The Effect Of Dietary Energy Source On Exercise Performance In Standardbred Horses

Pagan, J.D., B. Essen-Gustavsson, A. Lindholm and J. Thornton. 1986. The effect of dietary energy source on exercise performance in Standardbred horses. In: Equine Exercise Physiology 2. Gillespie, J.R., and Robinson, N.G. (eds.) ICEEP Publications, Davis, CA. pp. 686-700.

Three Standardbred horses were used in a 3×3 Latin square design trial to determine the effect of feeding diets containing different levels of carbohydrate, fat, and protein to exercise horses. Muscle and live glycogen concentrations were significantly lower after the long slow exercise test when the horses were fed high protein and high fat than fed the commercial sweet feed diet. Type of diet affected the glycogen stores and metabolic response to exercise. Horses fed the high protein and high fat diets appeared to respond similarly.