There is a particular kind of exhaustion that accumulates quietly across a long show season — not the tiredness that comes from hard work, but something more systemic. The horse that was sharp and willing in April starts to look dull by July. He eats less. He is behind the leg in ways he wasn't before. His coat loses its depth. These are the signs of a horse whose body is not keeping pace with the demands being placed on it, and in most cases the root cause is not the workload. It is what he is — or isn't — being fed to support it. Show season nutrition is one of the most neglected areas of sport horse management in the American hunter/jumper world, and the horses pay for it across the back half of every summer circuit.
The Ulcer Prevalence No One Talks About at the In-Gate
Gastric ulcers are not a fringe concern for the sport horse world. The European College of Equine Internal Medicine's published consensus statement documents gastric ulcer prevalence in show and sport horses ranging from 17 to 58 percent — with prevalence rising during competitive periods. That range represents the horses actively competing at your shows, looking sharp in the warm-up and quietly deteriorating through August.
The connection between competition and ulcer development is well-established. Confinement, the stress of transport, disrupted eating schedules, and increases in exercise frequency without adequate rest are all recognized risk factors. Show season combines all of them simultaneously. A horse who travels to three shows a month, eats off-schedule in unfamiliar stalls, and has his turnout interrupted is a horse under significant physiological pressure — and the gut is the first place it registers.
The practical implication is direct: ensuring horses have access to appropriate forage throughout the day eliminates the fasting periods most closely associated with ulcer development on the road. A horse whose hay net runs out at 10pm and is not refilled until morning spends hours with gastric acid pooling against an empty stomach wall. At home this is a management issue. On the circuit, it becomes a structural problem that accumulates across an entire season.
The foundation that precedes everything elseForage Is Not Background — It Is the Diet
The single most important shift in European sport horse nutrition over the last two decades has been the elevation of forage from backdrop to foundation. Horses evolved as trickle feeders, eating small amounts continuously across the day, and the equine digestive system still demands a steady intake of fiber for optimal health. This is not a gentle suggestion — it is basic digestive physiology, and it has significant implications for how show horses should be fed on the circuit.
The NRC minimum is 1.2 percent of body weight in forage daily for proper gastrointestinal function. For a 1,200-pound warmblood, that is approximately 14 to 15 pounds of hay per day as a floor — before any grain or concentrate is added. Most horses in active show programs are not meeting this minimum on the road.
A small amount of alfalfa offered before training or competing provides calcium that acts as an additional buffer from stomach acid — and the hay creates a physical mass in the stomach that reduces acid splashing against the squamous mucosa during work. This is a practice standard in European sport horse management. It takes thirty seconds and a handful of hay. Most American riders withhold feed before classes out of habit, not science.
Fat Over Grain for Additional Calories
The instinct when a sport horse needs more energy is to add more grain. This is almost exactly backwards from what the research supports. High-starch concentrates deliver a rapid glycemic spike followed by behavioral excitability, altered insulin response, and increased risk of colic and gastric ulceration — precisely the conditions that undermine performance in a horse already under competition stress.
Vegetable oils contain twice the caloric density of an equal weight of sugar or protein and are readily digested by horses. A horse that needs additional calories to maintain condition through a heavy show schedule benefits from added fat — rice bran, vegetable oil, or a commercial fat supplement — far more than from additional grain. Feeding more forage and less grain results in fewer gut problems, reduces the likelihood of stable vices, and adheres to the horse's natural feeding patterns.
1.2% of body weight daily. For a 1,200-lb warmblood, approximately 14–15 lbs of hay as a floor — before any additional feed. Free-choice hay overnight eliminates the fasting periods most associated with ulcer development.
Fat before additional grain. Vegetable oil, rice bran, or a commercial fat supplement adds caloric density without the starch load and behavioral effects of increased concentrate during show stress.
Always with feed, never administered as a dry paste to a horse that hasn't eaten. Salt-based formulas, offered post-haul and post-competition, always alongside free access to water.
Small alfalfa feeding before training or competition buffers stomach acid and reduces acid splash during exercise. Takes thirty seconds and makes a measurable difference across a full season.
Electrolytes: What the Research Actually Says
Electrolyte supplementation is standard practice at the upper levels of the hunter/jumper world and almost universally misunderstood. A horse's sweat is hypertonic — heavily concentrated with sodium, potassium, and chloride. After strenuous exercise or heavy sweating, electrolyte depletion results in fatigue, dehydration, and muscle cramping. Replacement is genuinely important. How and when it is delivered determines whether it helps or compounds the problem.
Supplementation with paste or other orally delivered forms has been correlated with increased gastric ulceration, particularly when offered without feed. Electrolytes should be mixed into a small feed or water — never syringed into the mouth of a horse that hasn't eaten. The Merck Veterinary Manual is explicit: forced oral administration of concentrated salt pastes to dehydrated horses can cause abdominal malaise and irritate existing gastric ulcer disease in any horse not given the supplement concurrently with food or diluted in water.
What Changes on the Road
The show environment disrupts the feeding routine in ways that compound quietly across a season. Different hay. Unfamiliar water. Off-schedule meals. Abbreviated turnout. The horses that manage these disruptions best are the ones whose owners have planned for them — not by bringing everything from home, but by building a feeding program flexible enough to absorb variation without compromising the fundamentals.
Bring your own hay when feasible or source locally in advance. Keep hay in the stall overnight. Do not withhold feed before classes. Introduce show water gradually if your horse is selective. And understand that a horse eating and drinking normally at home will not automatically continue to do so in a strange environment without deliberate management to support the transition.
The season is long. The horses that finish it well — that come off the last show of August looking like they could do another month — are not always the most talented horses or the best-ridden ones. They are the horses that were fed thoughtfully, from the first show of spring through the final class of summer, by people who understood that nutrition is not the preparation you do before the season. It is what you do every single day it runs.
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