Nutrition and Recovery for Eventing (and Other Hard-Working) Horses

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Restoring muscle glycogen, rehydrating, and ensuring a horse’s diet offers enough vitamin E all help with recovery after strenuous exercise.

By Clair Thunes, PhD | Apr 30, 2018

Q. I am an avid event rider and enjoyed watching the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event this past weekend. What kinds of nutritional support can you give horses competing in this level of competition to help them recover?

A. This is a great question. Any post-competition recovery effort starts with the base diet, which meet the horse’s daily requirements leading up to the competition. No long-term deficiency is going to get fixed in the short period during competition, so a balanced diet appropriate for the horse’s discipline and work level is crucial.

Part of that is ensuring the horse is getting the right kind of fuel to support the type of work that he’s asked to do. Event horses won’t only be utilizing stored carbohydrate on cross-country day but hopefully their reserves of fat stores, as well. Cross-country efforts will deplete glycogen stores (stored carbohydrates) in the horse’s muscles. The horse will need glycogen again for the show jumping phase, so restoring those stores is an important component of recovery...

Read more here:
https://thehorse.com/157545/nutrition-and-recovery-for-eventing-and-other-hard-working-horses/