Knowledge
Nutrition Focus
Lorna Edgar – specialist equine nutritionist
Q&A on Tying-Up
Q: What should I feed after a pony has tied up? A: After the immediate tie-up I want to encourage drinking and electrolytes, and then offering forage and possibly a very sloppy beet pulp such as Fibre-Beet or Speedi-Beet, especially to administer electrolytes and encourage drinking. Be guided by your vet, but if it is a high starch-based ration, remove all cubes, mix and oats and just feed a balancer to ensure key vitamins, minerals and quality protein to help support muscle integrity. Once you have been given the OK to resume exercise, I would continue with just a balancer for as long as possible – keeping a close eye on forage intake and hydration (use buckets rather than automatic drinkers) and still incorporating electrolytes and a beet pulp. You may then be concerned about the calorie intake, as the horse may be starting to drop a bit of condition, so we need to focus on oils and not cereals/starch. Either add an oil-based supplement to the diet, such as Outshine or EquiJewel, or alternatively begin to add a low starch
Management, nutrition & hydration
Q: My horse will often tie-up when she first stick and balls and at first chukkas, what can I do to avoid this? A: There are a few of things here we need to take into consideration: 1. Quite often mares can be more susceptible to tying up due to hormone imbalances, which is something you would need to discuss with your vet, especially if the episodes become frequent.
A low starch mix can help to avoid tying-up 56
Polo Times, March 2022
2. When she comes into work from her winter break you need to be mindful of the diet you are feeding her – ensure the diet is balanced and low starch. 3. Ensure you increase her feed as her work increases. If she comes in from the winter quite light and needs condition, don’t be tempted to feed lots of feed – you need to feed the right type of hard feed for her level of work alongside plenty of good quality forage. 4. As her work increases the weather will be warming up – keep a close eye on her drinking and introduce an electrolyte supplement. 5. As much as the weather becomes warm, it also fluctuates a lot in the spring – be mindful of keeping her warm when standing and waiting to work. 6. She could well be one of those excitable and anxious individuals – the right type of feed can help with this, again low starch, high fibre and sympathetic management! 7. Remember to make changes to the diet SLOWLY – not a couple of days, a couple of weeks, allowing her to adjust to nutritional changes in her diet gradually.
Photography courtesy of Lorna Edgar
It is never too early to think about tying-up, as we commonly call it, but also known as azoturia, ERS (Exertional Rhabdomyolysis) or the old-fashioned word of Monday Morning Disease! There are so many reasons why our polo ponies can tie-up, but it’s worth bearing in mind the possibility of it occurring when they’re starting off the season and coming back into work. Personally, when horses are tying-up, I am keen to look at the bigger picture of management, nutrition, hydration etc to try and avoid any more incidences of the horse going through the painful experience again. Here are some questions I have been asked over the last few months regarding tying-up:
Bud drinking sloppy beet with Aqua-Aide
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