Nutrition and fuel utilization in the athletic horse.

This research paper explores the impact of diet and nutrition on the performance of athletic horses, focusing on how muscle and liver glycogen depletion and product accumulation can lead to exercise fatigue. The paper further discusses how dietary changes can affect carbohydrate status and lactate accumulation, and the potential benefits of such changes for performance.

Study on Nutrition’s Impact on Horse Performance

The research primarily revolves around the exercise fatigue experienced by athletic horses. Two critical factors contributing to this fatigue are:

• Depletion of substrate, particularly muscle and liver glycogen.
• Accumulation of end products such as lactate and hydrogen ions which, in a high-intensity exercise regime, can cause a reduction in muscle pH and thereby inhibit maximum force generation.

The researchers suggest that dietary manipulations influencing carbohydrate status or lactate accumulation could potentially enhance a horse’s performance.

Dietary Manipulation Techniques

There are certain dietary practices, like carbohydrate loading and supplementation that have been seen to enhance endurance in human athletes during long-term exercise routines, but these methods have not been thoroughly explored in equine athletes. According to the study:

• Carbohydrate loading doesn’t improve the performance of horses in short-term intensive work.
• On the contrary, it might have a detrimental impact on short-term work if glycogen levels are low.

Adjusting Nutrient Requirements

Exercise significantly impacts nutrient requirements in horses, particularly energy requirements. The research suggests that horses in heavy training may need more energy than a conventional diet can provide. Some steps were studied to meet this requirement:

• Addition of fat to horse diets, usually between 6% to 12%, to increase energy density.
• A slight increase in protein requirement in working horses, although using protein supplementation to add calories is not efficient.
• Human studies indicate no benefits of vitamin supplementation above necessary levels. There are, however, no studies on horses to confirm this.

Areas of Future Research

The paper concludes by acknowledging that there are significant gaps in the research in this area. Much of the current information about fuel utilization in horses is extrapolated from studies on rats and humans. Critical areas like the timing of pre-event feeding and determining the ideal body composition for different types of equine athletes require further research for optimizing feeding practices.