Does my horse need supplements?
If you’re a horse owner, you’re probably like thousands of horse owners targeted daily by numerous horse supplement adverts on social media claiming to enhance your equine companion’s health and performance. But do these supplements deliver the promised benefits, or are they just a waste of your hard-earned money? Does my horse need a supplement? We answer the question!
To determine whether your horse needs supplements, it’s essential to consider a few key factors: diet, lifestyle, age, and general health status. While many horses can thrive on a well-balanced diet without additional supplementation, there are specific scenarios in which supplements and individual nutrients may be beneficial or necessary for optimum health.
Understanding Your Horse’s Nutritional Needs
A horse’s primary diet typically consists of fresh forage, such as hay, haylage or fresh grass, and grains or fortified feeds as needed. However, the quality of your horse’s forage-based diet can vary significantly based on region, season, and soil quality. Forages from depleted soils or older hay can lack essential vitamins and minerals for your horse’s health. Testing your hay for nutrient content can shed light on any deficiencies. Supplements may be required to fill these nutritional gaps if the forage is lacking. In some cases, even high-quality forage may not provide all the nutrients your horse needs, which is why supplements for horses may be a consideration.
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What is a Balanced Diet?
We all strive to feed our horses a balanced diet, but this can vary from horse to horse. A young horse’s dietary needs will differ from those of a mature adult horse or a horse that is a happy hacker to a competition horse. Younger horses in growth phases, such as weanlings and yearlings, need diets rich in protein and energy to support their development. On the other hand, older horses or those with lower activity levels may require a nutrient-dense diet to maintain their health without excessive caloric intake, such as feeding a horse feed balancer or an all-in-one vitamin and mineral supplement.
While we strive to include a variety of nutrients, including protein, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, these still may require extra supplementation to give the horse additional vitamins, essential amino acids and key nutrients to adjust to an imbalanced diet. Nutritional deficiencies, amongst other practical lifestyle factors, can lead to health issues such as weight loss, hair loss, muscle disease, gastric ulcers, poor joint health, colic, laminitis, or even developmental disorders in young horses. Physical signs can also include a lacklustre coat/dull coat or poor hoof quality.
Evaluating Your Horse’s Diet
To evaluate your horse’s diet effectively, you must start by reviewing their current feeding regime. Forage quality is the foundation of your horse’s diet, so assess your hay for moisture content, colour, smell, and mould or dust. Too old or poorly stored hay may lose vital nutrients, while low-quality forage can contribute to health issues.
If you’re feeding grains or concentrated horse feed, check the ingredient list for the appropriate balance of nutrients. Many commercially available feeds are fortified but may not cater specifically to your horse’s individual needs—especially for performance or growth requirements.
Alongside age, your horse’s current health is also an essential factor. Consider any medical conditions your horse may have. Horses with metabolic disorders, for instance, require specific dietary adjustments that could benefit from particular supplements to help manage their condition. Engaging with your veterinary or equine nutritionist who thoroughly understands your horse’s unique health status and dietary needs is essential. A professional nutritionist can guide proper supplementation tailored to your horse’s requirements.
Why Am I Feeding Supplements For Horses?
It’s essential to ask this question when considering feeding supplements for horses. With the vast array of supplements available on the market, you can target various ailments with one or more supplements that will give your horse the essential nutrients they require. Probably the most common reasons for feeding supplements relate to the following areas: digestive (to help prevent stomach acid and stomach ulcers), hoof health supplements to improve hoof horn and the hoof wall growth, Conditioning (to improve poor body weight), joint supplements to support healthy joints and laminitis.
Each individual horse is different, and some may get all the essential nutrients they require from their commercial feed, but for most horse owners, feeding additional supplements is going to bridge the gap in nutrient deficiency.
Why Feed Aloeride As A Supplement For Horses?
The importance of feeding is not so much about what supplements you feed for horses but also how well the absorption of nutrients is. Alongside supporting a shiny coat, healthy hooves and digestive system, Aloeride is an all-encompassing, taste-free, water-soluble powder form supplement for optimum horse health. It also improves your horse’s ability to absorb everything they need from their feed and supplements in their daily intake.
The saying that goodness shines from within is particularly true of Aloeride, with many professional show riders choosing to feed Aloeride primarily for a show ring coat quality and skin and coat health. Other professional riders and horse owners choose to feed as a reliable hoof supplement for hoof health and to ensure that their equine diet embraces vital ingredients to support muscle function and a happy stomach lining.
Horses prone to stomach ulcers are often fed Aloeride daily and frequently recommended by horse owners on social media and through word of mouth.
Considerations for Competition Horses
Alongside ensuring all nutritional requirements are being met, you must review your choice of supplements for horses if you complete your horse. You need to ensure that any complete feed or supplement you give your horse complies with your sport’s relevant regulations.
Many competitive equestrian organisations, such as the FEI (Fédération Equestre Internationale) or various national riding federations, have stringent rules regarding banned substances. It’s crucial to verify that any supplement you choose does not include ingredients that could lead to competition disqualification. Aloeride has been NOPS tested and is competition-compatible.
