The dressage
recovery protocol.
A 14-year-old Hanoverian gelding. Mid-career dressage, working at Prix St. Georges. The body has started to tell him things: stiffer behind on cold mornings, an ulcer scope last spring, recovery from competition taking longer than it used to. This is how a Care Partner and PETVITY-aware rider would structure 90 days to buy five more competitive years.
The starting state.
Andante has been competing through his prime years — winning at Prix St. Georges, working toward Inter I. The trainer rides him five days a week, hard on three of them. He stands in a 12×12 box stall most of the day with 4–6 hours of turnout in summer, less in winter. He's fed concentrates twice daily plus ad-lib hay, gets a gastroguard course twice a year before major shows, and shoes are reset every 5 weeks.
- Mild stiffness behind on cold mornings, especially after stall nights with limited turnout.
- Spring 2025 gastric scope: Grade 1 squamous ulceration, treated with omeprazole.
- Recovery from CDI competitions has lengthened — 7–10 days now vs 4–5 a few years ago.
- Hoof quality good but slightly more sensitive on hard ground than historically.
- Bloodwork unremarkable; SAA (serum amyloid A) low-normal at 8 mg/L.
This is not a sick horse. This is a healthy 14-year-old elite athlete whose biology is starting to ask for a more careful operational frame. The window to extend his competitive life is open, but it doesn't stay open by accident.
"Forage. Turnout. Herd. Hoof. Sleep. Most of equine longevity is the unsexy 90% — and it's where the next five years come from."
The 90-day plan.
Get the data, then move forage to the centre.
Per Dr. Vogt's working principle: track widely, treat narrowly. Two weeks of structured baseline before any change.
- Comprehensive blood panel including SAA, vitamin E, selenium, ACTH (rule out early PPID).
- Body condition score weekly. Saddle fit re-checked.
- Forage analysis on the current hay batch — sugars, NDF/ADF, minerals.
- Concentrates audit · what is he getting and how much, in grams not scoops.
- Begin shifting to slow-feed nets with all hay servings — stretches forage across hours, mimicking natural grazing.
Daily turnout is the single biggest healthspan lever.
Every published study on equine cortisol, gastric ulceration and stereotypies points the same direction: more turnout, more company, more variation in terrain. For a 14-year-old elite athlete, this is the biggest unlock available.
- Target 8+ hours daily turnout, with herd companionship where possible.
- Where weather constrains: covered run-out from the stall, even modest. Anything is better than 22 hours stalled.
- Varied turnout terrain — softer footing on rest days, firmer on training days.
- Consider a co-turnout buddy from the yard who isn't the constant rival.
Forage 60+%, concentrates last.
Following the 2024 European Equine Nutrition Society guidance, the diet shifts to forage-first with concentrates as the smallest possible component.
- Forage at 1.8–2.2% of body weight per day. For a 580 kg horse, ~10–13 kg of hay daily.
- Concentrates split into smaller, more frequent meals (3–4 small vs. 2 large).
- Add hindgut buffer (calcium-magnesium or marine-derived) before each concentrate meal.
- Saccharomyces cerevisiae / boulardii prebiotic yeast for hindgut resilience.
- Omeprazole prophylaxis around competition windows only (not continuous), with proper taper.
Shoes, surfaces, and recovery between sessions.
- Farrier cycle confirmed at 5 weeks. Hoof balance reviewed — angles match conformation.
- Daily hand-walking on varied terrain (10 min each direction, soft surface) on all rest days.
- Training surface audit — too-deep footing increases tendon load; too-firm risks concussion.
- Active recovery on rest days: hand-walking, ice boots after hard sessions, light hacking.
- One full rest day per week, fully turned out, no work.
Recovery is when the work happens.
Horses need 3–5 hours of lying-down sleep per 24 hours to enter REM. A horse that doesn't feel safe enough to lie down — insecure footing, no herd, anxious environment — develops sleep deprivation that shortens competitive life.
- Bedding upgrade — deeper, quiet, dust-free.
- Stall-camera check for actual lying-down hours (most owners are surprised).
- No training in the 90 minutes before evening turn-in.
- Quiet aisle protocol from late afternoon onward.
Day 90 · what moved.
- Repeat blood panel — particularly SAA (inflammation), vitamin E (stalled-horse risk), and ACTH.
- Repeat gastric scope if symptoms warrant; otherwise, 6-month interval.
- Body condition + topline + recovery-time tracking from competition.
- Trainer review · is the horse training better, recovering faster, more relaxed before work?
The stack.
Forage
1.8–2.2% body weight/day. Slow-feed nets. Forage-first as standard of care.
Turnout
8+ hours daily, herd company where possible. The biggest single lever.
Gut
Hindgut buffer before concentrates. Prebiotic yeast. Targeted omeprazole around shows.
Hoof
5-week farrier cycle. Biotin, methionine, zinc as needed. Surface variety.
Movement
Active recovery between sessions. Hand-walking, ice boots, hacks. One full rest day.
Sleep
Deep dust-free bedding. Quiet aisle. No work 90 min before turn-in. Stall-cam check.
Supplements
Vitamin E (stalled horses). Omega-3 from flax/algae. Joint support. Electrolytes under work.
Diagnostics
Annual ACTH from 12. Quarterly SAA in competition years. Vit-E tracking. Senior dental annually.
What this buys you.
For an elite-level mid-career dressage horse, the realistic outlook with this kind of structured response is 4–6 additional competitive years before transitioning to lower-intensity work, vs. 1–2 years on the typical "stall plus grain plus PRN bute" trajectory. The horses we see thriving at 19, 20 in active sport were almost without exception managed this way — forage-first, turnout-rich, sleep-protected, recovery-respected — from at least their early teens onward.
This isn't a longevity revolution. It's the unsexy 90% of what already works, stacked deliberately rather than by accident.
Run this protocol on your horse.
The Pet Profile asks the equine-specific questions — turnout hours, forage type, work load, last farrier, last dental — and the Pet-Harmony Score™ weights forage, movement and herd contact heavily, in line with the science. Premium members get the personalised version, equine supplements at 25% off, and quarterly check-in support.
Read the equine longevity guide