The role of Vitamin E in the Endurance Horse.
Endurance horses have a required need for fast recoveries, good body condition and overall health due to the specific demands of the sport. In order to achieve this, we as owners and riders need to stringently evaluate the horse diet and consider whether or not the horse's dietary needs are being correctly met.
One of these dietary needs is Vitamin E. Vitamin E is responsible for several functions in the mature working horse. (I won't address growing horses in this- that is another topic for another day)
For the mature working horse, Vitamin E works as an antioxidant, which is important in protecting tissues and cells from being degraded by free radicals. A horse with insufficient stores of Vitamin E can suffer from muscle soreness/stiffness after a bout of intense exercise - this speaks directly to endurance horse to me!
Where do horses get Vitamin E from?
Pasture can provide the idle horse with sufficient amounts of Vitamin E, however more strenous exercise may require additional supplementation. When grasses dried and baled(hay/winter) Vitamin E is lost - therefore for the stall kept horse, or pasture kept horse over wintering may also require 'help' in this area during those times when fresh forage is unavailable or less than prime condition.
What is Vitamin E?
Vitamin E is a group of substances, two of which are --alpha-tocopherol and gamma-tocopherol. These two contain the anti-oxidant properties that are required in the horse. The Alpha - is the most active (biological) and most common type found in the horse's body.
Commercial 'stable' sources of Vitamin E have been a challenge for equine nutritionists to develop - as in order to make alpha tocopherol stable enough for use,(in feeds) by chemical transition it becomes dl-alpha tocopherol acetate.
Supplementing with a synthetic form of Vitamin E is possible, however it is less effective in providing plasma tocopherol. Because of the lower cost, this is the type of Vitamin E most commonly added to feeds - even though it is extremely limited in bio-availability. Therefore a feed can say it contains Vitamin E - but which one?
I find at this point, it's much easier to get on the horn with your feed manufacturer and ask specifically in order to get the right answer.
KER did a study on the differences in synthetic Vitamin E, vs feeding natural Vitamin E.
The horses fed the natural supplement (natural sourced ) increased the baseline plasma by 56%, compared to the study group that were being fed the synthetic.
So that begs the question, finding the difference , where to get the right Vitamin E? As far as I can tell, that my friends is between you and your feed company!
A quick search of google reveals Smart Pak for has a natural source available, as well as a select few others. I'm sure there are more.
Showing posts with label supplements for the endurance horse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label supplements for the endurance horse. Show all posts
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Feed to Succeed:Supplements for the Endurance Horse
I adore the Kentucky Equine Research Institute. Yesterday I attended a webinar by Dr. Kathleen Crandell, discussing the 10 major concepts of feeding the performance horse. I also had to admire her patience, as storms were causing her some (most likely) truly annoying technical difficulties. I'd still like to thank her for donating her time !
For many years, I found I'd settle down to read about nutritional information in regards to feeding performance horses and zzzzzz. I have known the basics for years, but reading page after page of what THIS supplement can do for your horse- just made me want to cry, along with the overpowering headache I would achieve.
Now that I'm older, and hopefully have a longer attention span, I find I can march through a bit more of it at a time, and then.. yep.. zzzzzz
So I cheat now. Between KER and MSU's eXtension portal - and their research papers/webinars and podcasts- there is a veritable mountain of information available.
Given the unique demands of our sport, and the need to maintain our horses in top physical condition - it certainly behooves us as both horse owners and competitors to take full advantage of the valuable information so willingly given out by these institutions.
Which brings me to my post (finally you all say)
KER:
Feed to Succeed: Supplements to Help the Endurance Horse
The endurance horse is unique among all other equine athletes. Because of the prolonged demands placed upon the endurance horse with protracted moderate intensity exertion, its performance may be influenced quickly by the quality of its diet. A simple diet of hay and oats may lack essential nutrients that allow the horse to perform as expected. Understanding how competition affects the nutrient needs of the horse will help the owner select the appropriate supplementation program for the individual endurance horse.
Improving the diet
Approximately 80 to 90% of the feed eaten by horses is used to satisfy their energy requirements. Horses, like people, utilize energy to run most of the chemical reactions within the body, particularly to fuel muscle contractions vital to the work effort. As such, any horse diet should focus on providing adequate energy (calories). The major source of that energy is dietary carbohydrates (grass, hay, grain, molasses, etc.) Because the amount of energy available from forage alone can be a limiting factor for performance, grain is often added to increase the energy density of a diet.
Dietary fat is another source of energy readily employed by the horse for calories. Fat contains roughly 2.25 as much energy as an equal weight of carbohydrate, so less is needed to fuel body processes. Dietary fat has been scientifically proven to be advantageous to the performance of horses undergoing prolonged bouts of exercise. More Here...
For many years, I found I'd settle down to read about nutritional information in regards to feeding performance horses and zzzzzz. I have known the basics for years, but reading page after page of what THIS supplement can do for your horse- just made me want to cry, along with the overpowering headache I would achieve.
Now that I'm older, and hopefully have a longer attention span, I find I can march through a bit more of it at a time, and then.. yep.. zzzzzz
So I cheat now. Between KER and MSU's eXtension portal - and their research papers/webinars and podcasts- there is a veritable mountain of information available.
Given the unique demands of our sport, and the need to maintain our horses in top physical condition - it certainly behooves us as both horse owners and competitors to take full advantage of the valuable information so willingly given out by these institutions.
Which brings me to my post (finally you all say)
KER:
Feed to Succeed: Supplements to Help the Endurance Horse
The endurance horse is unique among all other equine athletes. Because of the prolonged demands placed upon the endurance horse with protracted moderate intensity exertion, its performance may be influenced quickly by the quality of its diet. A simple diet of hay and oats may lack essential nutrients that allow the horse to perform as expected. Understanding how competition affects the nutrient needs of the horse will help the owner select the appropriate supplementation program for the individual endurance horse.
Improving the diet
Approximately 80 to 90% of the feed eaten by horses is used to satisfy their energy requirements. Horses, like people, utilize energy to run most of the chemical reactions within the body, particularly to fuel muscle contractions vital to the work effort. As such, any horse diet should focus on providing adequate energy (calories). The major source of that energy is dietary carbohydrates (grass, hay, grain, molasses, etc.) Because the amount of energy available from forage alone can be a limiting factor for performance, grain is often added to increase the energy density of a diet.
Dietary fat is another source of energy readily employed by the horse for calories. Fat contains roughly 2.25 as much energy as an equal weight of carbohydrate, so less is needed to fuel body processes. Dietary fat has been scientifically proven to be advantageous to the performance of horses undergoing prolonged bouts of exercise. More Here...
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