In dressage, success is often judged over a matter of minutes.
A horse enters the arena and, for the next seven minutes, every transition, movement and aid is scrutinised. The smallest inconsistency can separate a personal best from a championship performance.
David McKinnon and Lea Rian competing at the 2026 Australian Dressage Championships at Boneo Park. Photo: equisoul.photography
For Australian dressage riders Dave and Robbie McKinnon, creating that consistency starts long before the first salute. It begins at home, in the daily routines that shape how horses train, travel and ultimately perform.
Over the years, the McKinnons have built a reputation for developing horses across multiple levels of the sport. Their stable is rarely home to just one type of horse.
Like many professional training operations, they also manage horses arriving from a variety of owners, often on very different feeding programs.
The challenge wasn't finding more feed products. It was finding fewer.
"We used to have a lot of horses come into training with a very large amount of feed options,” said Robbie.
"Our feed room wasn't big enough to hold the options that we had, and we found moving to Pryde’s really helped us condense that and simplify our feeding, but still get the same nutrients, and it was really much more uncomplicated and the horses all look really great from simplifying the options," she said.
It is a problem many horse owners can relate to. Whether managing a competition stable with dozens of horses or feeding a handful at home, nutritional programs can quickly become complicated.
Different horses are fed different products, extra supplements accumulate, and before long the feed room begins to look complex.
For the McKinnon’s, the answer was not adding another product to the mix. It was simplifying the entire approach.
That philosophy has paid dividends in the arena.
Recently, the team celebrated a remarkable run of results at the Australian Dressage Championships, with Lea Rian (Zimba) claiming the Australian Grand Prix Championship, MacArthur Sequoia (Simi) crowned Australian Elementary Champion, SPB Movie Magic (Movie) taking out the Australian Pony Medium Championship and SPH Fortino (Frankie) placing in the Inter II.
While championships are won through talent, training and horsemanship, Dave believes consistency has been one of the biggest advantages in their program.
"The feed that we found the best for what we do was Pryde’s EasiSport due to its low sugar, low starch elements,” said Dave.
“It just meant that with what we do - taking horses and trying to get them to concentrate for seven minutes in a dressage test - meant that they all just stayed the same.
“There was no ‘highs and lows’, there was no fizzy behaviour.
"It got rid of all of the ‘ups and downs’, especially when we had to compete the horses and spend a week at a competition.
You see a lot of people turn up and the horses are really fresh and hot and then by the end they're really dull and (EasiSport) got rid of that and kept the horses really stable and calm and consistent for the whole event.
“For us, moving to Pryde's EasiSport was a massive advantage," he said.
For the McKinnons, it all comes back to consistency. Whether they're training at home or competing away for a week, they want horses that feel the same every day. That's why simplifying their feeding program has been such a win, proving that effective nutrition doesn't have to be complicated, no matter the size of the stable.
Looking for a simpler way to feed for performance? Discover the difference Pryde's EasiSport can make.