Supplements & your horse's diet

It seems as though there is an ever expanding amount of supplements for horses on the market – from general vitamin and mineral supplements, to specialist products for high performance, laminitis, ulcers, old age, coat shine – you name your equine problem, there’s a coloured bucket to fix it! 
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Photo: www.foxfeed.com
My perspective on supplements is
  1. They are the “cherry on top” of the diet – you need to get the basics of water, fibre/forage, energy content, salt and protein right first before even thinking about the powders and potions. Remember good quality forage will provide many nutrients!
  2. (this might sound obvious…) They should be “supplementing” the diet to fill gaps in nutrition, and not adding extra things that are already well-provided in the diet.
  3. Certain supplements can be used as “nutraceuticals” – for a specific reason, to get a specific result. I see these more like natural medicines, to be used as needed.
​Point b) is probably the most important when evaluating your horse’s diet. The key to a good "balancer" or supplement is that it complements the base diet - it should provide vitamins and minerals that are lacking in the diet, in appropriate amounts, and sometimes more importantly, not contain nutrients that are already plentiful or even excessive in the diet. The balance (ratios) between certain minerals is also important.
Many, many supplements I see marketed as “complete” or “balanced” simply do not complement the average horse’s diet. Frequently they contain minerals that are already in excess just from grass and hay – potassium and iron are two big ones. The balance between potassium and sodium is important, as is the balance between iron, zinc and copper. A forage-based diet is already unavoidably high in potassium and iron – why pay to add to that imbalance! The flip-side of this is that many of these supplements are also quite low in the minerals that DO tend to be lacking in the average diet – for example, vitamin E, copper, iodine and selenium. Or they are contained in incorrect ratios. This also applies to complete or pre-mixed feeds which also contain vitamins and minerals. It's often not the absolute amount of minerals contained that's the issue, but rather a balancing act!
​This is why looking at the whole diet (and ideally with hay and pasture testing if at all possible) is important if you want to really optimise your horse’s nutrition. A certain supplement may have a good reputation, but it will not be very useful to you if it doesn’t complement your horse’s individual diet.

Of course there is a practical side to feeding horses, and not everyone has the time, or ability to measure and mix the individual ingredients that make up a balanced diet. This is why I now provide an additional service for my clients - custom-made, pre-mixed and pelleted supplements, which are formulated to provide everything your horse needs, and nothing it doesn't!

Check out my services, or contact me if you would like help creating an optimal, balanced diet for your horse - you might end up buying a few less colourful buckets!