Guest blog
Bart van Heesbeen: 'Horses perform better when you feed naturally'
Bart van Heesbeen is a showjumper, trainer, instructor and nutrition expert. He knows par excellence what good nutrition does to a sport horse and what does and especially does not work. He regularly visits sport horse owners to give advice and has a holistic view of horses, feeding, health and performance.
"When I worked as a professional competition rider, I often felt there was a lot going on with my horses. I often wondered, "Why don't they perform the way I think they can? What's holding them back, what's the matter when they throw off five jumping poles when they feel careful enough?" That's why I started looking for solutions. In that search I came across good roughage and started to focus on roughage products that can help horses further."
Knowledge about roughage
"For me, it's all about the health of the horse, viewed from a broader perspective. My goal is to look holistically at horses, training and nutrition. I am involved in training horses, instruction, advising horse owners and stable owners and co-developing a new roughage product. In addition, I am a dealer of a number of healthy horse feed brands. In the past year I have done the epigenetic and orthomolecular consultant training at Natascha Bos of Blauwe Hengst. If you start with the basics and look closely at nutrition, it is often not necessary to use all kinds of therapies or supplements in case of problems with your horse. I have experienced so many things with horses trying to get them healthy and in top form and I would like to save other people going through the same thing.
Feeding sport horses: roughage, variety and protein
Bart continues: "In principle, a sport horse does not differ from a recreational horse in terms of digestion. You want to have the 'mouth to butt' system right. That means you should start with unpackaged hay ( so no haylage ) supplemented with a good mineral and vitamin balancer. It is best to give roughage in many small portions, a total of 2 kg of dry matter per 100 kilos of body weight of the horse per day. A horse should not stand without roughage for more than four hours, not even at night. Slowfeeders and hay nets are in many cases good options when you can not always be with the horse. A sport horse often has a somewhat higher protein requirement, but proteins can only be added when the digestion is in order. Otherwise, the proteins mainly form a burden on the system. They are not absorbed and they give a rather negative effect in the intestines. Good products for this are, for example, Agrobs Myo Protein flakes, Esparcette or Alfalfa from Metazoa." Bart advises variation: "When feeding your horse, try to vary and alternate regularly. Proteins are often a valuable addition for sport horses. From the digestion of crude cellulose, a horse produces short-chain fatty acids itself. When a horse has little energy, simply adding fats is certainly not always the solution."
Poor management leads to stress and poor performance
Bart regularly sees stress in the (sports) horses he encounters. "Not only food, but also the rest of the management plays a role. Nutrition is the basis of everything, but mental nutrition is also an important aspect. It used to be common for sport horses to be in the stables 24/7 and only come out to work or go into the treadmill. But the genes of our current horses are no different from those of horses that used to live in the wild. Those genes are still there, but we have changed so much in the last century in keeping horses that it no longer matches. The result of this non-natural horse farming and nutrition is that you actually see weaker and weaker horses arise. It gets so far removed from nature that you get new problems. For example, horses that develop PPID (Cushing) at the age of eight to nine, which I have encountered in recent years. We have also seen crazy things in the ring lately, sport horses that die on the spot from (multi) organ failure, for example. I think the message of our time is that we need to look more at the horse and its nature. Horses indicate everything, but you have to (want to) see it."
Always get back to basics first
"It is often a big puzzle and it always starts with the basics: feeding unpackaged hay and a balancer", Bart emphasizes. "Owners ask me for help for a variety of reasons. Sometimes people are a bit stuck in their beliefs, but everyone wants the best for their horse. Then the question is also what people are willing to change. In any case, the roughage must first be in order. Next, I usually recommend just starting with a balancer, with no further concentrates or supplements. This way the horse can restore its natural balance. If there are specific problems with, for example, the manure, skin or muscles, you can specifically supplement with supplements. In principle, it is wise to give your horse six weeks to restore the balance in his digestion. After that, you often only know whether you need more than just roughage and a balancer."
Cereals are not necessary for sport horses
"People are often a bit hesitant to go off their familiar concentrates, because they think that a horse still needs grains. That is not the case, cereals are not natural horse feed. People also often think that their sport horses needs concentrates for the energy. But if you feed naturally, without concentrates with all those grains and sugars, then your horse will save energy. This energy saving occurs when all systems are in balance. Then your horse loses less energy to his daily life. Too much sugar causes imbalance and mini-inflammation in the intestines. Therefore, the immune system is continuously active to reverse the negative effects of inflammatory reactions in the intestines. Phytic acid from cereals also counteracts the absorption of minerals. In addition, stress also costs a lot of energy, so that also makes the general management important for the energy level of a horse."
Enough energy for your sport horse
How does a sport horse without concentrates still get enough energy? Bart: "The energy comes from the aerobic combustion that is set in motion by feeding a horse fibers. This combustion gives 18 times as much energy as the combustion of fast sugars from cereals and starch. But it's a different kind of energy, slower and peaking. Horses that get their energy mainly from roughage are therefore often more relaxed in the head. When switching from a ration of cereals and haylage to unpackaged hay with a balancer, horses sometimes have an energy dip in the beginning. Often that just takes time, with a few weeks that gets better. Incidentally, I mainly come to sport horses who are warmblood horses. In addition, you often do not see that transition at all, these horses are rather more pleasant to deal with. You can really do sports without grains and without conventional concentrates.".
Practical solutions
Bart likes to think in terms of solutions: "Even for vague complaints, muscle problems, a horse that is introvert or has a bad resistance, you must first have the basics in order. Dont only look at the feed, but also at the rest of the conditions. Does the horse get turned out enough, can he show social behavior? Often there are practical reasons why people do not have an optimal feed policy. What you can do is add some extra variation to the roughage instead of giving more concentrate. As long as the digestion is not in order, a supplement for the hooves, for example, will not be beneficial. A nice new roughage product is Fytalgras Primus. It contains hay, sun-dried alfalfa, grass chunk, chopped barley straw, olive oil, linseed oil and Celtic sea salt. For many people at yards, this can be a nice addition, because it is also an extra hour of chewing for the horse", Bart concludes.
Source: askheltie.com