The equine nutritional supplement industry has a tremendous impact on the equine economy, with horse owners often spending upwards of $100/month or more on supplements for their horse. While some supplements may help improve the health or performance of your horse, some are unproven, unnecessary, and may even be dangerous. Horse owners should be encouraged to thoroughly investigate potential supplements they may use by researching their safety and efficacy based on results of scientific studies (search www.pubmed.com or even www.scholar.google.com using terms such as “equine”, “nutrition” and the compound/ ingredient you are investigating).

One of the most common types of supplements available are vitamin/mineral mixes. These nutritional supplements are intended to complement the horse’s diet to provide any vitamins or minerals that may be lacking. These supplements are particularly important for horses that may only be consuming hay or pasture which may be lacking in some of these nutrients. Forages can be an excellent source of energy, protein, some minerals (calcium, phosphorus, potassium and others) and some vitamins (particularly if it is pasture or relatively fresh hay; hay that has been stored for a while will have lower amounts of the fat soluble vitamins A, D and E). Forages will generally have low amounts of sodium, and may be low in some of the trace minerals. Thus, any horse consuming hay or pasture should be given access to salt, and ideally a trace-mineralized salt source or a vitamin/mineral supplement. Similarly, if a horse is consuming hay plus unfortified feeds such as cereal grains (oats, corn), they should be offered a vitamin/mineral mix.

If a horse is offered a commercial feed, these feeds have been fortified with sufficient vitamins and minerals to meet the needs of the intended horse, and therefore a vitamin/mineral mix is not required. Some owners do not feed the recommended amounts of the commercial feeds and therefore may also require a smaller dose of a vitamin/mineral mix offered to their horse. Alternatively, individual vitamins or minerals may be supplemented if the owner has knowledge of something specific lacking in the diet, which may be cheaper and safer than just going and offering a mixture of all of them. One of the most common causes of nutritional toxicity occurs when a horse owner feeds good quality hay, a commercial feed and then also a vitamin/mineral mix (and often horse owners may further offer specialized nutritional supplements on top of that, such as a vitamin E-selenium mix).

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