Feed Like the Pros: Best Nutrition for Easy Keepers

How are elite equestrians feeding their easy keepers to keep them at an ideal body condition for competition? The answer is on the feed tags and labels. In this blog series, “Feed Like the Pros,” we reveal expert advice on equine nutrition, including how to feed easy keepers and what ultra-premium ingredients to include in their diet.

Keep reading to learn the best nutrition for easy keepers or overweight horses, so you can feed them like the ProElite pros.

Body Condition Score

Before deciding an ideal diet for your horse, it is important to evaluate their Body Condition Score (BCS) and understand why your horse might be overweight or an easy keeper. The BCS scale ranges from 1-9 as follows:

• 1 / Poor
• 2 / Very Thin
• 3 / Thin
• 4 / Moderately Thin
• 5 / Moderate
• 6 / Moderate to Fleshy
• 7 / Fleshy
• 8 / Fat
• 9 / Extremely Fat

Ideal BCS should fall within the 4-6 range, and nutrition requirements will vary depending on why your horse needs to lose weight. Please consult a veterinarian if there are questions about your horse’s weight or if you have concerns about your horse’s Body Condition Score.

Best Nutrition for Easy Keepers or Overweight Horses

“To get the best output, you need the best nutritional input.” All horses require premium ingredients and reliable calorie sources to maintain an ideal body condition, even easy keepers. Just because a horse is overweight, doesn’t mean you can skip feeding them necessary nutrients. Instead, you have to find a way to feed them the required vitamins and minerals without the added calories. In addition to evaluating hay, it’s important to keep these few key feeding fundamentals in mind when feeding overweight horses:

• Fat: With lower calorie requirements, easy keepers don’t need a high-fat diet. Fat contains more than double the calories of carbohydrates and protein, so high-fat feeds can provide unnecessary calories. Many horse owners will look to a low-fat feed with 6% Fat or less or a Diet Balancer with a low feeding rate.
• Amino Acids: Diet Balancers are a great way to provide your horse amino acids without extra calories. Since amino acids are the building blocks of muscles, they are critical to filling out your horses’ topline. Horses naturally make enough non-essential amino acids, but they rely on their feeding program to provide the other essential amino acids. ProElite® Grass Advantage, ProElite® Alfalfa Advantage, and ProElite® Topline Advantage guarantee four of the most limiting amino acids: Lysine, Methionine, Threonine, and Tryptophan.
• Starch and Sugar: While starch and sugar offer a great source of energy for athletic horses and their muscle recovery, it is important to look for consistent and guaranteed levels on your feed tags. This is especially important for overweight horses who may consume higher quantities of feed or are experiencing metabolic concerns. Regulated NSC (Non-Structural Carbohydrates) will always be listed on the feed tag, so you can be confident in how much starch and sugar you are adding to your horse’s feed regimen. A low NSC feed like ProElite® Starch Wise can be a good option for easy keepers to manage carbohydrates effectively.

Choose the Winning Combo

Because of the low-calorie requirements for easy keepers and overweight horses, elite training programs and boarding barns trust the ProElite suite of premium products to provide the necessary nutrients without unnecessary calories. While there are many combinations of feed and supplements that can meet your horse’s caloric needs, here are some of ProElite feeds most popular choices for easy keepers.