After a long and busy season, fit competition horses especially those still living out, may need extra condition before the winter well and truly arrives! Rapidly decreasing temperatures at night and ever diminishing amounts of grass have resulted in many calls to our feed help line asking for advice on suitable conditioning diets.

At this point I should mention the importance of regularly weight taping and condition scoring horses. Learning how to condition score accurately should form the foundation of any equine management programme. Regularly weighing and condition scoring your horse not only helps you to calculate his daily feed requirements, but accurate assessment of his weight will also enable you to administer proper doses of wormers and other medications. Keeping track of your horse's weight and condition can also help you to identify potential health issues before they become a problem.

In order to put condition on a horse you need to increase his intake of digestible energy to provide more than that required to keep warm, active and maintain body condition. Horses loose large amounts of heat from their bodies, which is 'wasted' energy. When it is cold, wet and windy horses feed requirements may increase by up to 40% so if your horse has a tendency to drop off condition quickly or you currently wish to improve it then it is worth providing a lightweight rug at night. Older horses are particularly susceptible to drops in temperature. The table below illustrates the increased energy requirements of horses in inclement weather versus the normal horse.

Table 1. Effects of wind and rain on digestible energy requirements for horses at maintenance.*

AVERAGE TEMPERATURE	WIND / RAIN	ADDITIONAL MJ / DAY	ADDITIONAL HAY
32F	10-15 mph wind	16-33 MJ / day	4-8 lb / day
32F	Rain	25 MJ / day	6 lb / day
32F	Rain and wind	41-58 MJ / day**	10-14 lb / day

* Adapted from Anderson, 2003.
** May not be able to consume enough hay to meet requirements.

Initially we recommend offering ad-libitum forage to horses requiring extra condition. Not only does forage satisfy the horses natural desire to trickle feed and chew but it is essential to maintain a healthy digestive system. Forage should form the foundation of every horses diet. Fibre, provided in forage, is fermented in the horse's hind gut by millions of micro flora and the health of these micro flora and ultimately the health of the horse is dependent upon the quality and the type of diet that the horse is eating. Feeding plenty of good quality forage e.g. hay or haylage will help the micro flora to flourish and increase the prospect of the horse gaining and maintaining optimum condition. The process of fermentation also generates plenty of heat so feeding forage also provides the horse with his own internal central heating system. In this respect forage is a heating feed!

If you choose to feed haylage, as a general rule you will need to feed more haylage than hay on a weight for weight basis. This is because haylage contains more water than hay so, to ensure adequate fibre intake you will need to feed plenty of it! The majority of haylage products are hygienically better than hay and also provide more digestible energy, which means that you will need to supply less concentrate feed. Check with a nutritionist if you are unsure about quantities.

There may be instances when forage alone is not enough to maintain healthy levels of micro flora and it may be necessary to use a yeast such as Saracen Yea-Sacc and / or a pre or probiotic, particularly during times of stress bought on by travelling, recovery from intense competition or changes from summer feeding to winter feeding routines. Yeasts and probiotics may be added to existing diets as a supplement or provided as part of a commercially formulated feed such as Saracen Bio-Life 2000.

A specific conditioning feed is required when:
Forage alone is not sufficient to maintain body condition Increasing the quantity of the feed may compromise digestive function and it becomes expensive! (A horse should not receive more than 2.0 Kg of concentrate feed in any one meal)
More energy is required for the work undertaken.

Saracen Show Improver Mix & Pencils are conditioning feeds specifically formulated to increase weight and consequently will have a higher digestible energy value than a typical maintenance feed or cooling mix (13.0 MJ DE / Kg rather than 10 MJ DE / Kg). When choosing a conditioning feed you need to consider how much time the horse will be spending in his stable, his temperament and how much work you intend to do with him through the winter months. Some conditioning feeds contain large amounts of micronised cereals and lower fibre and oil levels. These are usually extremely effective at putting on weight but the fast release energy that they provide may not be suitable for those horses that are naturally excitable, in light work or stabled for most of the time. Saracen Show Improver has higher than average fibre and oil levels and the addition of Equi-Jewel providing energy in a slow release from and lots of calories for weightgain . In addition 35% of the barley content has been extruded to increase its digestibility and avoid excitability.

If you have a horse that has a tendency to become 'fizzy' when fed cereals, look for a conditioning feed that is still high in digestible energy, but low in starch. These feeds provide the energy by incorporating ingredients such as sugar beet, alfalfa, and Soya hulls and also have a higher oil level. The way in which these feeds are digested means that the release of energy is slow and this will help to manage excitable temperaments, such as Saracen Show Improver Pencils which are uniquely barley free.

Soaked sugar beet is also a good energy source for horses during the winter. The energy comes from digestible fibre and sucrose, so is released slowly. Sugar beet contains almost the same amount of digestible energy as oats on a weight for weight basis but does not turn the horse in to an un-rideable monster! Soaked sugar beet is also good to help re-hydrate horses. A change from summer to winter feeding routines will mean an increase in the horses dry matter intake, so to prevent impaction colic's etc the horses water intake needs to be maintained.

Oil is an excellent way of providing the additional calories required for improving condition without actually increasing the horse's meal size. Oil is also a 'cool' source of energy and up to a quarter of a pint may be fed per day. However, because of the way in which oil is digested and metabolised it increases the number of free radicals that are produced in the body. Free radicals can damage healthy living cells. To protect the cells from oxidative damage antioxidants such as vitamin E must also be included in the diet when adding extra oil.

There are now high fat supplements available, which simultaneously take care of the increased requirement for extra vitamin E. An example is Equi-Jewel, stabilized and balanced rice bran from Kentucky Equine Research. It is a nutritious feedstuff for horses and can contribute fat, fibre, minerals and vitamins to the diet of any horse. The addition of Equi-Jewel to a ration can eliminate the risk of laminitis, colic, diarrhoea and exertional myopathies often associated with excessive concentrate intake and minimal forage intake. To increase condition Equi Jewel would need to be fed at a rate of one to two pounds per day.

Conditioning also comes from providing sources of quality protein and ensuring correct trace element supplementation, so always check you are feeding at the manufacturers recommended feeding levels and if you are unsure simply telephone our feed help line or take advantage of our FeedCheck service. A nutritionist will be happy to advise you on a suitable feeding plan.