The Best Time to Feed Your Horse Before Competition

One of the most common questions asked about feeding the performance horse is when to feed before a competition. Theoretically feeding should be timed so that all of the nutrients from a meal have been digested absorbed and stored before starting exercise but not so long before exercise that the horse begins to mobilize fuels just to maintain its resting body functions.
It is probably better to exercise horses eight hours after feeding rather than fasting them overnight since an overnight fast may disrupt digestive function and may lead to gastric ulceration.

To test this hypothesis Kentucky Equine Research KER conducted an exercise experiment. Six trained Thoroughbreds performed a standardized exercise test SET at three different times after eating a grainbased meal. The exercise was performed eight hours after eating three hours after eating or after an overnight fast. This SET carried out on the highspeed treadmill consisted of a twominute warmup walk onehalfmile trot onehalfmile slow gallop onemile fast gallop 25 miles per hour and cooldown trot and walk. Heart rate was monitored throughout exercise and blood samples were taken before feeding hourly until the beginning of the SET throughout exercise and 15 and 30 minutes post exercise. Blood was analyzed for glucose insulin and lactate.
Heart rate was higher at the slow gallop and during the cooldown trot when the horses were exercised three hours after feeding. Insulin was significantly higher in the threehourfed horses at the beginning and throughout exercise. Blood glucose was also higher after the threehour feeding at the beginning of exercise. During exercise however blood glucose dropped in the horses exercised three hours after eating while it increased in the horses fasted overnight or fed eight hours before work. Lactate increased with exercise but was unaffected by time of feeding.
The large drop in blood