More Energy

Question
I am leasing (and probally buying) a draft paint cross mare. She is six and still really spooky so we can't take her out on the trail that often to do hill work. I am the first to ride her in a while and she is almost completely back in shape. But, the problem is that she thinks she is supposed to work a full day but at a slower pace. We are trying to get her  to learn that she needs to work with ore energy but only for about an hour. With the summer I am concerned I will have a bigger problem on my hands. We are thinking about giving her an iron supplement and she is on a diet but it dosent seem to be enough. Any suggestions?

Answer
Hi Rebecca,

Thank you for your question is certainly is an interesting one.  

Although an iron supplement is not a bad idea, you may not find that it helps your problem.  It is true that horses can become lethargic when they are anemic (have a low red blood cell count) and that can be remedied by increasing iron intake...sometimes.  But the chances that anemia is not the root of your problem right now.

A horse's muscle cell burns energy under two different pathways...the aerobic pathway when oxygen is still being supplied to the muscle and the anaerobic pathway when a horse is working hard/fast and not enough oxygen is making it to the cell.  During the early (aerobic) phase, the muscle can use both fat and glucose as a fuel source to make muscle work.  But, as work goes on longer and harder, the muscle is no longer receiving oxygen and at that point the muscle can only use glucose as an energy source.  Fat is a clean burning fuel source (and brings more energy) but is only used part of the time...or for horses that don't work that hard.  Glucose can keep a horse going for longer into exercise and is essential for hard working horses.  The down size is that when glucose is burned it can cause by-products that are damaging to the cell.  Part of conditioning a horse is meant to increase the horse's capacity to supply oxygen to the muscle so that it works aerobically for longer.  When the muscle reaches the anaerobic phase but runs out of glucose...the muscle stops working.

So your approach to increasing your horse is two fold.  First you need to increase your horse's ability to supply oxygen to muscle...which is done through fitness (and of course increasing the red blood cell count by feeding iron will help this).  From a nutrition standpoint, you may need to look at ensuring a supply of energy to the muscle to keep it working.  Feeding some fat in the diet (from oilseeds or vegetable fat of some sort) will ensure an energy supply in the aerobic phase of work...and it will save glucose to be used during the anaerobic phase.  By supplying some (but not too much) glucose for those anaerobic phases you will help sustain your horse's ability to work longer.  Glucose will come from cereal grains like oats, corn or barley.  Please...if you choose to feed corn or barley ensure that it has been steam flaked or extruded otherwise it will create hind gut disorders.

The fact that your horse is on a diet could mean that your current ration is not bringing enough energy to the diet to help your horse work.  If you give me an idea of what you are feeding, how big (heavy) your horse is and how much work she does, I can give you a few pointers that will help.

Thanks, Corlena