Feeding gelatin as a hoof supplement? Does it work? How much?

[sublimequine]

I have heard in passing a few times that you can give a horse gelatin to help with their feet. I’ve googled it, and actually found a few studies on it, which is surprising. But I can’t seem to find many experiences from horse people themselves, or opinions of farriers about using gelatin as a hoof supplement.

What is in gelatin, exactly, that makes it good for hooves?

Also, if any folks here use gelatin, how much do you feed? It seems like you’d need an awful lot of it to make a difference, but I don’t know.

[Foxtrot_s]

Gelatin is made from boiling down hooves.

[Blinkers_On]

I don’t know about studies, but it works amazingly well. It’s cheap and unbelievably effective.
I am a huge believer in trying things on me that I give to horses. I “eat” gelatin daily. I have amazing nails, hair and skin for my age. My peers all look much older than I do. I’ve been eating/taking gelatin since 2004. I am in my mid 30’s and look fantastic. hair and nails as strong as strong could be.
Horses, same thing. incredible!

[tuppysmom]

We feed one packet of unflavored generic gelatin per day. You can by it in big boxes from a warehouse type store.

[sublimequine]

[QUOTE=Blinkers On;3706764]
I don’t know about studies, but it works amazingly well. It’s cheap and unbelievably effective.
I am a huge believer in trying things on me that I give to horses. I “eat” gelatin daily. I have amazing nails, hair and skin for my age. My peers all look much older than I do. I’ve been eating/taking gelatin since 2004. I am in my mid 30’s and look fantastic. hair and nails as strong as strong could be.
Horses, same thing. incredible![/QUOTE]

How much do you give the horses? And do you just buy like plain gelatin at the grocery store, or?

I’m curious! :yes:

tuppys; Oh, they come in packets? That’d be handy!

[SMF11]

jello

When my horse came to me he was on several supplements, including two scoops of jello each meal. When you use that much it adds up! I didn’t think it was the healthiest thing for him (it was like giving him 1/4 cup of sugar every day), and with my farrier and trainer’s blessing stopped using it. The fact that my horse had a lighter workload, and mud-free pastures when he came to me, meant his feet were just fine without the gelatin.

I’ll pass on my trainer’s belief, for what it’s worth: if something isn’t derived from what a horse normally would eat, she is suspicious of it until proven otherwise. So, for example, she favors corn oil over flaxseed oil. Don’t know if gelatin is proven, or if my trainer is right, but it doesn’t hurt to be cautious!

[tuppysmom]

Just the plain unflavored type. Most all supplements have some kind of sugar/glucose in them and we are always trying to avoid that, hence the gelatin. Over the years we had used all kinds of hoof stuff and this is the easiest, and you can buy it in any town anywhere. Good for us nomad types.

[Blinkers_On]

I buy gelatin in bulk for horses. Traileze sells it. 5 gallon bucket.
I feed about 2-3 Tbs a day. Not much but it’s effective. I take a packet’s worth of the knox stuff or the stuff from the barn which ever is handy.

[Blinkers_On]

It does promote a really nice strong healthy wall… nails, hair and skin for me.

[sublimequine]

I had no idea it was so common! Great info folks, keep it comin! :lol:

[Pye]

I love it! I had a filly who was in training that came up with white line. She needed something to grow out hoof. My vet told me to just skip all the $$ hoof supplements and stick her on this. It worked wonders. I would give her one packet no flavor once a day in her grain. She would eat everything right up.

[sublimequine]

To the folks who buy it in bulk, where do you get it?

[turningpointequine]

I found some here http://www.bulkfoods.com/unflavored_gelatin.htm but didn’t buy it because I wasn’t sure how much to give. It supposedly helps with tendon/ligament (collagen) too so I just bought the SmartTendon since I couldn’t screw up the dosage on that.

[Mai_Tai]

I found this online: Gelatin is a protein produced by partial hydrolysis of collagen extracted from the bones, connective tissues, organs, and some intestines of animals such as the domesticated cattle, and horses.

I’ve heard that gelatin is good for human hair and nails so I can see how it would be help for horses growning strong hooves, however since horses are not designed to eat animal products could it hurt their digestive system or have some other type of adverse effect?

[WhisperHeart]

i use to feed plain un-flavored gelatin to one of my horses was told to by my farrier and it did great things for his feet…made them nice and hard and they stopped cracking and chipping.

i would go to dillons or some similar store and buy 2 of the biggest boxes they had and would give 1 to 2 packets a day in his feed and he ate it right up and got nice strong hooves.

i use horseshoer’s secret now but the plain gelatin worked well.

[sublimequine]

[QUOTE=Mai Tai;3707925]
I found this online: Gelatin is a protein produced by partial hydrolysis of collagen extracted from the bones, connective tissues, organs, and some intestines of animals such as the domesticated cattle, and horses.

I’ve heard that gelatin is good for human hair and nails so I can see how it would be help for horses growning strong hooves, however since horses are not designed to eat animal products could it hurt their digestive system or have some other type of adverse effect?[/QUOTE]

Cattle are also not designed to eat animal products, but were fed byproducts of other animals quite commonly with no ill effects. I think as long as it’s treated properly and such first, it’s okay.

[deltawave]

Cattle are also not designed to eat animal products, but were fed byproducts of other animals quite commonly with no ill effects. I

If you don’t count mad cow disease, that is.

All of the published, scholarly research on this that I could find (hint: not using Google) dates back to the 1950-1970s. None of it was compelling in the least.

[sublimequine]

[QUOTE=deltawave;3707969]
If you don’t count mad cow disease, that is.

All of the published, scholarly research on this that I could find (hint: not using Google) dates back to the 1950-1970s. None of it was compelling in the least.[/QUOTE]

Thanks to very strict regulations about feeding meat and bone meal to cattle, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy is really no longer a huge risk as long as folks follow the regulations. Besides, if we stick to gelatin specifically, there’s no brain or spinal column present in gelatin, I believe. Therefore the prion that causes BSE should not be present, either.

[PonyPile1]

I think the geletin is processed enough that is does not pose a risk to your horse. It is canabalism though :lol:

[sublimequine]

[QUOTE=PonyPile;3708051]
I think the geletin is processed enough that is does not pose a risk to your horse. It is canabalism though :lol:[/QUOTE]

True. :lol: