Palatable joint supplement?

ponyparty

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I currently have my horse on Science Supplements FlexAbility Plus. I say I have him on it - he will only eat a feed with the supplement in it if he is starving hungry. Even then he doesn't finish it. I cannot tell you how much feed (and supplement) I've wasted over the last couple of months. I've tried disguising it with herbs, mint etc; I've also tried cutting it right down to an undetectable level and building up again gradually. He's too canny and won't eat it. Once this lot is gone, I shan't buy it again - might as well throw my money away. The yard chickens have probably got lovely flexible joints now though at least :-/ he'd probably eat it if i poured a load of molasses in it but he's got EMS so that's not gonna happen!

So - what decent joint supplements are out there, that are generally palatable to horses? I know this doesn't automatically mean my horse will eat it as they're all different, but thought it a good place to start at!

He's a thoroughbred type, isn't a fussy eater exactly but knows what he likes - for example, he'll eat apples, carrots and blackberries, but refuses all other fruit or veg.
 

splashgirl45

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i have used newmarket joint supplement and my half tb loan mare used to eat every bit. i did used to damp her feed so she didnt blow it all out of the bowl though. i just fed it with alfa a and a balancer but she didnt have ems so not sure if alfa a would be suitable.
 

supsup

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I have also just bought a small bucket of the FlexAbility to try on my boy, and was delighted that he actually seemed to like the taste! I managed to get even the loading dose into him. Just goes to show how different they are! I've previously fed FlexiJoint from Equimins, and I'd say he liked that one less (but still ate it, in a decent amount of feed). The recommended dose of that was a little less than the FlexAbility. It smells somewhat similar to the FlexAbility, but without that fake vanilla (?) smell/flavour. I also did some calculations, and if you feed the FlexiJoint at a slightly elevated dose (about 1.5* recommended dose, half-way between maintenance and loading dose) with some linseed, you should get similar levels of the ingredients into the horse as the FlexAbility has (except for the Vit C and green lipped mussles), at a lower cost per dose. The reason I thought I'd try the FlexAbility is because it has some scientific backing, and the FlexiJoint (at regular dose) didn't seem to do much for my horse. Not sure how big a role quality of ingredients might play. Anyway, not sure to what degree a taste-recommendation from my horse is useful to yours!

Only thing I could ad is that I've recently tried the new(ish) Spillers speedy-mash fibre (they had free samples at the local feed merchant). One of the things my boy likes best (taste-wise) is the Spillers balancer. I found he likes the speedy-mash similarly well, and ended up adding a cup of that to his feed to make sure he really licks his bowl clean. (The double loading dose was starting to be a bit too much in his usual fibre feed, and he started to be less keen.) This is my new go-to feed now for hiding less tasty things.

If you don't want to waste the rest of your FlexAbility and want to sell it, send me a PM.
 

ponyparty

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Thanks splashgirl, will look at the Newmarket one.

Supsup - if it smells similar to the FlexAbility then he probably won't eat it. It smells similar to a Forage Plus balancer I bought for him once - also not cheap - and he turned his nose up at that too!
He's fed on Agrobs hay flakes, soaked, and chaff, which he seemed to really like before I added the joint supplement :( I don't really want to mess with his feed, especailly as I've just taken delivery of another order, so we'll see how we go.
Not sure how much of the supplement is left - I'm not going up much at the moment, he's on full livery as i'm basically on house arrest with a new baby, can't drive yet post c section. I'll check next time I go up and if it's a decent amount I'll drop you a message.
 

supsup

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PP - I think both the FlexiJoint and the FlexAbility don't have a lot of filler in it, and same active ingredients, so I'm not surprised that they smell similar (apart from that distinct vanilla-like scent on the Flexability). When I first got the FlexiJoint, the smell reminded me of milk powder (as fed to calves) - slightly sweet. If it's really that smell/taste your horse objects to, it might be difficult to find any brand with a decent level of ingredients and not too much filler that will work for your horse. Good luck either way. Nothing is more frustrating than throwing out buckets full of expensive supplements - been there, done that!
 

ITPersonnage

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Have you tried Copra to disguise the smell? I can seemingly add all manner of nasties with mint and copra to get over odd smells, including Forage Plus. I also give her boswelia for joints which seems to go down OK and work.
 

ponyparty

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Thanks chick, that sounds promising! Not too expensive for a small bucket of it.
Not sure how palatable boswellia is, might be worth a try also...
I don't know about trying ingredients separately, that sounds a bit complicated/time consuming for me right now. We'll see though, might be worth a try if other options don't work.
Anyone tried 4cyte? I've heard people rave about it and others say it doesn't do anything...
 

ester

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Thanks chick, that sounds promising! Not too expensive for a small bucket of it.
Not sure how palatable boswellia is, might be worth a try also...
I don't know about trying ingredients separately, that sounds a bit complicated/time consuming for me right now. We'll see though, might be worth a try if other options don't work.
Anyone tried 4cyte? I've heard people rave about it and others say it doesn't do anything...

Mines fussy, he east boswellia fine ;)
I used to mix all my minerals separately it really wasn't much bother.
 
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