barefoot and vetvits-alfafa and maganese question

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claribella

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My mare is barefoot. Shes a bit stiff and i particularly notice she slows up going down hill. Ive read great reviews about the vetvits extra flex so was looking to buying some to see if it makes a difference to her. I was reading the ingredients and saw that it contains alfalfa and maganese. I have two questions:
1) is there enough alfalfa in the mix to make her footy?

2) I already feed thunderbrook which has the recommended daily dosage of maganese in it so would i be over dosing her or would she just excrete out the excess like which is the case with mag ox. Im wondering if i should just buy a straight glucosamine to add to the boswellia she is already on.

Any recommendations for joint products would be greatly appreciated also.
 
If she slows going downhill her heels may be sore - so check for deep sulci that are harbouring nasties

I do not feed any of the market leading vetvits type products - they are seldom useful, bit of a blanket statement but truthful I feel. I use the Forage Plus Winter Balancer - it is just the useful stuff and none of the fillers so much better value.
 
I check her feet really regularly as I am paranoid about thrush lol! They are looking nice and fat at the moment with a shallow sulcus. She has a funny hip where a wall caved in on her as a youngster, they tried to rebuild it but she wasn't good enough for showing which is what she was bred for, so the older shes getting the stiffer she is getting bless her. You could be right though about the heels as she has had a break over the summer hols so shes not been on the concrete much. I will ride her today with her boots on to see if theres a difference:) Thanks for the pointer:)

I am normally into keeping it natural with no hidden rubbish hence her being on thunderbrook base mix (no fillers, organic, wholesome etc) but Ive been drawn in by all the great reviews of this one:) I like the boswellia because its natural but thinking she might need something alongside it. Its a minefield!! Lol!
 
Yes I thought it was high too but I wanted to give it a go and within a week of being taken off fast fibre and linseed which is what she was on before, she was sound over everything. I also think she has IR which Ive not had diagnosed yet but since being on it her fat packs have gone down and there are a number of other improvements so it obviously agrees with her. I know there are mixed views about the feed and the price put me off trying it for a long time but all I can say is it works for my mare. A friend of mine is thinking of trying it with her horse after seeing the results its had on mine. I think feeding is such a personal thing and every horse is different but in my case Im pleased I bit the bullet and tried it because so far its really working for my mare:)
 
How long has she been on the TB - just about everything mildly footy is coming sound now because of the change in weather/grass sugars.

Depending on your location I'd be wary of products containing manganese - for much of the South East levels are high/very high and we need to avoid adding more to our horses' diets.

I prefer clients to avoid alfalfa - I've lost count of the number of horses with problems of one sort or another that have resolved when the alfalfa has been removed from the diet.
 
claribella said:
I am normally into keeping it natural with no hidden rubbish hence her being on thunderbrook base mix (no fillers, organic, wholesome etc) but Ive been drawn in by all the great reviews of this one:) I like the boswellia because its natural but thinking she might need something alongside it. Its a minefield!! Lol!
Click to expand...

If you want to keep it natural, have you thought about trying some turmeric? I've found it really helps with stiffness in my horse - he's fine over summer, but at this time of year when the nights are colder and damper, I find he starts to stiffen up a bit. A good couple of spoons of turmeric makes all the difference for him.
 
Ah you know I did try her on that but she is the fussiest eater ever and I could get her to go near her food with it in. I might give it a go again when the grass settles and she is a little more hungry for her hard feed. Ive heard great things about it. Its cheap too isn't it which is always a bonus. Thanks for the suggestion:)
 
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