Exercise

Oct 8
Expert Advice from Baileys Horse Feeds, Official Feed Partner to British Eventing 

To achieve weight loss, a change in diet should be accompanied by a suitable exercise regime to increase energy/calorie expenditure. Daily low to moderate intensity exercise will be more effective than light exercise only 3-4 times a week, however, any exercise programme needs to be realistic for the individual horse, with some exercise being better than none at all and a gradual increase in exercise being ideal.  

Both calorie/energy and nutrient (protein, vitamin and mineral) requirements increase with workload so, assuming a horse’s calorie intake is controlled, increasing workload will encourage internal energy stores (fat) to be burned. The diet can be adjusted, as workload increases, to ensure nutrient requirements are met, without supplying extra calories. 

Assessing workload 
Using a horse-riding tracking app, on your phone, will allow you keep a record of the exercise your horse is doing, each week, and help identify where the intensity or duration could be increased. You could even set a target to ride a certain number of miles each week or each month (within your horse’s physical capabilities).    

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Understanding Fatigue

Prioritising your horse, even the best-conditioned horses can experience fatigue

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Un-ridden options  
Options for a varied low-level exercise programme, for such horses, could include: 
  • Lunging 
  • Long-reining 
  • Walking (or jogging!) in-hand
  •  Leading from another horse  
  • Loose schooling  
  • Using a horse walker  
  • Horse agility 
  • Turnout  

Those on box rest 
Although this will probably mean that an increased exercise plan is not an option, you can still do your best to control your horse’s waistline. Follow the forage and feeding advice in the following sections so that, even if your horse doesn’t lose weight while on box rest, you can at least try to avoid excessive weight gain during this time. 

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