Conditioning is a crucial part of preparing horses for higher levels of performance or competition, enabling them to meet these increased exercise demands. But as a horse’s workload increases, so do its nutritional needs.
Whether your horse is just starting a conditioning program or preparing for peak competition, aligning their diet with each phase of conditioning helps them stay healthy and ready to perform.
Understanding Equine Conditioning
Conditioning a horse centers on one key objective: improving fitness. For horses, fitness refers to a horse’s increased ability to perform a specific task with greater efficiency. A fit horse experiences less disruption to its internal balance, or homeostasis, during exercise and returns to a resting state more quickly.
Fitness, however, is not universal. Different types of exercise and riding disciplines demand different conditioning strategies. For instance, a racehorse performing short, high-intensity efforts operates primarily in an anaerobic state. Conditioning for these horses emphasizes speed, power, and the ability to recover quickly from brief, intense exertion.
In contrast, horses involved in low-intensity, long-duration activities, such as trail riding or ranch work, work aerobically for extended periods. These horses require conditioning that enhances endurance and stamina.
Most horses fall somewhere in between. They often perform moderate work interspersed with short, intense bursts, such as transitions, jumping, or advanced flatwork. These horses benefit from conditioning that targets both aerobic and anaerobic systems.
Research shows that even different horse breeds exhibit varying distributions of muscle fiber types, which can affect a conditioning program. Thoroughbreds, for instance, tend to have a higher proportion of fast-twitch fibers compared to other breeds. This fast-twitch muscle composition typically enables them to respond more rapidly to conditioning programs and retain their fitness more efficiently.
The Different Phases of Conditioning Horses
Conditioning a horse is a personalized process that gradually builds fitness, strengthens the body's systems, and enhances performance capacity while reducing the risk of injury. A well-designed conditioning program progresses through several overlapping phases. Each stage is tailored to the horse’s response, workload, and ultimate performance goals.
Examples of these conditioning phases include:
Foundation Phase – Long Slow Distance (LSD): The initial phase focuses on low-intensity aerobic exercise to build cardiovascular fitness and strengthen bones, muscles, and connective tissues. Horses typically trot, canter, or slow gallop for 20–30 minutes per session, with routines gradually increasing over 6–8 weeks.
Strengthening Phase – Speed and Strength Work: Once the horse has established a solid aerobic base, speed and strength work are introduced to enhance anaerobic capacity and muscle power. This includes sustained speed efforts or interval training with workouts tailored to the horse’s discipline and progress.
Technique and Skill Phase – Discipline-Specific Training: Layered alongside aerobic and speed training is focusing on discipline-specific exercises. These sessions may involve high-intensity efforts (heart rates above 180 bpm) and should vary to prevent mental fatigue and keep the horse engaged.
Maintenance Phase: Once fit, the horse enters a maintenance phase where the workload is adjusted to sustain peak physical condition and prepare for competition. Training strikes a balance between intensity and recovery, continually fine-tuning both fitness and performance.
As the horse progresses through a conditioning plan, heart and respiratory rates after exercise are key indicators of fitness—the faster it returns to baseline, the better conditioned the horse is. Elevated recovery rates, excessive fatigue, or behavior changes signal the need to modify the conditioning program to avoid overtraining or injury.
Why Nutrition Matters During Horse Conditioning
As horses progress through a conditioning program, their nutritional requirements also shift. A key component of conditioning is gradually increasing the intensity of work. As workloads ramp up, so does the demand for energy and specific nutrients.
According to the National Research Council (NRC) guidelines for equine nutrition, horses in light, moderate, heavy, and very heavy work each have distinct nutritional profiles. Most horses fall within the light to moderate range, while horses such as elite racehorses and upper-level eventers fall into the very heavy work category.
Digestible Energy
The most significant increase in nutrient demand during conditioning is digestible energy. As exercise becomes more intense and frequent, horses burn significantly more calories. NRC data shows that the digestible energy requirement can increase by over 70% from moderate to very heavy work. Meeting this demand often involves adjusting forage and horse feed intake to ensure calorie needs are met without compromising gut health or body condition.
Phosphorus and Calcium
While calcium needs can increase moderately to support bone turnover, phosphorus plays a significantly more important role in energy metabolism. It’s an important component of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)—a horse's cellular energy currency. Without adequate phosphorus, horses may struggle to generate the energy needed for strenuous activity.
Protein and Amino Acids
Crude protein requirements also rise during conditioning—by approximately 40% from moderate to very heavy work levels. While many horses receive sufficient protein through forage and grain, the balance of essential amino acids becomes increasingly important.
