■ Resist the temptation to overfeed and don't increase a horse's feed in anticipation of increased work. Remember ■ Feeding a pelleted balancer is often a simple and effective way of balancing forage for good doers. ■ Look for a balancer high in lysine and vitamin E. Vitamin E plays a key role in supporting muscle health and can be low in calorie-restricted diets. ■ Remember that topline can't be built with feed alone. Seek advice from an instructor, trainer and possibly a physiotherapist on how to adapt a horse's work. Always seek veterinary advice before returning a horse to work following an injury/lameness. ■ Get familiar with body condition scoring your horse, as improving your ability to spot if and where he is carrying excess fat will be helpful. ■ Ideally monitor a horse's weight weekly and body condition score (BCS) fortnightly. If he is overweight, monitoring belly girth and sometimes heart girth weekly can be useful, too, especially as BCS can be slow to change initially.
