Nutrition is a fundamental part of your horse’s health, wellbeing and performance. In this new series, we discuss the components of correct nutrition to help you formulate a healthy, well-balanced diet for your performance horse or pony.
In Part 1, we examined two of the most commonly overlooked ingredients that are vital to sustaining performance – vitamins and minerals. In Part 2, we turned our attention to the importance of fibre. Now, we discuss feeding fats.
Feeding fats, usually in the form of oils, is becoming more commonplace for both pleasure and performance horses. Fats are an excellent source of calories
(energy). They are also a better alternative for improving body condition and oxidative capacity, without increasing excitability.
But, what exactly is fat? And, what fats are fed to horses?
Fats
Also called lipids, the fats consumed by horses are known as triglycerides, which consist of three fatty acid molecules attached to a glycerol molecule.
Due to their chemistry, fats are either saturated or unsaturated, with unsaturated fats being the healthier choice for horses.
- Saturated fat: Contains no double bonds in the fatty acid chains and are solid at room temperature, such as lard.
- Unsaturated fat: Contains double bonds in the fatty acid chains and are liquid at room temperature, such as oil.
It is within unsaturated fats that we find the essential fatty acids omega 3 and omega 6.
Unsaturated oils are the preferred method of supplying fat to horses for energy, body condition and performance, with common vegetable oils, such as corn,
soybean, canola and rice often used. These oils are highly digestible – up to 95% or more.
In addition, unsaturated oils, such as rice bran oil, offer 2.5 times more digestible energy than an equal weight of oats and 2.3 times more digestible
energy than an equal weight of corn, without putting your horse or pony at risk of colic or laminitis.
This means your performance horse or pony can be supplemented with just a small amount of unsaturated oil in their daily diet, which reduces the amount
of feed, and avoids the health and behavioural problems associated with high grain intake.
Inadequate Fats
Without a source of fat, your performance horse or pony may struggle to gain weight, maintain body condition and perform at their optimum.
There are many benefits to feeding fats, including:
- A safer option for weight gain – Fats allow you to decrease the amount of grain fed to your performance horse or pony, while promoting weight gain
and improved body condition. - A better option for energy – Fats have been shown to increase oxidative capacity and reduce fatigue in performance horses, allowing your horse or pony
to perform at their peak. - A sleeker, shinier coat – Fats also supply essential fatty acids to your horse or pony’s coat and skin, with the end result being a smooth, show-ready
shine.
Lastly, feeding fats is also beneficial for breeding horses, including lactating mares, and horses prone to tying up.
Running Cool Sport is a fully extruded, energy dense complete feed specifically formulated for
performance horses and ponies. It contains well balanced amounts of high quality protein and energy perfectly suited to the workload placed on sport
horses.
At Running Cool, we genuinely care about your horse’s health and wellbeing. Our superior horse feed range supports your horse at every stage of life with well-balanced vitamins, minerals and protein for pleasure and performance.
Click here
to learn more.