Temperament is something that your horse is born with. It is part of his personality and cannot be changed by feeding or other methods! However, appropriate feeding can certainly help to manage your horse's temperament to help you get the most from his feeding programme and his performance. Certain feeds can exaggerate or dampen your horse's natural temperament.

For example, a naturally excitable horse, such as a Thoroughbred, can become more manageable on feeds that contain slow release energy. Slow release energy is provided by ingredients such as digestible fibres (e.g. sugar beet, soya hulls and alfalfa) or oil (e.g. soya oil, or fat supplements such as Equi Jewel). Excitable horses can also be more difficult to keep weight on, which makes high fibre and oil feeds an excellent choice.

A cob type is more likely to have a laid back and quiet temperament and may well be prone to weight gain, so to give him a little more sparkle, choose feeds containing fast release energy sources such as cereals (e.g. oats). Small amounts of fast release energy sources also make good ‘weight watcher' diets for horses already in optimum condition but prone to weight gain.

Remember feed cannot change your horse's natural temperament it only helps to manage it.