Yes. Exactly so.
Glad to have shown you that your “guess” these things are all ineffective is incorrect 
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Actually what I said was that most are likely ineffective and those that were effective I would treat them with caution because anything that can kill pain or alter hormones is a big deal to the body.
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I mean…no…that’s not what you said.
There is no “most” or qualifier. You straight up said you guessed they were ineffective.
My point here is that many herbal things we use have some sort of support in the literature. You don’t have to guess–you can go look up what studies exist for whatever. And incredibly broad, sweeping statements like this one you made are useless, because discounting every plant based medicine or even just the herbal things that have made their way into horses is ignoring that quite a few things have real, actual, proven value.
Yes, there are caveats in using them, which should be part of everyone’s personal decision making calculus. But ignoring the entire collection of medicinal plant things is, at the least, tossing the baby out with the bathwater.
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So for me a " supplement" would be anything I feed in addition to my horses main normal horse diet. I may be way off base but it makes sense to me.
- Hay
- Grain, RB, feed of choice–if given.
- Grass
- Salt block
Anything else I choose to add would be ( to me) supplementation. So just about everything out there is a supplement of sorts.
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I noticed a real improvement in my ulcer prone gelding when I started him on SmartGI Ultra. Unfortunately, I have been priced out of using it anymore, as at $3.64 a day, it is expensive.
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that’s mine as well So to me, extra copper and zinc, and Vit E, are supplements.
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I can’t find that particular one. Who makes it? NEVERMIND! Black Oil Sunflower Seeds!
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Last winter I was enrolled in a Horticultural class. Every week we had to do a plant presentation and one of the things we had to address was any medicinal use of whatever plant we chose.
THAT was eye opening. I knew about things like digitalis, aconitum, willow bark, but there were plenty others I never would have thought.
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I’m not sure if you would consider this a supplement or not, but Uckele’s Sporthorse Grass has worked wonders on my easy keeping mare’s recurrent scratches. She was getting too chunky on even a pound of Essential K and decided to stop eating her pelleted copper/zinc, so she was “demoted” to a vitamin/mineral supplement with a handful of grain to entice her to eat it (hay pellets are also too boring lol). She also seems mellower when she’s on Mare Magic, especially in the spring during her strong heat cycles.
Exactly
Any ideas for a hoof/vitamin E combo supplement? Preferably available from Smartpak.
not likely to find one, not one with significant amounts of both. Vit E degrades in the presence of copper, without some kind of oil (not sure if any fat will do) to protect it. HorseTech High Point Grass has all 3, but only 750 IU of E, and a lot of things other than cu/zn.
I feed the following “supplements:
Omega Horseshine
Heiro - a must for Cushings pony
Cinnamon - pony will consistently eat his Prescend pill in rinsed beet pulp, cinnamon, sugar free apple flavored electrolytes.
Vitamin e
Magnesium
Finish line electrolytes
I feed Vermont Blend with beet pulp for two, one gets the same plus 4 lbs Ultium Gastric Care.
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I am not a big proponent of supplements. My horses eat Vermont Blend Pro with a bit of beet pulp and my old guy also gets a couple of pounds of Timothy pellets as well. However, one of my geldings has a past history of ulcers, and he seems obviously more comfortable when on Outlast, so he gets that. Both horses get flax and Vitamin E added when the grass goes away or becomes poor.
As far as joint supplements go, I do think some work but it sure can be hard to tell if they are really helping or not. I did have my vet send me a 60 day supply of a new joint supplement for my 15 year old Labrador and I fed it, but I was pretty sure that we were beyond supplement help at this age. It has made an amazing difference in my old girl. She has regained strength and is more active and less saggy in her affected rear legs. Night and day difference and honestly I wouldn’t believe it myself if I hadn’t seen it personally. The supplement is called Movoflex, if anyone is interested. So, that sort of makes me want to revisit joint supplementation for my horses.
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Coming back on here to say I do believe that Magnesium supplements do make a difference. I started my gelding on it a year ago, to hopefully address an issue and since I started vitamin E at the same time I never knew if it was beneficial to the resolved issue.
I stopped sometime this Summer ( kept up the E though) and I do notice a difference in him lately, so I just ordered more.
Required nutrient supplementation only works if there’s a deficiency. Sometimes that’s an outright deficiency based on NRC guidelines. But sometimes it’s a “deficiency” set up by the metabolism of the individual horse. But there still has to be a deficiency, for extra magnesium, or Vit e, or copper/zinc, or B1, etc, to make a difference.
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Supplements that I use on my 22 y.o. TB and 23 y.o. QH with arthritis: Actiflex and Glanzen. Used to feed Cosequin, but have had better reactions to Actiflex. I had a Jet Deck QH that tended to be shall we say energetic. Quiessence helped him be a little less so. Spirulina also helped when he developed a headshake.
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Cosequin ASU, SynChill.
After 10 days of the Daily Gold, my horse was seeing monsters. I have no idea why it had that effect on her but she went from mellow, well behaved horsey to fire breathing, not touching her food because she’s in too much of a panic, can barely lead her the 50’ from stall to paddock. Took her off after 2 days of cray cray and back to her normal self she went. So much for trying a “can’t hurt” supplement 
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For the BOSS do you just buy the bags sold for bird feed?
