Feeding for Show Ring Success

There is no single secret formula for show ring success, as several factors are involved in getting you and your horse to look right on the important day. Feeding is a crucial part of having your horse look its best in the ring. This article summarises a number of ways for you to increase your chance of winning a blue ribbon.

Show horses should present an image of polished athleticism complete with shiny coats, dapples, and appropriate muscling for the job at hand. However, the temptation to pour calories into these horses must be balanced with their individual nutritional and performance requirements in order to present a pleasant picture and demeanour in the ring.

A horse that is willing to work and is unfazed by the competition atmosphere at shows is created through careful preparation at home. Nutrition plays a vital part in getting the ideal performance from your equine athlete. Equine nervousness problems reported by many show riders can be related to overfeeding and underworking the horse, so don’t be afraid to feed grain or sweet feeds containing grain, provided you get the right balance between work and feed. Horses need work and high-quality feed to develop muscles, and show horses need to be well muscled and have some fat cover.

In the past, many show horses were fed large quantities of bran and pollard with lots of powdered supplements, but these practices have some drawbacks, and there are safer, better ways of conditioning a horse today.

Good doers often have much of their energy needs met by high-quality forage alone, fed at a minimum of 1.5% of the horse’s bodyweight. Rather than a low intake of a “full feed”, these horses should be fed a well-formulated balancer pellet such as KER All Phase to provide essential nutrients.

Show horses that do require a high-energy feed to maintain condition might become excitable if they are fed regular, oat-based high-energy feeds used to feed hard-working performance horses. Use a combination of energy sources, looking specifically at fermentable super fibres and fat, such as Barastoc Cool Command, for these animals. Lower starch or low-glycaemic feeds such as Barastoc Calm Performeror KER Low GI Cube are also good options for adding condition, without the resulting behavioural “fizz.”

A high-fat diet is a safe way of rapidly conditioning your horse and you can use oil, sunflower seeds, or stabilised rice bran. Depending on the fat content of the base feed, a minimum of a cup of oil or oil equivalent should be fed per day, and can feed up to three cups per day. If a lot of oil is fed, some horses may refuse feed or develop loose manure, so the other products may be more useful.

While adding fat to a horse’s diet helps develop a shiny coat in your show horse, supplementing amino acids and minerals, such as Barastoc Groom, can add to the health of the skin and richness of the coat and get those dapples out on show early in the season.

It is vital to remember dental care and parasite control so your horse gets the most out of its feed. It’s no use spending a lot on fancy feed if the horse can’t chew effectively or carries a heavy parasite infestation. And don’t forget the work–your horse needs muscle as well as fat cover. Conditioning show horses requires a combination of balanced nutrition, fitness, and dedication to ensure excellence in the show ring. In addition to a carefully balanced diet, preparation of the coat, hooves, and topline is vital if the horse is to stand out in the ring.