Many pleasure horses can easily survive and prosper off hay alone. Elite athletic horses, however, need their diets customized to meet their specific dietary requirements, as hay alone often does not provide enough energy (calories).

"As with all types of horse, forage is the foundation of a performance horse’s feeding program," said Joe Pagan, PhD, president of Kentucky Equine Research in Versailles, Ky. Pagan was scheduled to present at the 12th Congress of The World Equine Veterinary Association, held Nov. 2-6, 2011, in Hyderabad, India, however a last-minute change prevented him from attending. TheHorse.com caught up with him after the fact to discuss supplementing performance horse diets.

"Typically, performance horses require about 1.5% of their body weight per day as good quality grass or grass-legume mixed hay," he said. "This quantity of forage will promote digestive tract health, but most likely will not meet the performance horse’s energy requirement."

Thus, his energy requirements will need to be supplemented