TIA–looked at both Enviro Equine Omega Balance and Omega Equine Complete. Each list their ingredients in different format, so hard to get a good common denominator comparison. But it seems that Om. Eq. Complete has tons more Omega 6 (bad) than the good Omega 3 (5 to 1 ratio)??? Any opinions out there on either product? Enviro product shows tons more O3 than the O6 in their product (30% vs 16%). Thanks.
This is a tough one because we don’t know a lot about essential fatty acids in horses, nor do we really know the ideal ratio or the daily requirements. By best guess, the ratio should be closer to 2:1 to 4:1 but 5:1 may be acceptable.
What is the source of oil? That is another factor as most of the research showing benefits has been done on marine sources, so high in DHA/EPA (with DHA being the more effective O3FA IMO). Many of these product use flax or other sources because of palatability issues with marine sources like fish oil but the O3FA found in those have limited benefits. Horses can convert ALA into DHA/EPA but its a really low rate and pretty energetically inefficient.
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OP, if you post links to the products you will get more responses, as not everyone is going to go and google them to check them out.
For omegas, I use ground flax. Triple Crown has a product that is cheap and stabilized. And it’s cheap.
https://www.triplecrownfeed.com/products/golden-ground-flax/
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Thanks Palm Beach. Here is the Omega Equine Complete (have to scroll down a bit)
http://www.o3animalhealth.com/equine-omega-complete.html (there’s O3,5 and 9, plus DHA and EPA)
Here is the Enviro Equine Balance-
https://www.enviroequine.com/equine-omegabalance/ (you have to scroll down and click on the photo of the ingredients list) It’s Camelina and Pumpkin Seed oil.
Open to other products as well, but these seem to have surfaced between trainer recommendation and friends. I’ll check Triple Crown, as I’ve had success with their other products. Thanks.
My horse has been on the Equine Omega complete for just over 2 months now and he looks amazing. I can’t even get over it. I removed all other supplements he was on - ground flaxseed, a multi-supplement from smartpak, and amplify for weight gain in addition to his feed, hay, and alfalfa pellets. Even an old scar has somehow started to look better. He had a split on both front hooves that I’d been battling for months and just kept coming back with new growth. It’s now almost gone on both hooves. Most of the horses here have been battling weight loss as we have no grass during the winter months. I have not had to up his feed at all. His weight looks great, his topline has improved, and his butt is finally filling out. I can’t explain the scientific reasons behind it, I can only tell you what I’ve seen in my personal horse.
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what benefits are you looking for? Shiny coat? A few extra calories? Any of those would work.
If you are looking more for the health benefits like mitigation of inflammation, I would feed a marine source. Those products are primarily ALA.
I am not sure about TC’s product but typically ground flax oxidizes quickly.
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Yes to all! Extra cool calories. Want her to fill out a bit more–if possible. Her “thoroughbed is showing” (1/2 Hanoverian). She came in with a shitty coat, but our good hay has helped. Inflammation mitigation always popular, but not really a problem right now. TC has other products besides the ground flax that look good. Need to call and get their sales pitch on that.
At $2 a day that EO stuff should make them walk on water!
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Smartpak has an Omega and vitamin E supplement that seems reasonably priced. I almost ordered it for my horses, but chose their anti-oxidant supplement instead for my gelding (for a variety of reasons), and then I ran across the Triple Crown flax at the feed store and went with that instead. The TC flax is stabilized and bag says it’s good for 12 months. Here’s a link to the Smartpak product: https://www.smartpakequine.com/ps/smartomega-3-and-e-ultra-14436
I’ve used Renew Gold for a number of a years now. I recommend looking at it as option for you horse.
Prior to Renew Gold I ued CoolStance coconut meal, but getting it was problematic. When I found Renew Gold had Coolstance as part of its ingredients I switched.
TC’s flax is stabilized and good for 2 YEARS.
