I’m about to get a new gelding after retiring my mare (who was REALLY high maintenance and was getting quite a few supplements) and I was wondering if there’s anything he should be getting besides good grain, hay, and grass. The new horse is only 5 and has healthy joints/hooves/etc so there really aren’t any issues with him that would require supplements, but I was wondering if there are any basic supplements that I should put him on.
All my horses, dogs and cats are on Platinum Performance. Have been forever, or at least as long as I can remember. Its the best. We feel a mostly forage diet. Hay quality can change, but Platinum stays the same. Some of our horses are older now but are all sound and happy. I highly recommend it!
Selenium, because we’re in a very, very deficient area and every soil and hay sample I’ve ever sent reads ZERO selenium and I don’t feed enough grain to get it into them in sufficient quantities that way.
Other than that, no.
flax. My preference is Glanzen 3 but now that I have 3 horses have been using plain old flax seeds from the feed store.
I love smartcobo from Smartpak… “This multi-purpose formula contains Glucosamine, MSM, Vitamin C, Biotin, Amino Acids, Omega 3 Fatty Acids, Probiotics, Prebiotics, Digestive Enzymes and more”
My horse is 7 but I’ve been giving this to him for the last 2 years to help him last for many many more years 
Vitamin E and Selenium because of the soil here.
MSM, glucosamine and chondroitin for anyone over 10.
Biotin. I bought a pound from purebulk for $60 because they didn’t have any smaller. A megadose is 1/64th a tbsp a day, so everyone is getting it, forever! I figured I have 6,000 days worth.
Flax.
And any horse coming off the track goes on a double dose of Smarthoof for +/- 6 months. Seems to help, and if it doesn’t, I figure its money well wasted :lol:
At our barn Remission has become the go-to for everything from the 28yr old retired jumper to the Fatlingers. It’s got magnesium that seems to help with cresty necks and muscle soreness (made the race horse happier) and probiotics which seems to make everyone’s tummies happier (they seem to be doing better on what they getting feed/forage wise).
Platinum Performance; the CJ formula for the old guys.
Source and Apple a Day
Currently none of my horses is getting enough grain to get their vitamins, so they are on varying amounts of Uckele’s SportHorseGrass pellets. They also all get Solitude for fly control but that is as much for my benefit as theirs – I hate flies.
The only other supplements I give are Uckele TSF100 and SmartLytes to the pony with anhydrosis – this mix has really turned around her sweating issues.
Love Sport Horse Grass pellets. I also use those for the ones who get minimal grain, depending on what my hay analysis shows. I don’t really consider vitamins and minerals “supplements”, though. They are vital and necessary and not simply extras. A quibbling point. The same of course can be said about selenium.
So I shall amend my answer to “selenium and often a multivit/min supplement if they’re easy keepers on minimal grain”. But there is NO “one size fits all” thinking in my barn.
I was using a gazillion different supplements but switched everyone to Platinum Performance on the recommendation of my vet. They sent free samples to check for palatability. Two of the horses (jumpers) are on C/J, one older horse has the digestive one added, and the other horse wouldn’t eat the CJ so is on “plain” platinum performance. It is super incredibly convenient, much much easier than Smartpaks. Individual foil packets with all of a horses supplements per meal in it, when you go to a show, just take the right number of packets. Horses seem to like it. Packets are same price as bulk supplement, so no downside to using it. Way less waste than Smartpaks.
No. That flies in the face of the Golden Rule of Equine Husbandry: You give the horse what it needs, when it needs it, and in appropriate quantity and quality.
This rule implies that you don’t give horses what they don’t need.
G.
Flax
The platinum performance sounds great. I looked it up.
I looked at the ingredients and it has Non GMO Soy Flour.
I will stick with EquiPride.
My mare is nutty/fat/gassy/spook/itchy with ANY soy products. And, no I do not feed her grain. BP and hay pellets, and the EquiPride, which has no soy at all.
So Equipride is my supplement. No, I don’t work for the company at all.
I have been using Accel for years, as my horses are either on grass or local hay both Selenium deficient and they don’t get a whole lot of grain.
[QUOTE=Guilherme;7160126]
No. That flies in the face of the Golden Rule of Equine Husbandry: You give the horse what it needs, when it needs it, and in appropriate quantity and quality.[/QUOTE]
While I certainly wouldn’t call it the “golden rule”, this is a good point. However, with the advancement of supplements both for animals and humans, I’m sure everyone could benefit from something. Everyone knows that doctors recommend taking a multivitamin, no matter the life stage you’re in.
I have one horse who has allergies. Two horses who are old and both have joint problems. One is young with joint problems. All three have had hoof integrity issues since moving to the deep south. One is a performance horse. One has GI issues and colics regularly. All of these things can benefit from supplements, and Platinum Performance is my supplement of choice.
To each their own, I suppose.
All of mine get flax seed and a regional vitamin/mineral mix that includes a good amount of selenium. I also add vitamin e when they are not on grass, which is pretty much year round for the IR horse.
No. Each horse is an individual and I feed a high quality diet specifically so I don’t have to add a bunch of extras. The amount of feed is tailored to each horse’s metabolism, workload, and age.
One gets a vitamin balancer simply because he doesn’t get much grain. The other gets only fat and electrolytes (just to keep him drinking a lot) because he is in work as an eventer.
I used to feed joint and hoof supplements, but have since found that a better quality feed and either IM or IA injections are a better solution to those issues (along with 24/7 turnout) and far more cost effective.
I’m a big believer in less is more – you can chuck all the money you want at them, I guess, but one should also be aware that you CAN do harm with too much.
