Comparative nutrition of middle and high-level sport horses in different countries of the EU (UK)

Abstract

Abstract: In this thesisI investigatedthe nutrition of middle to high-level sport horses in different countries within the EU.Three different disciplinesin particular were investigated: Show jumping, Dressage and Eventing.Numerous findings came to light as a result of my thesis and there are many questions that remain unanswered. It Is clear there are areas that need to undergo further research.I sent a survey composed of 33 questions to horse owners in seven different European countriesand got 136 responses. The owner was the most popular answer when askedwho made the nutritional decisions for the horse. There was little between yes and no when asked about weighing and determining the Body Condition Score (BCS) of the horse. Hay and Haylage were the two most popular sources of fibre and 84.4% stated that their horse has access to fresh pasture. 69% fed commercial concentrates to their horse and 79% used a scoop to measure the volume of concentrates given. 77% used nutritional supplements dailyand 57% used more than one supplement. Most people got their nutritional information from their feed supplier rep, followed by their Veterinarian and Nutritionist respectively. Only 27.6% measured the water intake of their horse. From the finding it is thegeneral consensus that nutrition was very important for the horses overall health and performance.