Micronutrients and Antioxidants
Horses being conditioned may require higher levels of several micro-minerals and vitamins, including:
-
Copper and zinc: Critical for tissue repair, immune support, and enzyme activity
-
B-vitamins: Essential for energy metabolism and red blood cell production
-
Vitamin E and selenium: Important antioxidants that help neutralize oxidative stress from intense exercise
-
Vitamin C: Although horses produce it naturally, additional dietary support during periods of high stress can be beneficial
Electrolytes
Sweating increases significantly with increased exercise intensity, especially in warm conditions or during aerobic conditioning. This results in the loss of sodium, potassium, chloride, and magnesium, which must be replenished to maintain hydration, nerve function, and muscle contraction. Electrolyte supplementation becomes increasingly important as horses reach higher levels of conditioning.
Horse Conditioning Nutrition Tips
Ultimately, nutrition should evolve in tandem with the horse’s conditioning plan. A diet that supports increased caloric demand, electrolyte balance, muscle repair, and recovery will help the horse adapt to training, reduce the risk of fatigue or injury, and perform at its best.
While some nutrient demands increase dramatically during conditioning, it’s not always necessary—or wise—to supplement each one individually. Well-balanced performance feeds and high-quality forage often provide many of the necessary nutrients in appropriate ratios. However, careful monitoring is essential, especially as horses move from maintenance or light work into moderate or heavy workloads.
Also, keep in mind the horse's metabolic or body type, such as an easy keeper or hard keeper:
Easy keepers: Often overweight before starting an exercise program, there’s typically no need to add calories during early conditioning. However, even without increasing energy intake, their needs for non-caloric nutrients—such as amino acids, vitamins, and minerals—still increase. These support muscle development, recovery, and overall health. In these cases, adding or increasing something like a ration balancer (e.g., from 1 lb to 2 lbs daily) can help meet rising nutrient demands without overfeeding calories.
Hard keepers: These horses usually require more calories to maintain weight, especially as the workload increases. Because they consume more significant amounts of full-intake feed, they tend to obtain more nutrients along with those calories. Still, it’s essential to consider caloric density—feeding meals that provide energy without being overly bulky. Adding high-fat feeds, ration balancers, or supplements is often effective.
Some other key tips to help you tailor your horse’s diet through different stages of conditioning include:
Non-Energy Nutrients: As exercise intensity increases, horses require additional non-energy nutrients, such as amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. You can he amount of a ration balancer, like Essential K®, to meet these nutritional needs during early conditioning without adding excessive calories.
Adequate Protein and Amino Acids: For muscle repair and growth, ensure your horse receives the necessary amino acids that forage may lack. A ration balancer also supplies these essential amino acids for optimal protein utilization.
Monitor Antioxidant Levels: Antioxidants, such as vitamin E, selenium, and vitamin C, protect muscle cells from stress during intense physical activity. Supplementing vitamin E, for example, may be necessary if the horse isn’t consuming fresh pasture grass or isn't receiving sufficient levels from its base diet.
Body Condition Score (BCS): Regularly monitor your horse’s BCS and topline to ensure its diet is supporting an optimal body score.
Diet to Workload: Begin conditioning with low-intensity exercises and focus on non-energy-dense nutrients. As the workload increases, add more calories and fat to fuel muscle development and energy. If the horse begins to appear underweight, focus on increasing calories first before increasing their workload again.
The ‘In-Between’ Conditioning Phase: If a ration balancer alone isn’t enough, but the required amount of a full-intake feed would be excessive, combining the two can help meet nutritional needs without overfeeding.
Address Underlying Health Issues: If conditioning isn’t progressing as you hoped, consult your veterinarian to check for underlying health issues that can affect energy metabolism and muscle building.
Discover Performance Feed and Feed for Conditioning Horses from Tribute Equine Nutrition
As horses progress through a conditioning program, their nutritional needs will also evolve. ensuring the horse's base diet, including forage and horse feed, is balanced from the start and meets their nutritional needs is essential.
A full-intake feed, such as Kalm ‘N EZ®, can be used for many stages of the conditioning process, with or without the addition of a ration balancer. Kalm ‘N EZ® can be used for moderate to harder-keeping horses that are sensitive to sugar and starch. This feed’s lower NSC (non-structural carbohydrate) content also makes it a great option for excitable horses and those with digestive sensitivities.
Early on, during the initial phase of conditioning, feeding or adding a ration balancer, such as Essential K®, may meet any additional non-energy nutrient requirements. However, as workloads intensify, the need for more calories and fat increases. K Finish® is a high-fat supplement fortified with vitamins and minerals, designed for horses that require additional calories in their diet.
For horses that are in the later stages of conditioning programs or for performance horses, a full-intake horse feed, such as Synergize®, may be more appropriate. Synergize® is a high-fat (13%), low-sugar and starch (NSC) horse feed specially designed for hard-keeping and hard-working horses.
For horses in conditioning programs, it can be challenging to ensure the horse receives the proper nutrition as its conditioning progresses. A personalized feed plan, where you speak with one of our equine nutrition experts at Tribute®, eliminates the guesswork with feeding horses according to their individual needs and workload.
References
Oklahoma State University Extension. (n.d.). Physical conditioning of horses. Oklahoma State University. https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/physical-conditioning-of-horses.html#design-of-conditioning-programs
