Hanoverians Vitamins and Minerals and Mud Fever- any reason why not?

[eezeerider]

Hello,

Last spring a woman that keeps lots of Hanoverian dressage horses told me that you shouldn't give Hanoverians any vitamins or minerals because they're prone to a medical condition that is thought to be connected with excess vitamins and minerals. That was in the spring, and her clover rich grass was rocketing out of the ground, so I followed her advice as my horse was enjoying her grass.

I didn't catch the name of the condition and now have no way of contacting her as we're at a different yard. The grass is poorer and as it's winter (and he is a 4 yr old hanoverian) I'm giving him a general multi-viamin supplement with his breakfast feed. But I'm battling his mud fever at the moment and am reading that Zinc is important in a horses diet in keeping the skin healthy and strong. Does anyone know of any reasons why I shouldn't up his vitamin and mineral intake, specifically zinc and any others thought to be helpful for the skin?

 

[FairyLights]

Its best to have your forage analized for vit and min content before supplementing. Your local agricultural store can arrange this for you.

 

[Kareen]

I'd be very interested to hear what kind of condition that should be. Sounds not particularly savvy to me because a) Hanoverians aren't a breed but a registry, thus they can't be viewed as a genetically homogene group of horses (plenty of different breeds present in the Hanoverian horse, they're not even a closed studbook )
b) Excess vitamins and minerals is a very broad describtion and could mean anything from out of balance calcium/phorphorus relation all the way to Vit. A poisoning or Selenium toxicity all of which will lead to problems in any horse not just Hanoverians.
Does she have any publications to back this up or is she just talking from her own experience? Quite honestly if this is the approach she takes to keeping her horses I wouldn't be surprised if there are problems...

 

[shadowboy]

I've heard of an increase in osseous fragments in young warmbloods. I think it's because they are so slow growing big jointed horses too much calcium and other mineral additives can cause more problems than good.

 

[shadowboy]

I've heard of an increase in osseous fragments in young warmbloods. I think it's because they are so slow growing big jointed horses too much calcium and other mineral additives can cause more problems than good. Or maybe she was talking about OCD? Not sure it additional minerals can trigger this? But anything speeding up the rate of growth of bones would be negative.

 

[eezeerider]

Thanks to you all. I'll be back if I ever hear the name of condition. I take on board the bit about the naturally slow-growing. Thanks again!

 

[Kareen]

Except OCD does not have a higher incidence in Hanoverian horses but the Hanoverian Verband was the one to do the biggest field-study approach (in conjunction with the Holsteiner Verband, Hanover vet school and a couple of other institutions as well as private sponsors from all over the world )
OCD does also not relate to slow-growing individuals but quite the opposite, the logic is that it affects horses who are relatively fast-growing and early to mature (something most warmbloods have been selected for over the last few hundred years) therefor it doesn't come surprising that warmbloods have a higher incidence for it than TB's as they have a lot more bone-growth to do (going by adult body weight and bone-mass) in about the same time.
Another term OCD is often used is DJD (Developmental Joint Disease).
This doesn't mean that 'no vitamins or minerals' should be fed to Hanoverians. All it means is that the ration should be well balanced and excess supplementation can indeed be just as detrimental as lack thereof Hope helps. Here is a link to a comprehensive summary of the OCD-research results from the 2001 study http://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j...Ay6czKiuP9-1Q&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.Yms&cad=rja

 

[eezeerider]

Thank you Kareen for the link - that's really helpful