Fibres
Fibres are very important for the nourishement. In the colon and caecum fibres are beig digested by micro-organisms and turned into volatile fatty acids that the horse can turn over into sugar or store it in body fat. The fibres make sure that the gastrointestinal tract functions optimal. Naturally this is a slow process. The food of a horse must consist out of at least 60% roughage.
The fuel supply of the muscles can be influenced for a big part through the nourishement of the horse. The muscles of a horse are build out of 3 different fibres.
Type 1 are fibres that have a slow contraction speed and are a bit less powerfull, but have a great endurance. These muscle fibres are particularly suitable for long but less intensive work (endurance). These fibres burn their fuels with the help of oxigen, what gives a lot of energy, but it is a slow process.
Type 2b fibres have a large contraction power and can contract quickly. Burning it with oxigen gives energy too slowly. That's why they burn the fuels without oxigen. This is a much faster process, but the disadvantage is that it's less efficient and that lactic acids get released with the process what causes acidificaion and fatigue.
The third type muscle fibre (type 2a) has properties that are between 1 and 2b.
Proteins
If their are more proteins taken in by the horse than necessary, they will be broken down and can be used as a source of energy. As an energy source proteins don't play such a big part. Muscles are build out of proteins, so as building material they are important.
Proteins consis out of amino acids. In the gastrointestinal tract the protein gets broken down to amino acids. These amino acids can only be taken in like this in the small intestine. The amino acids that end up in the colon will be broken down there. Because a lot of proteins are locaed in hard digestible cell walls, the percentage of protein feed that gets digested and can be used as available amino acids is small.
The protein and amino acids compostion of the nourishement and the utilization of it can vary much and is under field conditions not establishable. The need fot musle construction can be different from what is available for the horse. Now it's possible to add a concentrate of good available amino acids in a good compostion to the nourishement.
Carbohydrates
The most important fuel for horses are the carbohydrates starch and sugar. Starch gets broken down in the small intestine and turned over into glucose that goes into the muscles and liver through the blood. There it is immediately used or stored as a supply as glycogen. During labour the muscle will have to approach this supply fast and dependable of the kind of labour this glycogen will be burned with or without oxigen. The endurance horse will have eventually fatigue symptoms because of the run down of the glycogen supply. With the short, intensive labour of jumping an dressage horses is the accumulation of lactic acids eventually the limiting factor. Grains, an important component of concentrate, consists for the biggest part out of carbohydrates.
Fats
The horse can take fat in very efficiently through the small intestine. Fats can only be burned with the help of oxigen. Further it can also be stored as body fat. By giving horses food rich in fat, muscle glycogen en liver glycogen will be spared. Because of this the endurance with longer work will increase. The nourishement can be made richer in fat by adding vegetable oil. There is also concentrate rich in fat on the marchet in the form of meal. The percentage of fat can't be to high (not more than 7%), because it can lead to a decreased taking in of the food and thin manure. Besided that it can lead to a decrease of muscle glycogen if the rate towards carbohydrates isn't good.
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