Nutrient requirements during equine fitness training
As your horse's fitness training load increases, adjustments need to be made in the feed ration to accommodate increasing physical demands.

This is usually accomplished by increasing the grain and decreasing the amount of hay fed. An alternative method of increasing the energy intake is to add fat which is an energy dense food.

In addition to increasing energy consumption, it may be necessary to add calcium carbonate to the ration as the grain to hay ratio increases.

If your horse begins losing weight during fitness training, it is obvious that the energy content is insufficient for the workload and the amount of feed needs to be increased.

If your horse is competing, the feeding regime on that day of the competition can have an enormous effect on the horse's performance. Research indicates that a meal of hay and grain fed approximately 4 hours before the beginning of competition will allow time for stabilization of the glucose and insulin levels before competing.

In addition, electrolytes should be given at the same time as the meal since this combination influences the amount of fluid retention in the gut.

The fibrous content of the hay and grain stimulates the horse to drink, and and the electrolytes keep the water in the intestine where it is available to replace fluids lost in sweat.