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I know that once you get
> up into the more competitve field you need to pay more attention to the
> specific needs of the individual horse. It would be interesting to actually
> hear from the experts on this list which supplements they are using and
> why/when.
I would certainly hesitate to call myself an expert on much of anything,
but I agree with Bob, Linda, Wendy and others that good management and a
simple, basic, well-balanced diet are much MUCH more important than any
supplement you can feed.
Here at Cal Poly, we do lots of nutritional consulting and analysis for
horse owners and trainers, the majority of them from the racetrack.
You'd be amazed at the number of trainers that are feeding an
excessive-protein-deficient-energy-vitamin-and-mineral-imbalanced diet
to horses that spend 99% of their time standing in stalls, and then come
to us saying that they're happy with the ration, but just want a
recommendation for a "supplement" because the horse doesn't seem to have
enough energy/staying power/speed in general or whatever. Tom
probably has experience with hundreds of these kinds of stories.
Whenever I teach a nutrition class, I tell them the most important thing
is to feed a balanced ration. If you're going to supplement beyond
that, you should do so for a specific reason. For example, feeding
GAG's for preventative or supportive reasons is a reasonable and
specific strategy. Feeding biotin to improve hoof condition is a good
specific reason (by the way, horses can't utilize more than 15 mg a day
and the body doesn't store it, so ignore the recommended dosage on the
bucket). But feeding a bunch of this and that is generally a waste of
money and is what we call "shotgun feeding"---if you feed enough
different supplements, you're probably supplying everything, but you're
also spending alot of money in the meantime.
All my horses are on 25% alfalfa and 75% bermuda, with barley and/or
corn to the hard-working horses when they need it. My TB broodmare is a
little screwy, and a notoriously hard keeper, so some of the usual
management rules get chucked out and she gets whatever grain she's in
the mood to eat that day when she's pregnant or lactating and as much
vegetable oil as I can sneak in. The almost-yearling Anglo-Arab colt
Dakota (aka Spudnuts aka George of the Jungle aka The Demon Seed) gets a
15% complete concentrate pellet along with his hay because the
vitamin/mineral balance is more exact, which I want in a growing horse.
It must be working because at under a year old, he's 15 hands, has
incredible bone and shine, no signs of epiphysitis/OCD and is
regrettably so full of beans I never know what he's going to do next.
His latest trick is picking up the rubber feed tubs and flinging them
(with deadly aim) at the adults peacefully trying to snooze. Or at me
if I don't duck. Horrible creature.
The only supplements I give are a general vitamin-mineral mix (I feed
Select) at half the recommended dose, plus 15 mg of biotin per horse per
day (though I'm not religious about it), plus probiotics (I happen to
feed Fastrack, but I'm not religious about that, either). Two of the
adult horses with wear-and-tear on them get chondroitin sulfates. All
the horses stay in good weight, have terrific coats and attitudes and
energy, nice feet and good digestive efficiency (actually, I know this
because I DID take some poop samples to the lab to measure it for
energy/nitrogen content, but then I was really bored that week and am
evidently easily amused).
I don't feed any thing else because there's no reason to. I don't
necessarily object to other supplements, I just don't see a need for
them with my horses. If a good reason came up, then fine, but I would
feed the required substance in the required amount, not just a handful
of this and a handful of that in the hopes of covering all the bases.
If my horses were really racing hard, then I might consider adding more
Vitamin E (which evidence suggests hard-working horses use more of) and
possibly Vitamin C (which, as a precursor to collagen, is being
investigated as a preventative in human athletes against muscle soreness
due to connective tissue damage), even though the data on either of
these is a bit lacking so far (yes, it's true, I do not necessarily make
every decision in life according to whether or not there's exhaustive
published research on it).
And so I have healthy horses and a bit more money stays in my pocket.
Well, just one more bit of input.
Susan Evans
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