Photo courtesy of Tina Cook
Feeding a competition horse can be very challenging. Stress, concentration and physical demands can all have implications on digestive health and this in turn can result in horses struggling to maintain weight whilst competing. Performance horses often loose their appetite as they get fitter, so feeding a nutrient dense, high quality feed balancer will ensure they get all the essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients needed on a daily basis, without having to feed large quantities of hard feed. Blue Chip feed balancers now all contain the revolutionary ingredient, Nucleotides.
Nucleotides are essential nutrients, as they are the building blocks of DNA and RNA. They are present in the horses natural diet, but at low levels and cannot be stored by the horse. Nucleotides often become ‘limited’ during periods of strenuous activity or stress, and therefore there are real benefits to adding purified nucleotides to the horse’s diet. EQUIGEN is a specific blend of purified nucleotides designed to balance the lower levels found in the diet. There are three main advantages to including EQUIGEN in Blue Chip feed balancers;
o Nucleotides aid cell replication, which is particularly important for the competition horse and for recovery after exercise or from an injury.
o Nucleotides increase the length and surface area of the intestinal villi which aids nutrient absorption.
o Nucleotides act as immune facilitators aiding the immune cells response when infection or disease is detected; regular travelling and competing can compromise the performance horse’s immune system, making them more susceptible to infections.
Blue Chip Original is the ideal feed balancer for horses competing up to novice level. When work becomes more demanding switch to Blue Chip Pro, which includes an elevated level of vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Pro also includes a blood building formula which aids oxygen transportation to the working muscles. Blue Chip Pro also includes a prebiotic. There are two types of prebiotics commonly used in equine diets; FOS and MOS. FOS is a long chain of sugar molecules, providing a feed-source for the beneficial micro-organisms in the gut. However, if the digestive system is already compromised through the stress of competing and travelling, there could be a large population of ‘bad’ bacteria in the gut. Whilst the ‘good’ bacteria may start to thrive, the harmful bacteria will still cause an unhealthy gut and negatively affect the general health of the horse.
The MOS prebiotic mimics the cursor that the harmful bacteria bind to on the gut wall; once the harmful bacteria have bound to the MOS, they cannot be released, and so they are rendered useless and ‘flushed out’ of the digestive system – this promotes the overall health of the digestive system, so the beneficial bacteria can thrive, which aids weight gain. Blue Chip Pro contains MOS, as part of its triple action digestive aid, combined with Nucleotides and high levels of an EU approved probiotic. This probiotic doubles the digestibility of fibre in the diet, so it is utilised much more efficiently – therefore improving and maintaining weight and condition.
All Blue Chip balancers contain a natural, fruit derived form of Vitamin E, which is a powerful antioxidant and essential for the competition horse, that is often under stress.
Blue Chip formulates their products using the most up to date research available; that’s why top competition horses from home and abroad compete to their full ability with the help of Blue Chip.
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