New Insights Related to the Nutritional Management of Endurance Horses

Endurance races are very hard from a metabolic point of view. Today, most endurance rides ranges from 30 to 160 km, or 100 + 100 km to be run in two days, since 500 km to be run in 5 days (Duren, 2000; Sosa Leon, 1998).

Arabian horses, compared to Thoroughbreds, are better adapted to endurance work because of their superior oxidative capacity (Prince et al., 2001).

Endurance competitions are subjected to very strict veterinary control to spare the horse’s health. In a overview on 7117 starts on international races, only 50% of the subjects completed the ride, and 30% were eliminated: 63% because of lameness, 24% for metabolic reasons and 13% for other causes (Burger and Dollinger, 1998). Metabolic troubles causes then the elimination of 7.2% of horses starting in international races, but some other are retired for the same reasons between two veterinary gates during the race, and some others have troubles after the final veterinary examination.

For this reason, the correct metabolic management of the endurance horse is of the utmost importance; moreover, for these races, lasting more than 1 to 11 hours (and more), there is a huge possibility, for correct feeding and nutrition, to influence the performance. [...]