are being fed too much high energy feed with long intervals between feeding times and it is these which are at most risk.   Dr Ellis’s new guidelines take into account the size of the horse and extent of its work-level over an average week. This means, that not just the type of exercise – such as grazing, dressage, show-jumping, racing, carriage driving, riding-school or cross country – is assessed, but also the duration, intensity and repetition of each exercise bout.

Points are calculated and once the final score is known it can be linked to a recommended daily food intake. Dr Ellis has produced guidelines for horses in countries across the world.

The Senior Lecturer in Equine Science argues that current work evaluation systems for horses are not effective as they do not take into account the variety or repetition of exercise periods over the whole week. For example in current systems a horse that only works hard twice a week will nevertheless be fed as if the hard work occurs every day.  The new guidelines are simple to understand and could be used by anyone from beginners to equine experts.

Dr Ellis said:

“More and more people without prior training and experience use and handle horses and it is these who need to be educated regarding their nutrition. As well as diabetes and laminitis, excess body fat puts unnecessary strain on the heart and other organs.”

She added:

“If we think back to the middle-ages there was an abundance of paintings which portrayed cattle and horses as massively overweight. In fact, many horses in this country which look perfectly healthy according to this traditional image are actually overweight.”

Dr Ellis, from the university’s School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences, is currently putting together a booklet containing the new point system guidelines.

ENDS

Notes for editors: Dr Ellis has recently had published The Nutritional Physiology of the Horse, which is aimed at equine specialists.

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