Energy content assessment in the diet of horses, used in various disciplines of equestrian sports, at the same load level

Disciplines of equestrian sports can greatly vary in terms of energy consumption, taking into account the features of the flow of metabolic processes during work of different load types and levels. The purpose of the study is to evaluate and compare energy needs of horses, involved in various classical disciplines of equestrian sports in the field. The research material are diets and assessment results of horses’ fatness and workloads (n = 51) undergoing training and performing in show-jumping, dressage and triathlon. The energy and dry matter content in the diet was determined taking into account the total feed amount, consumed by each horse. We calculate the workload level by the average value of the cardiac beat. To assess the horse’s condition as an indicator determining the balance between energy consumption and expenditure, we have used Dr. Henneke’s methodology. We assess the reliability using the Student’s t-test. The result was considered reliable at p