Thanks, he is under vet care, and does receive regular body work.
The only thing I haven’t done is the injections, vet has never suggested it. I’m not sure that’s worthwhile for what we do. The vet did suggest the Tri-Acta or 4-cyte if I thought he was creaky.
I’d be tempted to reorganize your list into “meeting basic needs” and “extras.”
Meeting his vitamin e need (and selenium, if he’s low) is a basic need. If he’s looking magnesium deficient, correcting that would be a basic need.
Stuff that’s not meeting basic needs is extra. You might be able to sort that into a couple of categories like “really clearly helps him” and “might be helping” or even “I just like the concept of this supplement” (no shame on the last one! I’ve been there! 
)
But work down your list from basic to not. Make sure he’s getting his basic needs met, then add the “this clearly helps him,” and then whatever other extras you and he have the appetite for. Vitamin e for a horse not on grass, esp an older one, probably shouldn’t be an optional.
Ooh, brilliant. Thank you! I love this idea.
I don’t know why vitamin e doesn’t make it on my auto ship list. That’s actually a really good idea. Maybe leave everything as is and just get the e in there first.
Omneity already has selenium and magnesium, unless there is a specific need I wouldn’t add more of these. It also has salt more won’t hurt just not sure its needed.
What do you think the oats will add to the plan? I know some people feed a handful or two as a 'greeting/nummy".
I wonder if the Triacta and W3 are different but essentially doing the same job?
I answered before I read and now I see what I have said has been addressed.
I keep on thinking a couple of cups of oats, which will be pretty much useless other than a tasty treat. You’d likely need 10 times more (at least) to get their energy up. I don’t know of anyone at the STB track who use them anymore. There are better balanced feeds nutritionally wise than oats.
I didn’t make up the oats thing. :D. I actually read about it here, and then googled away. Google said 2 cups or so.
But honestly if it’s just a treat that’s ok too. Now I’m hoping the vitamin e will solve the energy issue. Which isn’t terrible by any means. But I’d like to help if possible. Similar to when I get lazy with my vitamins, realize I feel like poop, then that first dose of Vitamin B I feel like a rock star.
I don’t think Tri acta and W3 are the same… I don’t know if W3 is worth the cost, it’s gotten expensive. It does smell good though. 
Test Vitamin E levels. If your horse is actually deficient, you will want a loading dose.
Tri-acta looks like a joint supplement from their website, W3 less so. More of an omega 3 supplement, different types of products. Oil is a good source of calories, Tri-acta doesn’t make that claim or the omega 3 content.
Absolutely recommend testing for both Vit E and Selenium. My guy felt like absolute garbage for a while when I first got him. Vitamin E levels came back well below normal limits. We went through a bottle of Emcelle (not sure what’s available in your area for water-soluble E preparations, but it’s well worth the investment if he tests low). Then switched to a pelleted Vit E for maintenance. Between that and his grain, he gets about 5,000 IU per day and that’s been plenty to keep his levels on the upper side of normal.
I also live in an area with low Se levels in the soil. I would’ve assumed he was low, especially with the E deficiency, but that was actually near the upper threshold of normal without supplementation. He wasn’t at risk of toxicity, but he certainly didn’t need any additional Se.
Getting the levels right for these two in particular can make such a difference. Plus testing for each saves you $ on supplements in the long run if they’re not needed.
Yes, triacta is for joints. The old chondroiton msm glucosamine trifecta we’ve all been burning our money on for decades.
And yet i can’t stop…
Oats are very useful for horses who do longer stamina work, like endurance. They just need a boost in carbs. That said, the 1-2c isn’t doing anything on any account, other than potentially taste.
Google has a lot of wrong information, and a lot of info that leaves a lot of context out of the picture. do you remember the website in any way ?
Test. If he’s low, and needs a water-soluble form like Emcelle, but you just give him 2000IU of a regular natural E and it doesn’t work, that doesn’t mean the E isn’t the problem, it just means he’s too low for that amount of a regular E to effectively raise his level. If he’s high normal on his current diet, there’s no real reason to add more. Test his Se level while you’re at it.
https://ker.com/equinews/answer/add-oats-increase-energy-saddle/
This was one I found. I mean, I don’t willy nilly apply information I read on the Google, but this seemed safe enough to give a try. Had they suggested lbs and lbs of oats I might have thought twice
This isn’t my first rodeo, but there’s still fun in micro managing your horse, even when you theoretically know better.
So, KER Is pretty good with articles, but I have no idea who wrote that answer to that question. It’s pretty unlikely the starch from 1-2c of oats is going to contribute anything of significance, especially in the context of your horse’s existing diet.
So I feed kinda your base diet of alfalfa pellets + oats to my whole little herd. Amount of pellets and inclusion/amount of oats varies depending on what each horse needs. I add a few things like Vermont Blend Pro and flax and vitamin e.
Oats range to nothing (for the fatty) to close to 3 quarts. I use hulless oats, so they’re heavier by volume than regular oats.
Never saw an energy increase in anyone.
Obvs there’s a huge ymmv element because some horses are more sensitive to NSC than others. Mine have never gotten up or snorty, and NSC of their buckets with the oats + pellets was somewhere in the mid to high teens, which they’ve always tolerated without issue before, so I didn’t really expect a change.
But unless this guy has shown you he’s sensitive to NSC or oats in particular in the past, I wouldn’t necessarily expect much. It’s certainly something to try, but definitely not a sure thing.
The vitamin e thing was bothering me because I know it’s necessary so I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t feeding it…
The W3 provides the E. 1000 mg if you’re feeding recommended amounts.
I measured and probably wasn’t doing the full recommended daily, but will be now, and need to figure how mg to iu. Maybe it’s still not enough
A quick Google says 1 mg = 1.49 iu (d-alpha) or 2.22 iu of the synthetic (dl-alpha.)
So you’re looking at about 1500 iu with the W3. Testing the horse would be interesting! My “base” dose is 2000 iu, but my old lady mare tested on the low end of normal with that last spring, so I took everyone up to 4000 iu.
Wow… dod you test everyone? Or just the older mare.
Did you notice a difference after the increase in any of them?
I just tested the old lady. But I was surprised at where she was! So just upped everyone.
Nope, no difference. Doubtful that anyone was actually under range, though. But vitamin e is a cheap and easy thing to cover, and I’d rather have them on more to ensure they’re more solidly middle of the range than sitting at the bottom end.
She was also high on selenium despite being in a “low” selenium area and not getting additional other than a normal fortified grain ration. Not concerningly so, but certainly didn’t need more. So definitely test that first if you’re considering upping it.
Thanks!
I won’t be increasing the selenium at all now that I’ve read more.
I think I’ll just stay status quo for now. The oats at least have him eating his whole meal, maybe that will help his energy.
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