waiting for 1 hour to feed before and after exercising the horse

Question
NOTE: i am frightened that you may be fed up reading my question. this is the last question for today. please read it carefully and answer me thoroughly. please!!

hello, why should i wait for 1 hour for feeding before and after i exercise the horse, i mean ride the horse.
for example, my uncle, a racehorse trainer used to feed his horses at 4am early in the morning lightly. and then after one hour and then start riding the horses at 5am or 5:15am. and after exercising the horses, lets suppose at 6am, he used to cool off the horse till 6:30am, and then wait for 1 more hour and then feed the horse at 7:30am. i can understand that, before taking horses for exercise, they need some stamina, so we would obviously feed them lightly, and in order for digestion to take place properly, we would wait for 1 hour and then take for work. what about waiting for 1 more hour to feed after work? i really dont understand. give me the reason please!!

Answer
Hi Rohit,

I'm not fed up with your questions, and am very understanding of your quest for knowledge.  You have the right concept of not feeding your horse right before exercise as it can increase the rate of passage, cut down on the effectiveness of the digestive process and set the horse up for digestive upset.  The benefits of waiting for the horse to cool down after exercise before feeding grain can be for some of the same reasons.  You will want the digestive system to slow down again after exercise, it may be of benefit to allow blood circulation to slow down a bit allowing the efficient transport of nutrients through the blood stream, and this interval will allow the horse to rehydrate sufficiently to allow proper digestion and metabolism of feedstuffs.

Thanks, Corlena