Natural supplements and herbs - barefoot, arthritic and LGL!

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MissCandy

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arghhh there are so many!

My mare is barefoot, has arthritis in her coffin bone and LGL. I have posted about her before and for anyone that remembers I have not been able to get shoes on her (as no farrier in the area will do it :() so she is staying barefoot. She has been ok out in the field but with the colder weather setting in and the foal now weaned I want to add some more supplements to her feed.

She currently has cortaflex and a hoof supplement which for the life of me I can't think of the name...

Anyway I want to change cortaflex for NAF superflex (half the price) and add;

Magnesium
Linseed
Brewers Yeast

I was also thinking about some kind of natural anti inflammatory but not sure what?

Any suggestions? Any help appreciated!
 
I feed my TB turmeric for his joints and have had great results. He has an asymmetrical pelvis from a probably fracture years ago and although he has learned to compensate it leaves him with a shortened stride on his off rear which makes him feel unlevel at trot. The turmeric kind of straightens him out and he feels much freer. A lot of my friends now use it and have similarly good results.

For your mare's hooves, I would add seaweed to the BY, lin and mag mix. If you can afford it, you can buy them in large bulk from Charnwood Milling which will save you £££s long-term. If, like me, you have a more modest budget, try Natural Horse Supplies.... although I have to get my turmeric from a local Tesco that has a large bulk Indian food supplies section. It's about £1.60 for a 400g bag which will last you about 3 weeks. :)

To be honest, if you are feeding all those, I would drop the Cortaflex/NAF stuff....

ETA: This is a link to a thread about turmeric - check out the report from Nouvelle vets about the clinical trials.... it's a lot of techno-speak but the gist is that it doesn't seem to have any side-effects and does help to improve arthritic horses.

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=357805&highlight=turmeric
 
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Charnwood sell micronised linseed and brewer's yeast in bulk.

If you cannot buy in bulk, then Natural Horse Supplies on eBay sell it - also Progressive Earth sell it in bigger bags from eBay too. Progressive Earth also sell tumeric now.

Equinatural is a place where they sell herbal bends

http://eshop.equinatural.co.uk/epag...tPath=/Shops/BT3755/Categories/Joint_Mobility

Global Herbs also sell some good mixes.

The Superflex is good stuff - try it. It was recommended by barefoot peeps when I asked the same question for the future.

I am not a fan of seaweed unless a forage analysis indicates it.
 
I used to get a lot of my herbal stuff from Pegasus Health (http://www.pegasushealth.com/) - seemed quite reasonable and v quick delivery. I did however change to TopSpec Comp balancer after 4months of trying her on various seaweed & rosehips, brewers yeast, linseed and biotin. The BY and also MagOx I got from natural horse supplies on ebay but only small packs which was a pain. I changed as I was a bit worried that I hadnt got the balance right because her coat went dull and she became quite lethargic so I thought I would leave it to the professionals but I know the barefoot diet based on seaweed works very well for some.
 
Thanks for your replies :)

I have managed to get a couple of small bags of tumeric on my lunch hour so will try that straight away as quite easy to get hold of! She is quite a fussy eater though so we'll see if she tolerates it - it would be great if it works though!

I've emailed Equinatural to see what blend they recommend as there are blends on there for all 3 issues - may be they could make one especially for me? You have all given me lots to google!

Can I ask what you do with your horses? I am hoping to bring my mare back into work, she is not crippled by any means but I wouldn't be comfortable working her the way she is. I have a pair of Old Macs on order so going to start walking her out in hand once they arrive and see how shes goes.
 
Just to add to your possibilities.... I've started giving my lot a teaspoon of dried mint in their tea. I add the mint when I soak their sugar beet, and then add their 'barefoot mix' bits just before feeding. My really picky mare has been a lot less bother since adding the mint - might be worth while if your tumeric experiment runs into difficulty.
 
Global herbs stuff is fantastic, if you can get your horse to eat it.
I like aviform suppleaze gold for joints, it works and isn't too expensive, I usually get my mag ox from ebay and linseed from charnwood, there are lots of people selling the barefoot essentials. :)
 
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