Supplements - how do you know if they have any effect?

[Fruitcake]

My horses only get a token 'feed' to carry their numerous supplements. I must spend a fair amount every month on these extras (which I don't mind at all if they're worth it) but I'm not sure how I'd know.

They all get a gut balancer, vit and mineral supplement and oily herbs and the ulcer-prone one gets a gastric supplement too.

I don't suppose there's any way to actually know what difference it all makes, but am hesitant to stop incase it does make a difference!

 

[Barton Bounty]

I used to be the same, by diminishing one by one I realised none of them made any difference ? now he is on one and thats it

 

[windand rain]

By running out for a few days and the deterioration. Hazel has turmeric if she misses a day or two she goes dog lame

 

[PurBee]

Youd only know by stopping. And then youd have to wait a fair few months, as many nutrients are in storage within the body and it takes months for some of these stores to become depleted. 6-12 months. But quicker if the horse is being exercised daily.

Ive explored this route with mine and when they were just on hay/grass/salt, there were a laundry list of issues, not severe individually, but collectively meant i was seeing a non-peak condition and less than content behaviour/temperament horse.

Just adding in the well-known deficient nutrients in forage/soil for the area/country, helped them improve all these issues.
Again, the improvements are slow as body stores become re-fuelled. So its not night and day difference immediately, it happens slowly.

Just 1 mixed good quality nutrient supplement is best. People add on top a ‘blood builder’ syrup, and ‘joint mobility’ one, which i think is unnecessary in healthy horses without diagnosed conditions. It points more to the ‘mixed balancer’ being inferior quality or dose too low, if additions are added on top.

The only additions on top ive had to add were base ingredients rather than expensive mixed supplements for target problems. omega 3 in winter due to less grass intake and low in balancers = ground linseed. Magnesium because in most balancers thats low. Magnesium powder cheap as chips.
B vits or brewers yeast = low in supplements or non existent as a whole complex.
Gut probiotics when weather severe change/stress/worming time/change of forage seasonal to help adjust.

All the above additions are cheap daily cost to add to a generic mixed balancer.

Ive yet to find what id term a truly ‘all in 1 supplement’ - there’s always something essential missing/or too low dose or the addition of loads of salt or iron.

So, its inevitable to add base powders to whatever mixed balancer we end up being happy with.

Horses grazing lands with trees, bushes, mixed grasses, wild weeds (safe), have a plethora of nutrients available to them, so would need less additions than a horse just given a bare grass paddock to munch on. Trees and bushes ‘mine’ deeper with their deeper roots minerals that arent in the topsoil where grass grows.

 

[lynz88]

I know when the girls are so busy and forget to tell me I'm out of something and notice a difference and go looking. If I don't notice a difference then I don't replenish. That said, I won't let him go too long without replenishing vit e. He needs high dosage and although it is something that horses are able to store excess of and therefore won't notice an immediate difference, he will deplete the stores over a couple of months of not being supplemented.

 

[MuddyMonster]

I judge by how much improvement was made after introduction.

If I'm unsure if it is working, I taper off and stop.

 

[criso]

Something like a gut supplement or joint supplement is easier to tell as you could stop for a few weeks and see if it makes a difference.

Vitamins and minerals are more difficult to assess as their effect is subtle and it would take a while for it to show.