Pre-competition dietary habits and nutritional knowledge of affiliated showjumping riders

Introduction: A fatigued rider is likely to struggle to stay balanced on the horse and give clear signals to the horse, which can lead to poor performance and increased risk of injury. To prevent fatigue a diet covering energy and nutrient needs is highly important, especially prior to competitions as dietary habits can influence whether an athlete wins or loses in competition, when all else is equal. The ability to adopt nutritional practices is assumed to be dependent on an athlete’s level of nutritional knowledge. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate pre-competition dietary habits and nutritional knowledge of showjumping riders affiliated with British Showjumping.
Material & Methods: Part A: 7-day food dairies and online nutritional knowledge questionnaires were used to collect data on pre-competition dietary habits and nutritional knowledge of five female showjumping riders (age 21 ± 2.03 years) competing in 110 cm to 125 cm showjumping classes. Using a smartphone app to fill out the food dairies allowed for energy and macronutrient intake to be calculated automatically, and the computer software Nutritics was used to increase the accuracy of the calculated intake. Part B: Online nutritional knowledge questionnaires were used to collect data on nutritional knowledge of 44 showjumping riders (aged 18-54 years) competing in 70 cm to 145 cm showjumping classes.
Results: Part A: The findings revealed that the riders did not have an adequate pre-competition diet due to not meeting the energy (Figure 1), protein and carbohydrate (Table 3) needs suggested in this study for optimal showjumping performance, but they had a considerably high level of nutritional knowledge (71.80 ± 2.07% correct answers). The one-way ANOVA revealed no difference (p>0.05) between nutritional intake and days prior to competition. The Pearson’s correlation revealed no relationship (p>0.05) between nutritional intake and nutritional knowledge. Part B: the showjumping riders had a high level nutritional knowledge (71.40 ± 9.69% correct answers).

Discussion & Conclusions: The showjumping riders in the current study did not consume an adequate pre-competition diet, but had a considerably high level of nutritional knowledge, which indicated that the showjumping riders failed to apply nutritional knowledge to their daily dietary practices. Therefore, implementing nutritional interventions in equestrian sports to address plausible nutrition related problems prior to competitions and to improve procedural nutritional knowledge might be beneficial.