to supplement or not to supplemet

Magicmillbrook

Magicmillbrook

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Just been having a chat at my local feed merchants about using supplements. I did an NVQ last year at the ILPH and they advocate that for most horses in light work, grass, hay and mineralised salt lick is sufficient. They supplement horses with certain conditions who need it, but suggested that a lot of horses over supplemented and it ends up on the muck heap!

Feed merchant srongly disagrees(naturaly). I feel quite strongly about paring things down to basics and my old horse changed incredibly when I put her over from highly processed feed to simple systems feeds with no cereals and mollases, even then she only has it in the winter.

I do use simple system total eclispe forage booster for my old girl and the youngster as it does seem to have a calming effect. I use cortaflex for the old arthritic mare, which seems to help too. I have been using garlic for all of them but was considering dropping it, especialy now there are less flies about.

I would be interested to hear what others use and if anyone else has stopped using supplements. For those of you who use garlic do you use it all year round? Are we being swayed by advertising in the horse mags and made to feel like bad mums if we do not use supplements?
 
I use garlic - mainly because they say it stops flies irrating them. We have a lot about at the moment..
There seems to be a lot of supplements about & it's always hard to choose which is right for your horse.. If any!!
 
I have cut down the amount of supplements my horses get - they dont need them.

They get garlic in summer but I stop it in winter. Right now they get a linseed, fernugreek, mint and seaweed mixed supplement from Equus Health which along with just under a kilo of A&P Ride and Relax a day which is mixed with alfa a oil all year and fibrebeet in winter gives them everything they need. My gelding does get Glucosamine as he can get quite stiff.

The only other thing I would add is extra Soya oil to give my lad a bit more Ooomph....
 
I supplement my horses and always have done. I think if a horse is doing gentle work and on decent grazing then fine. However, I dont think anyone has perfect grazing - all grazing lacks certain vits and minerals (depending on area).

Ive always had mine out competing (eventing / BSJA etc.) so I feel they do need it. My other 2 get supplements because they don't get much feed and they're veterans. I also feed NAF Superflex which is brilliant, it keeps my veterans supple and amazingly it stopped one of my horses from being cold backed (dont ask how). I also add Soya oil to shine their coat.

I stopped using garlic last year when I was told it can over-sensitise some horses skin and since one of mine does have a skin problem I stopped!

I think it's totally up to each owner if they feed supplements or not.
 
I use Equus Health products too, have been using their Winter Glow/Summer Shine for years (I think that's what Scarlett uses too?), natural ingredients and they all look great, clean skin, shiny costs and soft eyes.

If you're looking at your feed from the point of view of what would a horse eat naturally, you might want to think again about Cortaflex. I keep it in our shop (yes, I am a feed merchant!) but I recommend joint supplements which do not contain animal by products. I use Equine Herbals Devils Claw Flex on my boy, it is the only joint supplement I feel has helped him. It is human grade and I've taken it myself (it tastes minging to me)!

And just for the record, not every feed merchant will try to sell you something you don't need, I am a nightmare for telling people to cut down, cut back, you don't need that, this is cheaper etc, I will never be a millionaire if I carry on like it!!!!!

Link below
http://www.equushealth.org.uk/prod_details5.asp
 
We feed our horses Simple Systems feed too, along with Top Spec balancer to ensure they get all their vits and mins. Other than that they get Mag Ox as the majority of them are barefoot. No other supplements though.
 
Mine gets Topspec as I see a marked improvement in his hoof quality when he is on it. He gets garlic through the summer, and Cider vinegar as a complimentary "natural" supplement for joints. Have also heard very good things about the Equus health supplements
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I too use Simple Systems feeds.

Mine get brewers yeast and linseed - I used to feed total eclipse but wanted to increase these two elements for sweet itch and joint stiffness problems, plus Chancer is shown so I fed extra linseed for coat and show condition.

They also get black sunflower seeds for their feet and coat which replaces the seaweed in eclipse.

Finally Cairo who is an OAP in addition to the linseed is fed equine america's Glucosamine 10,000 plus MSM - which I find with the linseed is every bit as good as cortaflex for his stiff joints.

Only other thing I add is salt when they are sweating up from work.

Before that I used to feed feedmark's benevit and equimins pro-bio for general vit, mins and healthy gut.
 
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