Vitamin E for non PSSM spooky horse?

C

Christmas Crumpet

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 August 2007
Messages
4,035
Visit site
My horse has got much spookier and very silly out exercising. He was very laid back in the summer and now being a complete arse to hack out even with his pony with him. He’s on the list to be scoped for ulcers but I just wonder whether some vitamin E might help him. It stopped the spooking in my PSSM horse and he was much more settled with it. Does it have the same effect with non PSSM horses does anyone know?

He’s out at grass for less time and obviously the goodness has gone right down so less Vit E available.
 
It can't do any harm but I'd be looking at magnesium first tbh. Proper mag ox, not the commercial big brands which have tiny amounts. Our grazing is relatively low in it and if I stop supplementing one of mine turns into a lunatic within days. Makes no difference to the other, but the other is very is influenced by it.
 
My horse doesn’t have PSSM to my knowledge but I give him Vit E because he has needed work to help his muscles even up and I felt it could help him. I give him a small amount of Magnesium as well. He’s definitely less tense than he used to be although he still sees twigs as monsters!
 
That's very similar to what I use (90% from pro earth but the higher % just means you can feed smaller amounts).

It also sounds a bit patronising but worth mentioning for people with spooky horses in winter...being a bit cold, wet, itchy, slightly hungry, a bit sore from arthritis, etc can also cause grumpiness and spookiness.

Not to mention the value drops right off in the grass and I'm sure when it's very wet they feel less full.
 
I was thinking of it for my sister's two laminitics and also the foal we are looking after which is extremely flighty at the moment. Any thoughts on how appropriate this is? Don't want to supplement unneccessarily.
 
Cheapest way to feed magnesium is calcined magnesite (MgCO³ powdered by heat treating it) which is a farm product sold at around £15 for 25 kg at agricultural merchants.

Progressive Earth's cheapest 'Mag Ox' is actually calmag.

.
 
Nudibranch said:
That's very similar to what I use (90% from pro earth but the higher % just means you can feed smaller amounts).

It also sounds a bit patronising but worth mentioning for people with spooky horses in winter...being a bit cold, wet, itchy, slightly hungry, a bit sore from arthritis, etc can also cause grumpiness and spookiness.

Not to mention the value drops right off in the grass and I'm sure when it's very wet they feel less full.
Click to expand...


all my horses are supplemented with vit e. Only one is PSSM. If you are not supplementing where is your vit e coming from in winter? not from grass.

re the patronising bit our riding horses go out in exercise sheets in the colder and wetter weather again whether PSSM or not. You used to see this a lot in a past but not so much now. I can see that if they are in discomfort they are going to be unhappy and more likely to be spooky. I am not having any spookiness and don't expect any.
The other thing I have done for a spooky horse is equishure. Not cheap but it makes a lot of difference.

I think with mg it is trial and error depending on the horse. All of ours but one are magox light from red horse. I don't know if it helps them but none are spooky. I put the other one on it (4yo) and he changed very quickly. I thought he had gone from cuddly horse to obnoxious teenager. I stopped it and I got my cuddly horse back. It really seemed to rile him up.

OP if you have vit E for your PSSM why not put the other one on say 6000iu (or even a little more) a day for 2 weeks. I would expect a difference in that time.
 
I supplement my ponies with Vit E, especially this time of year when there is very little to none in the grass. I also rug them if it is wet and windy or cold and wet - they certainly don't object, and I like to dry them off quickly with coolers and the like before stabling overnight.

Interesting comments on exercise rugs Paddy555: a physio friend of mine was keen on them for all kinds of ridden horses. The same person disliked full clips with hair off over a horse's back (a high blanket or chaser clip would be the most hair that came off!) for the same reason - because cold muscles can get sore and/or damaged easily.
 
I feed mine vitamin e, she gets a small amount in her balancer but I top it up to about 5000. If shes on decent grass in summer I only feed the balancer amount, but in winter and if shes restricted in summer she gets the extra. TBH I think most people should be doing this. Vitamin e drops right off in the winter.
 
What vit e are people feeding? Natural or synthetic and oil or powder? Pro Earth have powder synthetic for half the price of the natural stuff and the feeding rates seem roughly the same. I guess there's another reason for the price difference and why people would choose natural?
 
catkin said:
Interesting comments on exercise rugs Paddy555: a physio friend of mine was keen on them for all kinds of ridden horses. The same person disliked full clips with hair off over a horse's back (a high blanket or chaser clip would be the most hair that came off!) for the same reason - because cold muscles can get sore and/or damaged easily.
Click to expand...

