Feeding Practices in the Sport Horse Industry on the North Island of New Zealand

Abstract

Nutrition is an important component of equine performance and health, and with higher demands on performance, nutritional management intensifies. The aim of this study was to quantify feeding practices in New Zealand among the competitive sport horse population of the North Island through a cross sectional face-to-face survey. Data were collected from 4 shows in the lower North Island of New Zealand during spring in September / October 2010. Three disciplines were compared: dressage, show jumping and eventing, and a total of 192 surveys were completed. There was a significant effect of discipline on the body condition score (BCS): being greater in show jumpers (5.7) and dressage horses (5.8) compared to eventers (5.3; p=0.006). The average DE uptake through feeds provided by the owner was 62.0 MJ, and average DM was 5.92 kg. Dressage horses had a significantly higher uptake of DE (42,6 MJ) and DM (5.2 kg) through roughage than the other disciplines (show jumpers 32.4 MJ and 3.77 kg; eventers 29.4 MJ and 3.44 kg). The majority of horses were fed twice a day. Information obtained concerning pasture access identified that 70.1 % of horses were turned out 24 hours a day and the majority of owners (78 %) identified their pasture as mixed grass, generally considered to be of good (53%) or fair (29%) quality. Processed feeds were more commonly fed than unprocessed grains, and pellets were less popular than sweet feed / muesli style mixes. The most popular unprocessed feed was barley. Roughage was generally provided as chaff and/or hay. Most (85.6%) horses were fed oral supplements with a median of 3 different supplements per horse. The most popular supplements were electrolytes, mineral mixes, magnesium, joint supplements, salt and garlic. The feeding practices were relatively heterogeneous, caused by the wide variation in the base population and differences in uptake through pasture. This makes it difficult to assess the total daily uptake of this population, but it was possible to identify significant patterns in the feeding practices. To obtain more valuable information on the daily intake in future studies, the uptake through pasture should be included.