Feeding the World in Kentucky

At the recent 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) held in Lexington, Kentucky, from September 25 through October 10, 752 horses representing 58 nations competed for world championships in eight disciplines. Because of its size and complexity, WEG presented huge logistical challenges involving transportation, quarantine and feeding. This article will provide a brief overview of how these challenges were addressed and successfully resolved.

The 2010 edition of WEG was the first held outside of Europe in the competition’s 20-year history, and it involved the single largest commercial airlift of horses ever. To put the size of WEG 2010 into perspective, the Olympic Games involves about 225 horses competing in three disciplines. The Para-Olympics adds another 75 horses, making the entire Olympic/Para-Olympic competition only about 40% the size of WEG. Around 60% of the horses that competed at WEG came from Europe via 12 charter flights that traveled from Liège, Belgium, to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Another 6% came from either South America via Miami International Airport or from Australasia via Los Angeles International Airport, and the remaining 34% traveled by van from within the United States. Many of the U.S.-based horses competed for the United States or Canada, but several others were either owned or leased by individuals from other countries.

The horses arriving from South America and Australasia were quarantined at USDA facilities normally used for imported horses at Los Angeles and Miami. The length of these quarantines was dictated by the USDA’s normal regulations for equine import from each country (7-day quarantine for South American horses and 3-day quarantine for Australasian horses). For the European horses a special quarantine was constructed at the Cincinnati airport, where the horses were housed in temporary tents constructed in an airport parking lot. This quarantine lasted for 42 hours before the horses were transported to the Kentucky Horse Park (KHP), which was about an hour away.

Kentucky Equine Research (KER) was contracted by WEG organizers to supply the feed, hay and bedding used at the competition. KER provided a similar service at the past four Olympic Games. KER’s selection of suitable feed, hay and bedding for WEG was dictated by a combination of meeting the horses’ needs, fulfilling the various federations’ requests and adhering to regulations imposed by the USDA and FDA. The FDA’s primary concern centered on BSE, so importation of products containing ingredients of animal origin was not permitted.

The USDA’s concern was twofold.  First, it was concerned about importation of products containing viable seeds. All imported products therefore had either to be suitable for sale and distribution within the U.S. or the products were only allowed to be consumed by the horses during competition at KHP, with any remaining quantities disposed of in a deep landfill. The USDA’s second concern was with the spread of a disease called equine piroplasmosis (EP), which is a tick-borne disease that affects horses, donkeys, mules and zebras. EP is not endemic to the United States, but it is found in Africa, the Caribbean, Central and South America, the Middle East, and Eastern and Southern Europe. Horses with EP were allowed to compete at WEG, but several precautions were taken to prevent the spread of the disease into the U.S. equine population. EP-positive horses were isolated from EP-free horses inside a fenced quarantine stable within KHP and were routinely examined for tick infestation. Because EP can be spread by ticks, the USDA also mandated that the forage and bedding used at WEG be free from ticks. To satisfy this requirement, KER sourced its timothy hay from Washington State and its alfalfa hay from Idaho. Wheat straw also came from Washington State. Several chaffs were sourced from Maine, and a ryegrass-timothy haylage (ensiled hay) was imported from Lithuania.

The length of stay varied among teams, but on average the horses stayed at KHP for 11 or 12 days.  About 15% of the competitors chose to bed their horses on wheat straw, while a handful used shredded paper or cardboard as bedding. Most of the horses were bedded on pine shavings, and over 11,000 bags of shavings were used.

Timothy hay was by far the most popular forage at WEG. Eighty-eight tons of timothy were used at WEG compared to around 10 tons of alfalfa hay and smaller quantities of chaff and haylage.  European teams preferred timothy as their primary forage, although horses from 27 federations also consumed haylage. Surprisingly, alfalfa was used by horses from 40 different countries.  Nearly all of the reining teams used some alfalfa for their horses with an average timothy to alfalfa ratio of about 2:1.  Alfalfa was also used by 87% of the endurance teams, yet the ratio of timothy to alfalfa consumption was much higher (4.5:1). Alfalfa was most popular for use during the 160-km endurance competition when the horses were fed at multiple rest stops throughout the race. Alfalfa was much less popular within the Olympic disciplines (jumping, dressage and eventing) with less than one-third of the federations using any alfalfa hay at all.

The vast majority of competitors at WEG used premixed commercial concentrates as a major component of their feeding programs.  Understandably, many wished to continue with their usual concentrate feed when they travelled to WEG. To facilitate this request for the European-based horses, KER offered a warehouse in Belgium where teams could send their feeds before WEG. These feeds, representing over 140 commercial brands, were consolidated into shipping containers that were transported by sea and then by rail to Kentucky. Teams were also offered 17 different types of custom-made textured concentrates manufactured in small batches by KER. Many of these feeds were formulated to closely resemble the types of concentrates used by competitors in Europe. Around 40% of the competitors chose to use these custom feeds, while the rest used either imported or domestically produced commercial concentrates. Most competitors favored some type of textured feed, but there was also an array of pelleted concentrates fed, and many Europeans also used premixed mashes that were wetted before feeding.

In addition to premixed concentrates, competitors used crimped and whole oats, steam-flaked barley and corn, shredded beet pulp, ground linseed, wheat bran, molasses and soy oil. Electrolytes were the most popular supplements, particularly among three-day eventing and endurance horses, and carrots were extremely well-liked with a total of over 13 tons consumed.

Despite the long distances traveled and the often rapid changes in forage and concentrate intake, there were very few digestive disturbances reported.  A few endurance horses experienced bouts of tying-up when they first began exercising at KHP after several days of inactivity at their respective quarantines. Several of these horses then switched to a low-starch, high-fat concentrate feed and were able to compete successfully one week later.

The 2014 World Equestrian Games will be held in the Normandy region of France. At this competition, the majority of horses will travel by truck from within France and surrounding countries. Although the logistics will be simpler, the attention paid to the nutrition of these horses will be a paramount priority, just as it was in Kentucky.

This article was originally printed in Feedstuffs, Vol. 82, No. 48, November 29, 2010.