Owning an ex-racehorse can be both exciting and rewarding, but for the horse it can also be a time of major transition. The life of an ex-racehorse can be very different to the life they have had previously, and that includes their diet.
Here are some essential tips and guidance from Lisa Elliott, MSc of Equine Nutrition Solutions to ensure you get the balance right to support an ex-racehorse for future health, happiness and performance.
Forage First!
Horses have evolved to ingest a high-fibre, low starch diet through foraging of up to 18 hours a day. Horses are trickle feeders, who chew all day, with a continuous flow of forage passing through the stomach and into the hindgut where the fibre is digested by billions of hindgut microbes, through the process of fermentation.
The constant chewing of fibre produces saliva – a natural buffer to stomach acid helping to maintain normal acid levels throughout the digestive tract and prevent problems like ulcers. Additionally, a constant supply of fibre helps keep the hindgut microbes balanced, stable, and happy – this helps promote a healthier hindgut, and minimise digestive upset. Access to ad-lib forage so your horse is never without is ideal, to provide a source of energy for work and condition and to support optimum digestive health.
Supporting Digestive Health
Good digestive health is particularly important with an ex- racehorse. The diet of a racehorse in training can be very different from the forage-based diet horses should ideally receive. Consuming large amounts of concentrate feed whilst only being fed relatively small volumes of forage, can leave them prone to ulcers and other digestive health problems.
This means it’s important to ensure your ex-racehorse is returned to a high fibre diet as soon as possible. However, for the ex-racehorse coming straight off the track they not only have to transition to their new home life, but also to a completely different feeding routine. An ex-racehorse will need to be transitioned slowly to a higher forage diet, giving their gut microbes time to adjust and prevent digestive upset from sudden dietary change.
Research has shown that daily turnout at grass can help reduce the risk of ulcers, it’s important for an ex-racehorse to have access to grazing. This is something they may not have been used to so it’s important that the transition to grazing is done gradually to allow their hindgut microbes time to adjust fully.
You can further support optimum digestive health in your ex-racehorse by adding Coligone Powder or liquid to their diet. Containing a unique seaweed buffer and bicarbonate, Coligone helps to neutralise acid and support healthy acid levels throughout the stomach and digestive tract which is essential for ulcer prevention.
Additionally, Coligone Powder or Liquid can help provide digestive support in times of change. Due to its ability to buffer acid, Coligone helps mitigate the effects of dietary change by helping to maintain a healthier hindgut pH and more balanced microbiome, reducing the potential for digestive upset and helping to improve hindgut health.
Generous levels of yea-sacc are also included in Coligone Powder or Liquid which not only helps support and nurture beneficial hindgut microbes, but is scientifically proven to improve forage fermentation, so your horse can get the most out of their forage to support optimum health, condition and performance.
Getting the essentials right
All horses need a supply of essential vitamins, minerals and key amino acids to support health and condition, alongside good muscle development and healthy well-functioning hooves.
Feeding good quality forage alongside a high specification balancer or supplement like MultivtiPro, which supplies a full range of essential vitamins and minerals, alongside key amino acids, should help meet your ex-racehorse’s daily needs. Additionally, Coligone Powder and Liquid are packed with naturally occurring micronutrients which help support a healthy coat, bright eyes and optimum condition, whatever the work level.
Work Energy Balance
Basing your ex-racehorse’s diet on ad-lid forage alongside their essential micronutrients, means you can then add energy as needed and really tailor the diet to the level of work they are doing. However, it’s vital that you assess their work level accurately to ensure you are adding in the right levels of energy and other nutrients like protein, according to their work demands.
If your ex-racehorse is in regular work, Coligone Fibre Cubes are ideal to support condition and provide a source of slow-release energy. They are high in digestible fibre with 5% Coligone to enhance digestion, support hindgut microbes, help maintain healthy gastric acid levels, and promote calm behaviour, whilst supporting overall digestive health.
If your ex-racehorse is in harder work such as eventing and regularly competing, they may need additional support depending on their work demands and condition. Ex-Selenium Oil will not only provide an energy boost in the form of sustained energy but will also have the bonus of providing essential levels of Omega 3 fatty acids to support improved health and immunity in harder working horses.
Building a Healthy Hindgut
After a life in training, often consuming a diet which hasn’t fully supported their hindgut health, re-balancing and re-building a healthy hindgut microbe population in your ex-racehorse is important. The healthier your horse’s microbes the healthier your horse will be.
Research has indicated that the equine hindgut microbiome contains a diverse range of bacterial species. This diversity is associated with a healthy microbiome. A more diverse diet promotes a diverse microbiome, which in turn promotes a healthy hindgut. You can create more fibre diversity in your ex-racehorse’s diet by feeding a variety of forages along with mixed species hay or grazing. Coligone Fibre Cubes can also be fed alongside forage to both increase your horse’s fibre intake and create more fibre diversity in their diet to support better hindgut health.
Additionally, Coligone Powder and Liquid contain generous levels of key pro and pre-biotics, namely, scFOS, MOS and Yea-sacc to support beneficial hindgut microbes and further help build and maintain a healthy, balanced hindgut microbiome for optimal digestive health.
Optimising Fluid Balance
Fluid balance is essential for all horses, whatever level of work they are doing. Water is probably the most important but forgotten nutrient in the horse’s diet. The main electrolytes within a horse’s body are sodium and chloride, which together we all know as basic salt, and potassium, alongside smaller levels of calcium and magnesium. All of these need to remain at the correct levels alongside water to maintain optimal fluid balance and any loses through sweat following work need to be replaced.
Good quality forage, which is often high in potassium, and free access to salt will help replenish any loses, alongside access to fresh water, which your ex-racehorse should be allowed to drink freely after any work to restore optimal fluid balance.
Additionally, Coligone Healthy Licks provide an excellent source of free choice salt to help meet daily needs. The salt provided within Coligone Healthy Lick also has the bonus of supporting optimal digestive health, which is always beneficial for an ex-racehorse.
By considering the specific needs of an ex-racehorse and addressing this within their feeding and management routine, you can help maximise their transition from racing to riding, whilst supporting optimum health, well-being and performance, whatever the work they undertake.
