Effect of time of feeding on metabolic response to exercise

Summary Four mature horses (3 Standardbreds and 1 Thoroughbred) were used in a 4 × 4 Latin square design experiment to investigate the effect of time of concentrate feeding prior to exercise on the metabolic response to exercise. Horses were fasted overnight and then given no feed (fasted) or 1 kg corn grain 1, 3 or 5 h before exercise. Exercise consisted of a warm-up (1600 m at 6.0 m/s) and walk (800 m) followed by a high intensity phase (400 m at increasing speed and 1600 m at 11 m/s; 2% grade). During exercise, plasma glucose decreased in horses fed 1 or 3 h before exercise (P 0.05). These data indicate that time of feeding prior to exercise can affect metabolic responses of horses to exercise, which could ultimately alter performance. In addition, researchers should consider that time of feeding may affect the interpretation of data from experiments examining the effects of diet and/or training on exercising horses.