ridecamp@endurance.net: Protein and endurance horses

Protein and endurance horses

RALSTON@AESOP.RUTGERS.EDU
Tue, 28 Oct 1997 14:11:08 -0400 (EDT)

Ok, I have to delurk here. The Susan/ti posts
are usually balance each other out (Where does
Susan find the time to write so much?!) but this is
an issue on which I have done some
work in endurance horses and three day event
horses in competition (yes, Tom, there are some
of us out actually trying to do work on real
animals-the crews at Guelph and Hal Schott at
Michigan state have also done some EXCELLENT
work on endurance horses at competitions...).

Anyway, I did a survey of the rations fed to horses both
at the Old Dominion ande the 1985 Race of Champions and
correlated the results with the incidence of pulls for
metabolic reasons. Yes, that info is ten years old but I did a similar study
only three years ago at the Essex three day event horse
trials and came up with almost identical results. Even though
the 3-day horses do a lot more anaerobic work, they still
must have incredible endurance to do what they do and the
metabolic demands placed on them are much more similar to
our endurance horses than Tom's rachorses (sorry, Tom-you are
definitely the expert on racehorses that complete their task in
under two minutes, but sometimes your track race horse wisdom
racehorse wisdomcan be downright dangerous for horses working
much longer, slower distances).

Bottom line: the top ten performers in both groups were fed
an average of 11-12% protein in their total ration and an
average of 5 lbs of grain. In the
endurance study the horses that failed to complete (n= only 4)
had a tendency (p<.06) to be fed more grain and less hay than
the ones which completed (n=50). Only 13 of the endurance horses were fed
only alfalfa, and if memory serves me right, most of those were
from (surprise) California. The number of puls was so low,
however, that statistically it was hard to draw conclusions regarding
protein, but the conclusion was made that feeding more than average
protein did not confer any benefit. Reference for those interested in the details
Ralston, SL: Nutritional Management of Horses competing in 160 KM races
Cornell Vet 78:53-61, 1888.

In the three day horses (92 horss total, 18 of which were pulled
for metabolic reasons, so a much better # to compare),
48% of the competitors fed no alfaalfa, jualfa just
plain old grass hay. Only 8.8% of the horses were on alfalfa only.
They did tend to be fed more grain than the endurance horses (9.5 lbs/day)
or 35% of the tota ration but again there was a correlation with high grain/low
forage intake and metabolic failure. When I compared horses fed >16% protein
rations to those on !4% or lower, the high protein horses that actually
completed the endurance phase had higher
respiration rates and slower heart rate recoveries than the low protein
fed horses. They also had a significantly higher rate of metabolic failure.
A very brief abstract of this work was published inAndrew Clarke and Leo
Jeffcott's book: On to Atlanta '96, published in 1995 by the Equine research
Centre at Guelph. I highly reco0mmend it to those looking for
recent, practical research on high level Performance horses - a lot
of good research is presented in the book.

I'm getting as long winded as Susan-maybe it's the nutritionist training where
NOTHING is ever simple or straight forward!

Back to lurking and letting Susan answer the questions

Sarah Ralston, VMD, PhD
Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Nutrition
Associate professor
Department of Animal Science
Cook College, Rutgers University
Ralston@aesop.rutgers.edu

And proud owneto be owned by Charlie-28 years young
and still chasing the girls around the pasture, Charlie's
Last Fling, his 10 year daughter who has finally decided she likes this
competitive trail riding stuff, and Misty, the
pony of unknown age aquired to keep poor
Charlie company while Fling and Mom are off
on training rides or competitions....

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