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Horse Insulin Resistance Exercise

There are many benefits of exercise, all of which will decrease Insulin levels and help to stop Insulin Resistance. The weight loss needed in overweight horses is a therapy and not just a way to take weight off the Laminae of the hoof. How does this work and what do I need to do with my horse?

A.  Horse Insulin Resistance Exercise: How and Why It Works

1. Nervous system during exercise will lower Insulin output from Pancreas. If exercise one hour, can drop it over 30%.
2. Increase muscle – muscle has the largest number of receptors for Insulin, and by providing more receptors (locks), you allow Insulin to have more sites to bind to, which lowers blood levels of Insulin.
   Click here for Dr. Votion’s 2012 study on Physical Fitness and Mitochondrial Respiratory Capacity in Horse Skeletal Muscle
3. Increase blood flow – exercise can increase flow by 700%. Better circulation allows Insulin to the target cell faster, so Glucose is delivered faster. Due to the nervous system, we already have a smaller amount of Insulin in the bloodstream and this smaller amount, with more circulation, is able to work more efficiently than with too much Insulin (keys breaking keys). When a smaller amount of Insulin can do the work, this is called “increasing Insulin sensitivity”. By increasing Insulin sensitivity, this leads to lower and lower levels of Insulin until you get back to normal levels.
4. A second way of increasing blood flow – just the lowering of Insulin via exercise. Insulin, itself, at high levels irritates blood vessels leading to poor circulation and Laminitis. By removing the irritant, exercise helps flow another way.
5. Exercise has the ability to keep blood Glucose levels slightly low for 6-12 hours after exercise — a Hypoglycemic effect. Since blood Glucose is low, Insulin levels go low. The effect of exercise lasts much longer than the time exercised.
6. As one source puts it, “The fatter you are, the more Insulin Resistant you are to your own Insulin”. Even a small weight loss helps a lot.
7. Exercise can reduce appetite to further help in weight control. If eat less, is less Glucose, so less Insulin. If less Insulin, less fat being made and more fat being burned off.
   Click here for Dr. Steig’s 2011 article in the American Journal of Physiology on exercise and appetite.
8. Food moves through the digestive tract faster if there is exercise which means less will be absorbed.
9. Moving allowed horses to reduce body score and body fat down 4.95%. This is important information in IR horses.
   Click here for Dr. Laat’s 2016 article in Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine.
10. Short-term exercise even with no weight loss helps increase Insulin sensitivity in a 2010 study.  “Improved Insulin sensitivity occurred in obese mares without a long interval of exercise and in the absence of change in body weight.”  D. Powell, University of Kentucky, Eq. Vet. J. 2010.
    Click here to view Dr. Powell’s 2010 study.

B.  Horse Insulin Resistance Exercise: What Do I Do?

1. Walking burns 4 times the calories of standing. Walking also helps with circulation to the feet to help prevent  Laminitis. Often, people do not have time to ride/lunge their horse and that is why it is important to turn your horse out in a field with a muzzle. Many people keep their overweight horse in a small dirt lot thinking that will protect them. This is not the best solution. In a small dirt lot your horse will walk less and lay down more. This is not helping to solve Insulin Resistance. In a field, they will walk 10% of the time. For example, if you turn out 4 hours, they walk for 24 minutes— that is very helpful. Turn out is a therapy. Your horse will need a muzzle when turned out and grass is available to eat from April to December in regions with a cold winter. Year-round muzzling may be needed in year-round warm areas. If your horse slips the muzzle, call us. We have tricks to stop that problem.
2. Routine turn out allows consistent exercise even when you are not home or can’t lunge or ride your horse. If you go out to dinner or on vacation your horse is still exercising. If you get home late or in the winter and its dark, your horse has already exercised. Turn out is practical, real-world therapy. You probably can’t lunge or ride every day and that is OK because turn out is therapy.
   Click here to see an Ohio State University study on pace of walking and walking benefits in humans.
3. “But I am afraid of turn out, even with a muzzle.” Do not worry. We have a way to give you peace of mind. Do not just test forage, test your horse. Your horse’s response to forage is what is most important. This is a key point in Dr. Reilly’s Laminitis prevention that you will not see anywhere else. Test their Insulin to see how they are handling your feed program. At times of lush pasture, test Insulin levels to see if turn out time is correct and make adjustments. This system allows you black-and-white evidence to warn you if Insulin is climbing. Example: Turn out with muzzle for 2 hours a day for 5 days and test. Have a baseline drawn prior to start of turn out.
4. If you turn a horse out alone, they graze less. This will, again, decrease carbohydrate intake and decrease Insulin.
5. If you turn a horse out alone, they walk more. The more walking, the more therapy. Certain horses will thrive in groups. The pecking order of dominance may help certain horses exercise more if they are lower on the ladder. The dominant horses may chase/force exercise on the Insulin Resistance horse.
6. In times of lush pasture (early spring, fall), they eat 10% more an hour. This means the food has more  carbohydrate and they are putting in a greater volume of it into the stomach — double jeopardy. You may need to turn out less. This is when to start lunging and riding more. Monitor Insulin. Sugar levels of grass is lower at night, so many owners will turnout then.  Horses also rest more and eat less at night, so the intake is less.
7. A horse turned out in an adequate continuous grazing pasture, will gain less weight than if you keep rotating them  into new fields. The continuous grazing pasture must not get over grazed. The rotational system in a study showed yearlings gaining about 2 pounds a day more than continuous grazing pastures. Keep pastures mowed at about a 4 inch level. Do not mow pastures like a golf course. Example: Turn out horse in a 4 acre field by itself.
8. At times, you cannot exercise and need to stay in— rain, snow that is deep. Your horse will eat 15% less hay by just blocking off the view of other horses in the barn. This is about 3 less pounds of hay per day.
9. Exercise numbers:

a.  Slow trot burns three times the calories of a slow walk (per hour). A slow trot is about 7.5 miles covered in one hour or about an 8:00 minute/mile pace.

b.  A slow trot/slow canter for one hour burns five times the calories of a slow walk.

10.  Exercise may help in reducing Cushings advancement.

2013:  Animal studies by Dr. Rhodes, University of Illinois, found that physical exercise boosted the number of brain cells (neurons).  They saw the benefits in only one (1) month of increased exercise in several different sections of the brain.    Equine Cushings is due to a loss of neuronal function in the pituitary.  Exercise increases blood flow, so more nutrition, more oxygen can keep your horse’s brain in better shape.
Click here to see how exercise helps the brain in a Harvard Study.

11. Swimming your horse can help lower insulin. A 2017 study found “particular benefits for horses with insulin dysregulation.” Click here to see Dr. Bonelli’s study in Vet Journal.

12. Older horses have higher resting insulin numbers – it’s a fact of aging due to muscle loss. After exercise, older horses will reduce insulin but the amount reduced is less than in younger horses. Older horses need to add many items to help lower insulin (Heiro, diet, sleep, rate of eating, increased protein, Thyro-L, etc).

Click here to see 2002 study by Dr. Malinowski in Equine Vet Journal.

Click here to see 26 ways HEIRO is the Best Choice and why the winner over other products.

Proper diet and exercise is essential for horse health. This product is a supplement to help maintain horse health.  This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.