Barastoc Nutritional Advantages for Performance Horses

The art of feeding performance horses comes from matching the best dietary energy sources to fuel your horse. The energy demand in performance and sports horses is very high, so getting extra calories is a priority. This extra digestible energy must be provided to maximise performance while helping maintain digestive health and function. When your horse is competing, its nutritional needs are higher, and during recovery, it needs particular nutrients and different sources of energy to keep up its outstanding performance.

Antioxidants

Antioxidants include vitamins E, C and A, selenium, glutathione, lipoic acid, coenzyme Q10 and isoflavones. The body typically uses oxidation to process nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats and proteins into energy. During this oxidation process, vitamin E is the first point of defence and helps to maintain the body’s cells by protecting the membrane from free radicals. With the increased demands of exercise and high performance, antioxidants are the first point of defence against free radicals in muscle cells and in stopping oxidative stress. In addition, vitamin E has specific immunomodulatory properties that influence cytokine response to intense exercise. Fresh pasture has higher amounts of vitamins A and E; performance horses that are stabled or have limited access to fresh pasture will benefit from added vitamin E in their diets; due to the higher workload, performance horses are more susceptible to oxidative stress.
Vitamin C reduces oxidative stress when the balance between antioxidants and oxidants becomes unbalanced, and oxidants become more prominent. Oxidants are oxygen-containing molecules containing free radicals and other reactive compounds. Antioxidant stress occurs when free radicals have increased beyond the protective ability of the antioxidants’ defence systems.

Energy Tunning Compounds

Barastoc Competitor is a fully fortified performance pellet that contains fast and slow-release energy sources for anaerobic and aerobic activity, so all the physiological fuel systems are in play. Energy participation describes the relative contribution of different nutrients such as fat, non-structural carbohydrates (NSC), protein and fibres, and soluble fibre sources such as the ‘Barastoc Suprefibres’ into the various energy generation pathways at different stages of exercise and during different types of performance. The omega-enriched canola oil in Barastoc Competitor supports diverse and balanced sources of slow-release and fast-release energy pools, which helps riders and trainers to feed the best combination of dietary energy sources to meet an individual horse’s fuel requirements for their desired performance and recovery as well as satisfying your horse’s specific metabolic needs.

Barastoc Competitor is a scientific approach to saving muscle glycogen by adding more fat and using fibre sources such as beet pulp and ‘Barastoc Superfibres’. Added fat from omega-3-rich vegetable oil will give your horse more fuel during periods of heavy aerobic exercise; therefore, stored carbohydrates are not used for energy. Fatty acids are an extremely useful energy source and are well digested by horses (>90%); the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio also plays an essential role in reducing muscle inflammation and decreasing healing time in high-performance horses.

Barastoc Super fibres

Super fibres are soluble fibre sources such as beet pulp and soyhulls and have digestible energy levels higher than typical forages and are lower in starch. Super fibres have energy levels similar to cereal grains such as oats and barley, but due to the fibrous nature of Superfibres, the likelihood of a grain overload is reduced when compared to cereal grains while providing a cool, slow-release energy. The digestibility of Superfibres is higher, beet pulp 80% and soyhulls 75%, compared to hay which is 40-60% digestible.

The Role of Chromium in Performance Horses

Chromium plays a vital role in the communication between insulin and insulin receptors. It also plays various roles in lipid metabolism and immune function, affects the metabolism of carbohydrates and proteins,s and is essential for increasing insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake. The organic chromium in Barastoc Competitor helps to mobilise more blood glucose into muscle tissue, thus allowing for improved performance. This maximises cell fuel (glucose) utilisation and improves health and performance.

In conclusion, Barastoc Competitor uses a wide range of fast and slow-release energy sources, including fat and super fibres, beet pulp and soy hulls. With the wealth of years of technical knowledge of Barastoc nutritionists and relying on our state-of-the-art equine feed production infrastructures, Barastoc Competitor is formulated and produced for all classes of performance horses and keeps your horse healthy and fuelled for any situation.

Source: Barastoc Feeds