Your horse can’t tell you if it’s experiencing muscle soreness after intensive training, competition, or other physical activity. However, you might notice the horse’s stiffness during the next training session or see that your horse isn’t as enthusiastic as usual when turned out into the pasture. Nonetheless, to support optimal performance and recovery, it’s essential to help your horse prevent muscle soreness.   

Paying attention to (sport) horses’ health is important, not just in the short term, but also to ensure long-term well-being and performance. Since health is a crucial topic in equine sports, numerous scientific studies have been conducted to explore ways to support horses’ health. Consequently, many studies in particular focus on the stress and inflammatory responses, in other words, horse stiffness, triggered by exercise and training.

Muscles’ Response to Exercise

During exercise, small inflammations occur in the muscle tissue, and stress hormones are released. Inflammation is the body’s protective response to disruptions in tissue homeostasis, in other words, the process by which the body regulates the stable condition of the tissue. Nonetheless, this protective inflammatory response is necessary for adaptations resulting from training, such as muscle growth.

However, horses don’t produce new muscle cells through training. Instead, their existing muscle cells develop and strengthen in response to small inflammations caused by exercise. This process is called muscle hypertrophy. The opposite, atrophy, occurs when muscle mass decreases.

When training your horse, you want to support muscle growth while avoiding excessive inflammation. Too much inflammation can cause swelling, heat, pain, and reduced function, resulting in the familiar muscle pain. Moreover, prolonged or unresolved inflammation can even lead to unnecessary (muscle) cell damage. This is why it’s essential to support the right level of inflammation through proper nutrition.

Nutritional Support for Muscle Pain

Every horse requires a suitable and balanced diet. Fiber is the foundation of any equine diet including sport horses. Sufficient fiber is crucial for both horses’ physical and mental health. Therefore, every horse needs to receive an adequate amount of roughage in their ration. Nevertheless, energy derived from fiber is released slowly in comparison to grains making it vital for horses’ stamina.

In addition to slow-release energy, horses in training have increased needs for certain nutrients. For example, proteins which are are the building blocks of muscles, making them essential in a performance horse’s diet. In terms of feedstuff, lucerne is high in protein; thus, it can be added to the diet of a (sport) horse to meet the increased protein requirements. Nonetheless, electrolytes and vitamin E are also key nutrients that support muscle function in (sport) horses.

To reach a balanced diet and ensure that the levels and ratios of vitamins, minerals, and trace elements in your horse’s diet are correct, it’s best to feed a well-balanced, complete feed in the recommended amounts rather than mixing multiple feeds or supplements. It is possible to give additional feeds and supplements; however, the products should be chosen wisely. For example, to support a horse’s recovery, products like Hartog Digest can be added to the ration as it is a source of fiber, healthy proteins, and postbiotics. From which postbiotics have been shown to have immune-boosting and anti-inflammatory effects. Nonetheless, it is always best to consult with a professional before making any nutritional changes. If you are not sure what is best suited for your horse, you can fill in our free feeding advice form. 

Tips to Prevent Horse Stiffness

So what can you, as a horse owner, do to support your horse after exercise and prevent your horse’s stiffness? Here are some practical tips:

1. Feed a diet based on roughage to support both physical and mental health
2. Ensure clean drinking water is always available to your horse.
3. Add Hartog Digest as a source of postbiotics to strengthen the immune system and help manage inflammation
4. Provide a balanced diet with sufficient:

• • Proteins
  • Energy
  • Vitamins, minerals, and trace elements
  • Electrolytes

Not sure about your horse’s diet? Or do you need more personalized advice? We offer free feeding advice!