I’ve read that some people feed Jello… like flavored, sugary powdered Jello to their horses once a week to help improve hoof structure/health. Would that actually help anything or just put the horse on a sugar high for no reason? I’ve seen people feed Gelatin daily and that makes way more sense than Jello once a week…
I doubt it, and unlikely that anything fed 1x week would help anything at all. But it’s not like you would have to feed flavored Jello with sugar versus plain gelatin.
Personally I think that a supplement designed for horses, made by a reputable company would make more sense. But I probably wouldn’t do anything unless I knew that all other aspects of the horse’s nutrition were correct.
My thoughts as well, just wanting to see if anyone here has seen/done this before.
I’ve done it but, with the reasoning to get my pony to eat his meds for a month. The added foot growth didn’t hurt, except had to go 4 weeks vs 6 weeks for a trim. It does work, but is fairly pricey unless you find a good sale. I added 2oz with each meal of the orange flavored jello powder.
Do you know what Jello is made from? There are other products not made from animals that can be used to stimulate hoof growth. Many of those non-animal products are added to premium feeds, and many can be found in supplements. Contact smartpak or your feed or tack store for information. There are also some spray on products that stimulate hoof growth.
added: gelatin is also made from dead cows.
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I used to use the biotin products for my horse’s feet until one day he just decided he didn’t like the taste of them anymore. Now I feed him Knox unflavored gelatin. It is really cheap (I buy one pound jars of it from Amazon) and you give the horse the equivalent of ‘one packet’ of a Knox gelatin box from your local supermarket per day (supermarket pricing is like $3.00 for 4 packets). I think it’s like a half an ounce a day. The one pound jars should last about a month. And if you buy a 2 pack of the 1 pound jars from Amazon, it’s like $20 for about 2 plus months. A heck of a lot cheaper than the store bought farrier supplements.
The only negative is that it is a powder and each serving is not a lot…so it can easily slip to the bottom of the feed bucket and your horse can easily sift through it if he is a picky eater.
And if you read the reviews on Amazon, a lot of people take it for arthritis related problems…so it may help if your horse has any arthritic issues. A bonus!
Let me clarify - I’m not feeding this. I’m just curious about the practice. I’m perfectly happy with my mare’s hooves on Remission and it’s the best and cheapest thing around. $20 for a 4 month supply…
I wouldn’t have thought about it for meds… for limited use, I can see that being super effective.
Back in the days before hoof supplements, we fed Knox unflavored gelatin a few times a week for hoof condition and growth. That’s probably where this originated. It visably made a difference.
Recall one friend who thought unflavored gelatin and Jello were the same and Jello would be way cooler to throw in the feed. Tried it once with grape flavor. Horse ate a whole package dry, she didn’t think to dilute it, then dribbled purple food coloring all over everything including its Halter, lead rope, palomino colored chest and knees, white stockings, had purple teeth for a few days. No ill effects but she never tried that stunt again.
Today hoof supplements are more complete and not at all expensive, some things from the past belong in the past.
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Gelatin is usually one of the main ingredients in current day “hoof growth” formulas. You can buy unflavoured gelatin in the “bulk” section of supermarkets, fairly cheaply.
Glad to see some real information. Hooves are made of keratin, which is a protein. I’d rather have a quality feeding program than dump gelatin into my horse’s feed tub.
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Yes, but so is chondroitin 
Just because something comes from an animal source doesn’t make it undesirable, or turn the horse into an omnivore 
That said, plenty of studies have shown no change in anything by adding gelatin, such as
https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/jas/abstracts/44/2/JAN0440020257
The addition of gelatin did not affect (P<.05) hoof growth, base area, compression strength (yield point or elasticity), moisture, iron, zinc or nitrogen content.
In comparison, studies have shown a variety of changes, or not, with the addition of biotin. It’s then a matter of whether the rest of the diet is in place (ie enough methionine) and whether the horse is having trouble making his own biotin. Some horses kept their improvement after the biotin was discontinued, others did not and need regular supplementation. Still others showed no changes when supplemented.
In general, look to the basic diet first. It’s not hard to be deficient in some lysine (and therefore methionine usage is limited, which means biotin use is limited), or methionine itself (and therefore biotin is limited). If there’s not sufficient overall quality protein, or not enough copper and zinc (which may be “not enough” just relative to way too much iron), then hoof quality and growth can suffer.
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