I would like with your friend :). Last winter at the beginning of season just after horses were clipped we drove past the hunt. The horses were mostly the usual 16hh TB types and crosses. All had been totally clipped out very recently. No regrowth or hair over their hind quarters. It was a miserable November day, high moorland 1000ft, rain and wind had been forecast and they got that all day plus driving sleet, it was very cold. Not a single horse had anything over it's hind quarters. It was late afternoon so they had spent since 11am like that. They were huddled in various groups with their riders trying to shelter behind stone walls awaiting their transport.
Who on earth would subject a fully clipped horse to that is beyond me.
 
Nudibranch said:
That's very similar to what I use (90% from pro earth but the higher % just means you can feed smaller amounts).

It also sounds a bit patronising but worth mentioning for people with spooky horses in winter...being a bit cold, wet, itchy, slightly hungry, a bit sore from arthritis, etc can also cause grumpiness and spookiness.

Not to mention the value drops right off in the grass and I'm sure when it's very wet they feel less full.
Click to expand...

I agree re cold, wet, hungry etc but Horse is well rugged, well fed with ad lib hay and breakfast and tea, ridden in an exercise sheet, clean, warm etc. It’s not grumpy - it’s anxious and spooky.
 
DirectorFury said:
What vit e are people feeding? Natural or synthetic and oil or powder? Pro Earth have powder synthetic for half the price of the natural stuff and the feeding rates seem roughly the same. I guess there's another reason for the price difference and why people would choose natural?
Click to expand...

Any mention of this causes WW3 but I feed powdered vitamin e from progressive earth. Its the cheapest way to add it, even taken into account that you need to feed double the amount. Its such a tiny volume its no issue feeding it
 
Last edited:
Leo Walker said:
Any mention of this causes WW3 but I feed powdered vitamin e from proegressive earth. Its the cheapest way to add it, even taken into account that you need to feed double the amount. Its such a tiny volume its no issue feeding it
Click to expand...

Progressive Earth also do a natural vit e in powder form. It isn't cheap but you don't need as much.

Probably works out about the same.
 
DirectorFury said:
What vit e are people feeding? Natural or synthetic and oil or powder? Pro Earth have powder synthetic for half the price of the natural stuff and the feeding rates seem roughly the same. I guess there's another reason for the price difference and why people would choose natural?
Click to expand...

you get what you pay for. It was worked out, YCBM I believe, on another thread that you needed double the amount of synthetic to equal the effects of natural so in fact the synthetic is no cheaper. Cheapest is equimins oil which is natural. I use that as I like the oil and have had excellent results with it. Those who don't like the oil often use FP vit E natural powder. Whatever you are going to add make sure it is vit E only and not vit E with selenium otherwise you could overdose the selenium if it is already in your balancer.
 
carolineb said:
I agree re cold, wet, hungry etc but Horse is well rugged, well fed with ad lib hay and breakfast and tea, ridden in an exercise sheet, clean, warm etc. It’s not grumpy - it’s anxious and spooky.
Click to expand...

That part was a comment for people who might read the post generally. It's surprising how many don't rule those things out first.
 
Leo Walker said:
Any mention of this causes WW3 but I feed powdered vitamin e from progressive earth. Its the cheapest way to add it, even taken into account that you need to feed double the amount. Its such a tiny volume its no issue feeding it
Click to expand...


Here we go again. I have, as I recollect, corrected this misinformation six times in the last year.

The cheapest price per 1000iu of vitamin E is the Equimins liquid oil, by a very large margin.


Post 10, here, last calculated mid November:

https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/best-vitamin-e-to-buy.782541/#post-14136072

Some people, including me, find the thick sticky oil a pain to use and prefer to pay more (and it's a lot more) for the powdered versions.
.
 
Last edited:
The natural/synthetic was explained a while back by JFTD.

Natural vitamin E is all 'right handed' molecules. Synthetic vitamin E is half left handed and half right handed. Horses can only use the right handed molecules, so if you feed synthetic vitamin E you need to feed twice as much. And since it costs about half as much, you end up spending the same amount!


Hope that helps.

.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top