Anyone who works with horses is aware of how much time and effort it takes to keep these delicate animals healthy and well-conditioned. The physical conditioning and nutrition of horses has received a lot of attention from scientists in recent years. A major concern for all trainers is the occurrence of muscle tension or damage.
Muscle diseases or degeneration lead to a loss of performance. However, many of us lack concrete information about how they arise and develop.
Stress-related illnesses arise due to metabolic disorders in the muscles, which lead to the breakdown of muscle fibers. The illness manifests itself through sudden stiffness or paralysis-like symptoms during and after work.
What types of exercise-related muscle diseases occur frequently?
Cross-stroke manifests itself in various ways:
- Stiff walking after starting training
- hard, swollen and painful croup muscles
- muscle tremors
- Dark red-brown colored urine
Tying-up syndrome usually does not occur acutely, but develops steadily in the background until one day it becomes apparent. It can be recognized by the following signs:
- reluctance to work
- Premature fatigue, loss of performance
- Inhibited urge to move
overexertion myositis is a muscle inflammation after overexertion.
What should I do to prevent muscle damage and combat pain?
There are various recommended therapies to counteract muscle diseases.
Rest: When the first symptoms appear, it is recommended to stop training immediately and let the horse rest.
Warmth: Cover your horse to keep the muscles warm, or warm up the muscles with appropriate therapy equipment.
Pain medication: Give your horse anti-inflammatories to treat acute or chronic pain.
Antioxidants: Feed your horse an antioxidant to counteract free radicals in the muscles.
Vitamin B: This vitamin makes an important contribution to the overall metabolism, so it also has a positive effect on the muscles.
What can I do prophylactically to support muscle metabolism?
To ensure that your sport horse's muscles do not suffer any long-term damage, we advise you to consider the following points.
Regular work: Set up a well-structured work plan for your horse and avoid overloading it during training.
Relaxation: Time for relaxation should also be planned specifically and regularly.
Warmth: In cool temperatures, you should cover your horse with a sweat blanket after training to keep the muscles warm.
Feeding: Feeding should be adapted to the load and the nutrient supply to the needs.
Antioxidants: Feed vitamin E and selenium. The antioxidants act like a “radical scavenger” in the muscles.
In keeping with this theme, Farm & Stable offers the specially developed Vita-E-Plus .
What contribution does Vita-E-Plus make to muscle metabolism?
Free radicals are created as an intermediate product of metabolism when energy is burned. Free radicals are the cause of many health problems. By attacking cells and partially rendering them nonfunctional, they increase the risk of numerous diseases.
Vita-E-Plus contains essential nutrients and the important antioxidants vitamin E and selenium, which protect the cells from free radicals. It combines the antioxidant effect of vitamin E, vitamin C and selenium with the muscle-protecting properties of vitamin B1, vitamin B2 and the essential amino acid lysine. As a concentrated source of natural antioxidant nutrients, Vita-E-Plus counteracts damage to the muscle cell membranes of performance horses.
Composition:
calcium carbonate, dextrose, corn starch
Additives per 50 g:
Amino acids: L-lysine monohydrochloride 10,000 mg
Vitamins per 50 g:
Vitamin E (alpha-tocopheryl acetate) 2,250 IU, vitamin C (L ascorbic acid) 2,000 mg, vitamin B1 500 mg, vitamin B2 100 mcg
Trace elements per 50 g:
Selenium (Selenized Yeast Inactivated) 500 mcg
Vita-E-Plus is added to the normal feed ration. Horses in training require 50 g daily. Each daily ration of 50 g is packed in a separate bag and is therefore very easy to portion.