If you are feeding ground flax I would look at ordering a 50 pound bag of whole flax from a feed store. I pay $20 for 50 pounds . The savings are unreal over the ground.
I have / still do feed 3 different things that are good for what you want! I use Renew Gold as my “base” feed and love it! I love the advantages of feeding fish oil (myself and dogs were already on it) so I looked for a horse product. I found Contribute from KPP to best the best bang for your buck. It contains the HIGHEST concentration of EPA (3,210 mg per oz) and DHA (2,320 mg per oz) and the lowest recommended dose of 1 oz per day. That means a gallon (@ $62 from Heartland Vet Supply) will last 128 days! That’s less than 50 cents a day. I did switch to whole flax for the winter though since my barn has no heat anywhere and the Contribute started to freeze (its been in the negatives for windchill at night). The flax is something I’ve used before and is SUPER cheap, but personally I think the Contribute is better for anti inflammatory purposes (took the “fluid” out of my mates legs within 24hr) so I will be buying after the flax runs out. I LOVE the Contribute - seriously don’t get why people pay so much for the Equine Omega Complete when it’s mostly soy or flax oil if I remember correctly. Also if you’re worried about the taste they will send you a 8oz sample (7day trial basically) free. My horse loves it and is a pretty picky eater - it smells SO sweet like bubblegum I think.
The base for EOC is soy oil, fish oil, and Vit E and I don’t have to feed ANYTHING else. I pay $56.95 a gallon from a local distributor, no tax. My multi-supplements (joint, hooves, coat, gastric) were $84 a month from smartpak, plus Amplify ($35 a month) or Cool Calories ($20 something?), plus ground flax ($50 a bag lasted 8-9 months). I also did the Purina Supersport for a few months at $35 a bag. None of these things combined have given me the results I’ve seen on EOC alone. I ended up saving money by switching. The results have spoken for themselves and my horse loves it. 3 people at my barn have switched to it because of the dramatic change in my horse.
This is why I feed a premium brand concentrate. No need for “dramatic results” as my horses already look great and I spend less than 50 cents a day.
@horsegurl - what is your horse’s basic diet?
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If you are looking for additional calories without “amping” her up, you could look at Coolstance.
My horse came to me in poor condition and is on a premium feed plus hay and alfalfa. The OP was discussing a horse that needed weight gain. If our horses already looked great, then we wouldn’t be seeking out additional supplements.
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If you take a horse in poor condition and feed it good you are probably going to get dramatic results, supplements or no supplements. I would look at the overall diet first, before spending $2 a day on a supplement. Just trying to save the OP a little money.
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I have used Horsetech’s Glanzen with great results, and Omega Horseshine. Glanzen has higher levels of minerals than Horseshine, but both are flax based. I am currently using Smartpak’s SmartOmega mostly because it’s more convenient in my current situation.
I’ve been very happy with all of them.
https://horsetech.com/glanzen3
https://www.omegafields.com/equine-products/omega-horseshine-37.html
https://www.smartpakequine.com/ps/smartomega-3-and-e-ultra-14436
Hi PB,
Not doing much outside of hay–Hay pellets (mix including alfalfa) morning and noon, hay at nite. 1/2 scoop Ultium (probably not even necessary if only 1/2 a scoop!!) and 1/2 scoop 30% Ration Balancer (Triple Crown). Ration balancer helped a lot. I just want her to fill out in the rump and neck/whither/top line a bit. She needs more muscle on that top line too, and that’s going to be work, not feed.
Also, reminder, she’s 1/2 Thoroughbred so I realize she will never look super round warmblood type. And she is about 8 months out of the maternity ward/baby weaned.
She looks good, but I think can look better. Other horses in the barn look great (we are an Equine Omega barn, extra $$ but I am concerned about the O3 to O6 ratio–still considering though), so I don’t think we have a “poor feed” problem.
Thanks Kaya, I will check out the Contribute.
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