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Hi all! Thanks again for all your suggestions and advice for moving  
my horse to Arkansas from Minnesota this summer.

I'm in the middle of a multi-way discussion at my barn about the use  
of joint supplements in healthy sound horses, and I figured if anyone  
would have the tested answers it would be all of you here.

My trainer firmly believes that all horses should be on them as a  
preventative, even if they are currently sound. All of her horses are  
on them. Most (actually, I think all of her clients) except me are  
giving them to their horses.

My vet is in the might help, probably won't hurt anything camp. His  
horses are on them.

My mother tried them on one of her Morgan geldings who had a stifle  
and some other hind leg issues dating from his days as a pasture  
breeding stallion at the urging of her vet - he actually got worse on  
the supplements. She almost put him down before she decided to take  
him off everything, at which point he improved.  He's still stiff,  
but the addition of a couple of new mares to his life has him flying  
around the pasture and better than he's been at 29 than he has been  
in years.  None of her horses are on them.

To date, my position has been that if the horse is sound we shouldn't  
muck about with systems that are not totally understood, and should  
save the supplements for when the horse actually shows signs of  
needing them. Not sure if there's any research indicating if they  
build tolerances, etc. but that is a concern.  And, these things are  
not cheap. I also have to admit that I tried taking them when I got  
back into riding at 33 after a several year hiatus and really  
couldn't tell that they made any difference for me.

But I've been reading more articles indicating that they are a good  
preventative - the last one being in the Equus issue that just came  
out. And that led me to more articles indicating that horses are  
really good at hiding discomfort until it is serious.  My horse is a  
14 yr old Morgan gelding. I had the chiropractor/accupuncture/massage  
equine therapist give him a once-over last summer. The therapist  
wanted to borrow him to demonstrate a sound flexible horse.  He did  
have an odd reaction to his last two sets of spring shots, including  
some stiffness and swelling and stocking up of hind legs and/or  
hocks.  (I have the vet checking into titers before vaccinating as we  
speak - I'll report back to the list on that.) And the vet is going  
to take a look at his hocks in the next week or two because I was  
concerned about the vaccine reaction.

So, assuming everything checks out fine, am I being a bad mother and  
possibly limiting the length of his active career by not giving him  
supplements, or am I being a good mother by not mucking about with  
his joints when things seem to be going fine? Thanks in advance for  
any comments!

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