Re: EQUINE JOINT AND WEIGHT SUPPLEMENTS

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

If maintaining weight is the primary issue, I don't think swapping out the
oil to add a supplement will help.  If the quality of the pasture and sweet
feed is halfway decent, I doubt that you have any significant mineral or
vitamin imbalances that really call for a vit-min supplement, and I assume
you're providing a salt source.

What you might consider, however, is adding some beet pulp to the ration for
both the new and veteran horse.  It has as much or more feeding value as
grain and given your feeding schedule, you may get more caloric bang for
your buck.  Not only will it add some more calories, it'll stretch out the
time period during which the grain is eaten, and that will increase the feed
efficiency of the grain as well.  If you had to for money reasons, you could
replace a pound or so of the grain with the beet pulp---but beet pulp is
pretty cheap and hopefully won't break your bank to add it to the ration.

About joint supplements, there is increasing evidence that the oral
supplements are absorbed through the equine gut wall (and there seems to be
significant species differences, so you can't really extrapolate human or
canine data to horses reliably), but there's still a lot of question about
just how much really gets where it's supposed to go (in the joints).  For my
money, I still think the injectable GAGs (ie, Adequan or a generic version)
are still more cost effective than the oral supplements, at least until
better data is available.

Final thought, don't give up on the hard keeperness of the new horse---there
are alot of horses that just need a season or two of settling in and
learning their job and their feed efficiency eventually adapts to the new
work schedule and they hold weight much better.


Good luck and have fun. :-)))

Susan G
----- Original Message -----
From: <guest@endurance.net>
To: <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2002 9:31 AM
Subject: RC: EQUINE JOINT AND WEIGHT SUPPLEMENTS


> PEGGY BURGESS pdburgess@msn.com
> FROM WV:
> AFTER A FIVE YEAR ABSENCE FROM THE TRAILS AND ENDURANCE RIDING, I AM
> CURRENTLY CONDITIONING A NEW HORSE AND RECONDITIONING AN OLD FRIEND.  THE
> NEW FELLOW IS A HARD KEEPER AND IS CURRENTLY EATING 8# SWEET FEED (12%
> PROTEIN) AND 1 CUP VEGETABLE (SOYBEAN) OIL DAILY DIVIDED BETWEEN TWO
> FEEDINGS.  HE HAS HAY AVAILABLE FREE CHOICE IN OPEN PASTURE.  WHILE I AM
> SATISFIED WITH THIS FEEDING SCHEDULE, I WONDER IF ABC PLUS OR A SIMILAR
> PRODUCT IS NUTRITIONALLY SUPERIOR FOR WEIGHT MAINTAINENCE?  BASED ON THE
> PRICING I HAVE FOUND, I WOULD HAVE TO BE ABLE TO CUT CURRENT FEED/OIL
> LEVELS BY NEARLY 50% TO SAVE MONEY.
>
> I HAVE ALSO BEEN READING MANY VIEWS ON EQUINE JOINT SUPPLEMENTS AND WOULD
> LIKE TO HEAR WHAT VETS AND EXPERIENCED RIDERS KNOW ABOUT THESE PRODUCTS -
> YOU KNOW, WITHOUT ALL THE MARKETING SMOKE.
>
> ALL RESPONSES APPRECIATED.  HOPE TO SEE YOU ON THE TRAIL!
>
>
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