Horses, like humans, have their own personality and no amount of extra feed will induce a laid back character into more action.

Listed below are a few things that can be done to help, but it must be borne in mind that an energy conserving personality will always be that way inclined. Just like in humans!

1, Fitness

Make sure your horse is fit enough for the work expected of it and that it is not overweight.

The best thing to do with one of these characters is to get them fitter than they really need to be for the work that you are doing.

In the short term this will be hard work for you and him but well worth it in the long term.

Getting them to lose weight and be fitter than they have to be is easier said than done but can make the biggest difference to their energy levels.

If you are not sure how to assess your horse’s fitness speak to a BHS instructor who will be able to advise on fitness regimes etc. Do not pile competition mixes in to your horse if he is still overweight.

In the first instance, you must ensure that all his requirements for vitamins, minerals and protein are being met.

2, Vitamins

Ensure that your horse is receiving its full daily requirement of vitamins and minerals.

The biggest problem that most laid back horses have is that they are generally also good doers.

Due to their propensity to run to fat, they are very often fed less than the recommended daily amount of whatever feed they receive.

This means that, in many cases, they are not receiving adequate levels of vitamins, minerals and trace elements. This in itself can make a horse lethargic and also be less inclined to make bursts of energy.

All animals require minimum levels of vitamins and minerals (macro and trace) for their body to function correctly and low levels of even just a few can impact on performance.

This can best be supplied by providing your horse with a proper balancer pellet.

This provides all the vitamins and minerals they will require when in work, without also providing excess calories.

On the plus side, these also provide quality protein. And, as this is essential for muscle building and repair, then that must be a 'good thing'.

3, Electrolytes

During the summer working horses tend to sweat a lot, as sweating helps the horse to cool itself down.

During the process of sweating, the horse not only loses water he also loses salts (electrolytes). Make sure that your horse has free access to salt and also add salt to his feeds.

On days when he has sweated a lot, use a good electrolyte in his feed. Loss of electrolytes can also cause lethargy.

4, Energy metabolism

In my experience quite often good doers and laid-back types benefit from supplementation with a good B vitamin complex supplement.

B vitamins are a key factor in energy metabolism and oftentimes supplementation allows the horse to make best use of the energy that he is already being supplied.

There are many of these types of supplement in the market place and they are usually mixed in with a source of iron, which in itself can also have a benefit if your horse is marginal in iron (some of the products available are NAF EnerG, Redcell and Propell Plus, to name but a few).

5, Vavava voom

If more oomph is required, then the following usually makes the difference required.

Give your horse a handful of oats or a competition mix (high cereal content) in his feed. This will give him enough fast response energy to hopefully make a difference, without piling on the calories.

For most horses that handful or two creates that bit of extra oomph they require. Do not give them scoop-fulls of the stuff as it will just undo all the good work you have done getting them fit and lean.

If you always have a small handful in their feed, then at times when you know that they are going to be working harder than usual you can add two or three handfuls for a few days to help with the extra energy that will be required.

Their gut flora will be used to the oats and will therefore not cause any upset.

Following the above tips should help your horse to have a more energetic outlook on life. But please, remember that he may just be that personality type and that laid-back horses are, genuinely, worth their weight in gold.