Feeding While Traveling by Horseback: It’s All About Balance

Christa describes equine nutrition challenges during her cross-country trip on horseback from Paris to Florence.

Posted by Christa Lesté-Lasserre, MA | Nov 4, 2022 | Article, Body Condition, Commentary, Horse Care, Nutrition, Welfare and Industry

But the reality is that scenario requires a good combination of all the right criteria: an ample availability of nutritious, nontoxic grass and other forage, good basic gastrointestinal and metabolic health, and good starting body condition. It also helps to have relatively easy keepers.

That's not our case. I’ve got two 17-hand Warmbloods that can go through a barn full of hay and still hover just below where I want their body condition score to be. Sabrina has metabolic issues that cause insulin dysregulation from time to time. And both horses became slightly underweight after the drought this summer in Europe and some management issues at their boarding facility.

To get the best feeding advice possible, I turned to two experts: Shannon Pratt-Phillips, PhD, a professor of equine nutrition at North Carolina State University's Department of Animal Science, in Raleigh, and Emanuela Valle, DVM, PhD, ECVCN, head of the clinical nutrition counseling group in the University of Turin's Department of Veterinary Science, in Italy.

Both nutritionists carried out incredibly thorough initial evaluations of Sabrina and Solstice over Zoom video calls. They paid close attention to their body condition from all angles and asked for a series of body measurements: girth line, belly, neck crest, shoulder-to-hip line, and height. They also asked for videos of the horses eating, so they could evaluate the way they selected and chewed their food. Finally, the nutritionists ordered blood chemistry profiles and took a close look at the results, mostly to assess liver and kidney function.

Pratt-Philips and Valle agreed that a forage-only diet, with a balancer, was our goal. This approach is not only better for the horses’ health and welfare but also much more convenient to carry on a horse-powered trip. Solstice and Sabrina would only need a small amount of balancer a day each if the forage was high-quality and their body condition good.

We all agreed, however, that the horses weren't ready to forego concentrated feeds just yet. They needed extra calories to put weight on, as well as protein and amino acids to rebuild their muscle after the summer break and drought. They said it was perfectly fine to start low-level travel work (about 10 miles a day), provided I had a way to transport bags of feed.

And not just any feed. Sabrina's metabolic issues meant finding a calorie-rich, low-sugar feed. Ideally, it should provide about 10 to 12% protein, with high fiber and high fat content, Pratt-Phillips said—which isn't easy to find. A few brands offer such a product, but they’re available only by special order. I was surprised to discover how difficult it was to acquire this type of feed, given the number of working and performance horses that battle insulin dysregulation. But I finally managed to get a product that satisfied the nutritionists’ requirements.

Because the horses’ bloodwork also showed high creatinine—suggesting they’d sustained some muscle damage over the summer—Julie Guedj, DVM, at Bailly Equine Veterinarian Clinic, in Bailly-Romainvilliers, France, ordered them a daily selenium and vitamin E supplement. It came in a 5-pound tub that I divided into two bags for transport. Even so, it's important to avoid oversupplementing selenium, so I must take into consideration the amount of selenium and vitamin E already present in the concentrated feed when I measure and administer the product, Valle said.

Here's some of the great nutritional advice I received from Pratt-Phillips and Valle:

Guedj, Pratt-Philips, and Valle have all asked for regular updates on the horses’ body condition and fitness to see if we need to adjust their nutritional requirements and work capacity. I’ll send them side and hind view photos and take new measurements.

If I could have handpicked the perfect trail horses for my journey, I would have had easy keepers with stomachs that can handle anything.

But that wasn't the point of this trip. We’re traveling together as a team because we’re already a team, with all our strengths and weaknesses. That might mean it's more complicated to get a healthy nutrition and work balance, managing feed bag orders and taking longer breaks as needed, but that's fine. As long as the horses are happy and enjoying the trip, it’ll be worth it.