Feeding Polocrosse Horses
The popularity of competitive Polocrosse has resulted in traditional paddock training and feeding being replaced by stabling and hard feed diets during the polocrosse season. An adequate and balanced diet is essential to sustain exercise capacity for training and regular weekend carnival competition.
The diet must keep a horse in optimum condition and fitness for up to 8 months of training and on-going competition. The stress of regular competition and travelling over distances to compete must be taken into account when formulating the diet.
A well formulated home mixed ration provides the flexibility to meet each individual horse’s likes, dislikes and changing needs relative to training.
Nutritional requirements
In training, most horses are worked for up to 30-50 minutes of medium to high intensity exercise on a daily basis. During a weekend carnival, a polocrosse horse requires about the same energy intake as a racehorse, even although most are smaller in size and not galloping at a high average speed.
Once a horse is confined to a stable, with access to a small yard or grazed out day paddock, then the hard feed and hay has to meet the total nutritional needs for training and competition. A stabled horse will normally require two feeds daily, with pasture grazing during the day, and hay overnight.
The 'hard' feed intake is dependant on the horse’s bodyweight, contribution from grazing, the horses appetite, temperament and the duration and intensity of the work effort.
Energy
The relative energy demand changes in proportion to the speed and duration of exercise. Energy levels must be increased for weekend carnivals to ensure performance without a horse being playful, over energetic or likely to suffer tying-up. Polocrosse horses that are trained out of the paddock require only half the amount of grain level to maintain good condition for performance. This is because the 'fret' factor in horses confined to the stable, generally increases the energy requirements, and they need more energy in their ration to maintain themselves.
Horses that graze tend to be quieter, often more contented and relaxed, and some of their daily requirement is provided by grazing itself. In all types of hard working horses, extra energy is required to maintain strength and continual repair of bone, ligament and tendons during extended training and competitive periods.
For horses in daily training and regular weekend carnival competition, grains such as oats, rolled barley, lupins, sunflower seeds are suitable sources of energy, with small amounts of cracked corn or vegetable oil (canola, blended cooking oil) as an energy boost for weekend competition.
Although oats are well accepted by most horses, in most cases where more than 2½-3kg of oats (about 5-6 litres in volume) needs to be fed each day to supply energy for exercise, it is best to add rolled barley (1kg or 1½ litres) or alternatively (crushed lupins (800g or l litre) as well as 3-4 cups of sunflower seed. These provide 'cool', low 'fizz' energy sources. In horses that are small framed, or have a 'nervy' temperament, then all the oats can be replaced by rolled barley at the rate of 1.5 litres rolled barley for each 2 litres of oats in the ration.
There is also a large variety of commercially prepared 'cool' feeds, such as Coprice pellets, which are useful in horses that 'heat-up' on grain or have a tendency to 'tie-up' on oat based feeds. Increasing the amount of cooking oil in the ration also provides cool energy (see ration chart on page 4), reducing bulk for small framed, picky eaters, as well as eliminating dust in a dry, lucerne chaff based feed.
Protein
In most cases a ration made-up of 2-3 kg of grain and more than 3kg of lucerne chaff and hay, will provide sufficient protein for training exercise. If a horse is worked hard or competed regularly on weekends, then an additional source of protein, such as 2 cups of soyabean meal or alternatively 3 cups of canola meal, or 4 cups of crushed lupins or copra meal, or 6 cups of sunflower seeds, will provide extra to meet the daily protein needs of hard or intensive exercise.
Hint:A daily supplement of Feramo-H with Chromium, provides 5mg chromium, a trace mineral that aids the utilisation of protein and helps increase muscle size and strength during early training.
Fat
Vegetable oils, such as canola or blended cooking oils, provide a 'low fizz' energy boost to hard working horses, and substituting some of the grain with oil is particularly useful to reduce the bulk of grain in small framed horses or 'picky eaters'. When substituting grain with oil, ensure a step-wise replacement over 10-14 days to allow acceptance and efficient utilisation of the increased fat in the ration.
Fibre
Although pasture will provide fibre, horses that are stabled and fed hard feed with grain, must receive adequate chaff in a 50:50 chaff-hay volume mix, and have access to long stem hay, such as lucerne, meadow or clover hay. Horses trained from the paddock often maintain a 'hay belly' if grazing is not limited by confining them to a yard or stable and providing an evening and morning meal of hard feed and hay.
Minerals & vitamins
An adequate intake of essential minerals and vitamins must be provided to correct low or inadequate levels in the feed to meet the increased needs of hard, regular exercise, travelling and competition.
A well balanced, quality vitamin/mineral supplement such as a daily dose of Feramo-H, will provide the 'foundation' source of essential nutrients for exercise, as well as supplement iron, copper and vitamins for the blood, Vitamin A to help maintain tendon strength, combined with copper, zinc and and iron for coat condition as well as B complex for appetite and energy use. A daily supplement of Feramo-H is recommended even when complete feeds, sweet feeds or pelleted rations are being fed. Vitamin E, as in White-E, should be added as a separate supplement to ensure best benefit
For horses in early training, or where the rump and major limb muscles could be more developed, a daily supplement of Feramo-H with Chromium, which provides 5mg chromium daily, an essential trace-mineral that helps energy and protein use, is recommended.
Calcium
Where horses are worked hard and sweat heavily during warmer weather, calcium should also be added to the ration, particularly where cereal chaff with minimal lucerne is provided as roughage. In most cases, 2 scoops (or 60g) of Calplus will provide calcium to meet losses and maintain bone strength in working horses. Calplus with Biotin (60g daily to provide 15mg of Biotin) is recommended for horses with shelly, easily broken away hooves to harden and strengthen the hoof walls.
Electrolytes
Horses in heavy work, or those travelled and regularly competed, benefit from electrolytes added to their feeds to maintain water intake, replace salts lost in sweat, and prevent dried out coat and 'tucking up' caused by dehydration. Although 1-2 tablespoons of salt will help improve the palatability of the ration, it is not a complete electrolyte replacer. An additional scoop of Humidimix each morning and evening in the feed will provide a range of essential salts, including potassium, to replace sweat loss and combat dehydration.
Where horses are travelled over long distances, or would benefit from a top-up of salts and fluids between games to replace sweat loss, a drink of Recharge in water, (or alternatively 60-80mL of Recharge squirted over the tongue after hard training exercise or competition, or prior to travelling, or every 2-3 hours during long trips to weekend carnivals) and cool water provided to drink, will rapidly replace electrolytes and fluids and help restore vitality and hasten recovery.
Nervy horses
Occasionally horses develop nervy behaviour, or 'tie-up' on hard feeds, or 'compete before their time'. A daily supplement of Karma with high Vitamin B1 and magnesium, often combined with Recharge over the tongue in heavy sweaters, will help settle the temperament and calm 'wasteful' nervy behaviour to keep the horse’s mind on the chukka and overall game.
Poor eaters
Where a horse on a high grain diet in hard work loses its appetite and develops a picky, slow eating pattern, and in bad cases, loses weight and vitality, a course of a product, such as Clean-Up, containing plant extracts and coated B complex vitamins, will help to get the horse back on its feed and regain body condition over a 14-21 day period.
By Virbac Animal Health - Last updated 16 November 2012
