Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

 

Ok, so Susan what is your stand on supplementing daily vitamins then?

 

I agree with Heidi's earlier comments, that there's no way of really knowing exactly what is going on without having the forage analyzed, and then balanced accordingly.  For most horses, on the diet you described (high quality orchard grass, beet pulp, pasture and Se supplementation), I would think you're probably fine without additional vitamins.  At least, you're certainly not "abusing" your horse by not also supplying a vitamin-mineral mix. 

 

However, like humans, there's a wide variety of requirements and optimal level of nutrients for horses.  More so if the horse is working at a higher level (whether that be exercise, growth, reproduction or whatever).  Keep in mind we also don't even know what constitutes "optimal" for horses---the NRC is a distillation of the current knowledge in 1989, but hasn't been updated, and it definitely has its limitations.  Some nutrients have been better defined since via clinical research, but not all.

 

Anyway, the point here is that we have an idea that some nutrients are beneficial if supplemented beyond what's in a normal ration (ie, biotin, vitamin e, etc).  But we don't know everything about what nutrients should be supplemented precisely to what level, so *your* horses exact perfect ration is still guesswork.  If you choose to add a general vitamin-mineral supplement, then to some extent, you're using a shotgun approach to hopefully fill in existing holes in the ration that may or may not really represent a true deficiency for the horse.  Does it do any harm?  Nah, very rarely if it's not overdone (ie, don't add five doses in the hopes that more is better).  Will it help?  Might, if true deficiencies do exist.  Is it a waste of money?  Usually not if you don't go crazy with it.  Frankly, the best "supplement" you can provide is good green grass.  Beats anything you can get at the feed store hands down.

 

My suggestion would be to look for any problems in your horses indicative of a nutrition problem---performance issues like tying up or thumps, poor hoof/hair quality, poor body condition, chronic colic issues (including enteroliths, rare outside the SW, but a big deal around here), developmental orthopedic problems in youngsters including contracted tendons and/or insulin-resistance issues (which, contrary to opinions of the more excitable ridecampers, I am very aware of).

 

If you see potential problems in your horses, then explore whether it might be nutritionally based and investigate it further---maybe with a general vitamin-mineral supplement, maybe with adjustment to a few very specific nutrients, maybe with elimination of a problem feedstuff.

 

I realize this answer seems pretty ambiguous, but there really are very few hard and fast rules in nutrition (with the possible exception of Supplement with Selenium in the Northwest) :-).  Look for problems that might suggest a nutrition problem, and go from there.

 

Hope this helps. :-)

 

Susan Garlinghouse, DVM