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Who or what animals need minerals, vitamins and trace elements? The simple and complete answer is all of God’s creatures need minerals, vitamins and trace minerals. Many would think that well and healthy are the same thing, they are not.
Sadly when horses are removed from their natural roaming nature for what ever reason, they can begin to slowly decline and some quickly decline given the human stewardship they may be bound by.
It is without a doubt, cheaper or less expensive to manage a horse day to day in a reactive mindset, and it is more expensive economically and emotionally to care for a horse episodically in this reactive mindset.
When picking a horse supplement, it is important to recognize the differences between grass, oat hay and alfalfa forage. There are differences besides availability and cost. Is your horse supplement forage or diet specific for your horse?
Alfalfa is high in calcium (magnesium, potassium, protein and calories) content which the horse’s body will wash out by binding it with phosphates, making it difficult for the gut to absorb magnesium and Vitamin D. Simply put, when feeding alfalfa, the horse gets too much calcium, loses phosphates and therefore decreases its ability to absorb magnesium or Vitamin D. What does this mean with respect to the performance of your horse? Phosphate/phosphorus regulates the controlled release of energy (ATP-ADP), and facilitates the absorption and transportation of nutrients.
The ATP (Adenosine Tri-phosphate) molecule holds the cellular energy, when the third phosphate bond is broken to form ADP (Adenosine Di-phosphate) the high energy bond is broken releasing energy to supply fuel for many body reactions.
Magnesium activates ATP and all changes of ATP to ADP therefore magnesium holds the keys to energy. It stands to reason if you decrease the availabiltiy of magnesium, you decrease the availability of energy to the horse on a cellular level. With lower levels of magnesium it will be manifested as irritability, nervousness and an increase in muscle contractions or tetany (tying up) due to increased stimulation of nervous tissue, if the nerves do not relax the muscle will not relax. Therefore a forage or diet specific horse supplement formulated for alfalfa will prove valuable when feeding alfalfa, and a forage or diet specific horse supplement formulated for grass fed horses will prove valuable when feeding any of the grass or oat forages.
Is your horse supplement balanced in such a way that the minerals, vitamins and trace elements work together for the benefit of the horse as opposed to over working the kidney, liver and gut? The lack of balance will force the body to deplete other resources to help in the elimination of the excess or non-absorbed contents of the supplement and the organs will work harder or be over stressed processing this imbalance.
These are very basic concepts relative to the application of a mineral, vitamin and trace element supplements for your horse.
Can your horse absorb with ease the minerals, vitamins and trace elements contained in the supplement you provide? All vitamins, minerals and trace elements have more than one form and that is a difference with a distinction, that can make all the difference in the world when being absorbed by the gut of the horse. Many times manufacturers may use the less expensive form of a vitamin, mineral or trace element which is difficult for the horse to use and some times use the more expensive forms to raise the price of the product, but once again the vitamin or mineral is difficult to absorb. For an example, minerals in the form of an oxide are difficult to absorb, minerals in a sulfate form are easier to absorb, yet can lower the Ph of the system making it more acidic. Using minerals in a chelated form (which is a mineral wrapped around an amino acid) are highly bioavailable.
There is little point in putting a mineral, vitamin or trace element in a supplement if it is difficult for the horse to absorb, it will cost in more ways than at the cash register, it will also be at the expense of the horse’s liver, kidneys, immune system, gut, muscles and nervous system.
Balancing of the vitamins, minerals and trace elements is very important…there must be a synergy within the supplement so the individual components work together in harmony to the benefit of the animal or organism.
Performance horses by definition require greater high performance nutrition.
Equine Challenge Supplements are synergistically proportioned to provide the nutritional building blocks and maintain the metabolic balance of your horse, regardless of whether you feed alfalfa, grass or oat hay.
If you would be interested in comparing what you are currently using with Equine Challenge Supplements™ or are interested in designing a custom feeding program for your horse, please call us at (559) 905-7528.