Leafy Oils
I saw something for your horse at the Eden Project (Cornwall) last week. Fabulous place especially their Rain Forest Biome (a 50 metre tall globe housing the world’s largest rainforest in captivity) where I took a photo of these massive leaves. I touched them and was struck by how rubbery they felt, I touched them some more and my thoughts -always switched on to aloeride and horses- went (again) along these lines:
Why don’t horses out in the wild bother with flaxseed oil, fish oil, soybean oil, rice bran oil, corn oil… whilst a great many horse owners do for their domesticated ones?
Interesting reseach, presented at a British Equestrian Trade Association conference, showed that top competition riders spend comparatively more on feed and less on supplements, whilst recreational riders spend comparatively more on supplements than on feed. A cynic might say that top riders don’t spend much on supplements because they’re being given supplements via sponsorship, but it wouldn’t do this research justice.
Their finding resonates with what I have always advocated in my Practice: pay more attention to the upstream end, so that you don’t have to spend so much time and money downstream. Downstream is where the remedial supplements and potentially the equine physiotherapist, chiropractor, osteopath, remedial farrier or vet bills are. The 5Ps yet again!
Horses that eat blades of grass, herbs or plants ingest oil (hence the title and leafy oils picture). The more they graze, the more fatty acids they ingest. Horses that need downstream supplementing with oils have not had enough upstream oils in their regular diet. It’s as simple as that. Correction therefore should be mostly upstream, not downstream. Interestingly enough Aloeride doesn’t look or feel oily but the pure aloe vera from which it is made contains fatty acids next to a raft of other nutrients.
Beyond oils (polyunsaturated fatty acids) being necessary for cell membranes, building and maintaining brain and nerve cells, or to enable the flow of bile, most horse owners will consider buying oil because their horse’ coat is lacklustre or their horse needs nutrients that exert anti-inflammatory properties, and omega-3 is known to provide this. In a full dietary review, such as provided via our Nutrition Consultation, I think it is quite reasonable to include “if feed doesn’t contain enough natural oils, then what else might be missing from it”. Because if feed doesn’t, then you’d be so far away from what your horse by choice would eat…
Fats Under Stress
The above is a slide from one of my lectures and reminds you that ALL FATS go rancid when exposed to free radicals. In humans and horses alike, long term or frequent high stress levels raise the level of free radicals which in turn damages lipids. The more relaxed a horse is, the lower its free radical burden, the better preserved its lipids will be.
