Question: My trainer was talking about altering my horse’s time budget to improve his fitness, but I am not exactly sure what he was talking about. Do horses have time budgets? What is my trainer talking about?

Answer: A time budget is just another word used to describe how a horse spends his day. Horses normally spend 50-70% of their day grazing and resting. There is a variation due to the quality of the food available. Lower quality pastures result in horses spending more time grazing. Horses with limited turn out time may try to make up their forage intake during turn out, especially if they clean up their hay shortly after receiving it in the stall. Horses will not naturally fast for more than 3-4 hours, and it has been suggested that more stereotypies (cribbing, weaving, stall pacing) are seen in horses that are fed rations high in concentrates (grain) and/or small amounts of very high quality forage. Horses tend to move more in the summer than in the winter.

 It is quite possible that your trainer is suggesting that your horse be worked more frequently and/or more intensely than he is currently. Perhaps if your horse is showing a “hay belly”, your trainer is suggesting limiting caloric intake and increasing his exercise time. Good luck with conditioning your horse.