3 Best Natural Supplements for Horses
Click to play
The Best Natural Supplements for Horses – A Buyer's Guide
As a horse owner, you want to ensure that your equine companion is healthy and happy – or, better still, winning races! One way to achieve this is by providing your horse with natural supplements to support its overall well-being.
But with so many options available, choosing the right supplements for your horse can be overwhelming. This guide will help you navigate the world of equine supplements and make informed decisions for your horse’s health.
Understand Your Horse's Needs
Before choosing supplements for your horse, it’s essential to understand their specific needs. Consider factors such as their age, breed, activity level, and any health conditions they may have. Consult with your veterinarian to determine if your horse has any nutrient deficiencies or if any supplements could benefit its overall health.
When it comes to supplements for horses, there are a wide variety of options available. From joint support to digestive aids, choosing the right supplements for your horse can be difficult. However, by understanding your horse’s needs, you can narrow your options and make informed decisions.
For example, a glucosamine supplement may be beneficial if your horse is older and experiencing joint stiffness. Or, if your horse is prone to digestive issues, a probiotic supplement could help support its gut health.
Always consult your veterinarian before adding supplements to your horse’s diet, as they can provide valuable insight and guidance.
Horse Vitamin and Mineral Supplements
Vitamin and mineral supplements for horses are great for nourishing horses and racehorses all year round. Below are links to the Horse and Hound UK website, which covers these supplements well:
If you compete in horse racing, you’ll know to make sure any supplements you use don’t contain prohibited substances.
Choices of Vitamin and Mineral Supplements for Horses
Below is a choice selection of vitamin and mineral supplements for horses currently available:
Globalvite
Globalvite is one of the few mineral supplements with chelated minerals (bound to proteins). Unfortunately, that’s not good enough. Chelation is the bonding of ions and molecules to metal ions. It involves the formation or presence of two or more separate dative or coordinate bonds between a polydentate (multiple-bonded) ligand and a single central metal atom.
These ligands are called chelants, chelators, chelating agents, or sequestering agents. They are usually organic compounds, but sometimes not, as in the case of zinc and its use as a maintenance therapy to prevent copper absorption in people with Wilson’s disease, an inherited disorder in which too much copper accumulates in the liver, brain, and eyes.
Chelation
Chelation is used in making nutritional supplements, removing toxic metals from the body, as contrast agents in Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanning, making catalysts, in water treatment to remove toxic metals, and in fertilizer manufacture.
Although chelated minerals are absorbable in the gut, they are nowhere near as absorbable as pure plant-derived hydrophilic minerals from Senonian compost.
Chelated minerals are far better than hydrophobic metallic minerals but fall way short in gut uptake compared to hydrophilic minerals. There is actually no comparison. If, on a scale, metallic minerals are absorbed by 4%, chelated minerals may be 10 to 15% absorbed in the gut. Hydrophilic minerals are 100% absorbed.
And anyway, only a handful of chelated minerals are present in commercial supplements for horses. Compare that to 75+ minerals in pure plant-derived mineral supplements.
Today, pastures lack all the nutrients that racehorses need. Mineral and vitamin levels have to be optimum for overall good performance.
See here about the relative bioavailability of trace minerals in the production of animal nutrition.
Globalvite contains Calcium Carbonate, Mono-Calcium Phosphate, Sodium Chloride, Magnesium Phosphate, Molasses, Dicalcium Phosphate, Seaweed Meal, Mineral Oil, and Mojave Yucca. The minerals are chelated.
Dodson & Horrell Daily Vitamins & Minerals for Horses
This is quite a good product. The nutrient analysis of Dodson & Horrell Daily Vitamins & Minerals supplements for horses is as follows:
- Crude Protein - 11%
- Crude Oils & Fats - 2.5%
- Crude Fiber - 13.5%
- Crude Ash - 32.0%
- Starch - 1.5%
- Sugar - 4.5%
- Calcium - 6.5%
- Phosphorus - 2.0%
- Magnesium - 1.1%
- Salt - 4.6%
- Sodium - 1.75%
- Potassium - 0.8%
- Sulphur - 0.1%
- Vitamin A - 600,000 iu/kg
- Vitamin B1 - 400mg/kg
- Vitamin B2 - 450mg/kg
- Vitamin B6 - 250mg/kg
- Vitamin B12 - 1.5mg/kg
- Vitamin D3 - 65,000iu/kg
- Vitamin E - 8,500mg/kg
- Vitamin K - 110mg/kg
- Biotin - 15mg/kg
- Choline Chloride - 12,000mg/kg
- Folic Acid - 150mg/kg
- Lysine - 15g/kg
- Cobalt - 3mg/kg
- Methionine - 9g/kg
- Copper - 1,075mg/kg
- Iron - 2,000mg/kg
- Manganese - 2,000mg/kg
- Selenium - 13mg/kg
- Zinc - 5,000mg/kg
- Nicotinic Acid - 1,750mg/kg
- Iodine - 12.5mg/kg
- Pantothenic Acid - 645mg/kg
This product contains twelve minerals. Where are the other 60+ trace minerals? And it’s doubtful whether these twelve minerals are hydrophilic.
Anyway, you can find out more about this product here.
Although the above is a good list, there are no 75+ pure plant-derived hydrophilic minerals. Those trace elements are what is missing in ALL commercial supplements for horses.
PetLife CompleteTM
Only our plant-derived hydrophilic minerals will give horses ALL the minerals they need, and in HYDROPHILIC form that quickly assimiliates in the gut.
By all means, get any mineral supplement you think is okay for horses, but do add to that our PetLife CompleteTM to give your horses the minerals Mother Earth no longer gives them.
After a few weeks of PetLife supplementation, they may perform better, with more stamina and fewer illnesses. They guy in the above video found that out to his benefit.
👇
