There is something missing in Ro’s life…

5 October 2011 6 Comments

An interesting conundrum: despite the fact that a horse’s diet is the simplest thing there is (grass!), I spend more time tweaking Ro’s feed than I do worrying about my cat’s. Or my own.

Because, let’s be honest here, you need an advanced nutritional degree to figure out a horse’s diet.

Sure, they eat grass. But we all know that that means hay for most horses—and what kind of hay anyway? Alfalfa? Timothy? Coastal?

And after you pick the hay, what if hay is not enough? Coastal is the hay of choice around here, but Ro cannot live on coastal alone. I’d add alfalfa, but alfalfa is very expensive.

So… grain.

But, is grain the right choice? Maybe a ration balancer would be better. Maybe something like a hay replacer, like most senior feeds? Or maybe all processed grain is evil, and so we should feed—what’s the current trend? Beet pulp? Alfalfa pellets and oats? Some sort of mix-your-own, non-processed feed like that.

But let’s assume you have your hay and you have your carefully chosen grain or grain-like option.

It doesn’t matter! You’re still doing it wrong! You need SUPPLEMENTS!

Everyone knows that, right? You can’t possibly be a good horse owner unless you have sold your soul to the supplement companies.

I admit, Ro gets some supplements. In point of fact, she gets magnesium (she gets sore and tense—to the point of kicking and biting when touched—off it), electrolytes (salt block in summer was not enough), MSM (Hail Mary pass to help her stocking up, and it worked), and Vitamin E (it breaks down very quickly in hay, and she’s not on fresh grass).

So, pretty simple, right?

She’s a young, healthy horse, in light work, on a primarily hay-based diet with a high-quality grain. What else would she need, anyway?

I was on SmartPak. I saw they had a supplement wizard. And I thought it would be interesting to see what SmartPak thought my horse would need.

As it turns out, SmartPak things my horse needs eight different supplements at a cost that is greater than my monthly board.

I am not kidding. The cost was more than my board. Granted I am on partial board and it’s cheap, but if you need to spend hundreds of dollars per month on supplements, you are doing it wrong. Everything. You are doing EVERYTHING wrong.

But I went through the recommendations, to see if I am missing something.

They recommend a joint supplement. But I have yet to see any information that suggests oral joint supplements actually work. I think I’ll pass—I suspect that good riding, good feed, and good turnout will do more for her than a dubious oral joint supplement.

Next: something for marish behavior. Sure, she’s in a snit right now with some bad fall transitional heat cycling. But I have put her on raspberry leaves before and am not convinced they did any good. I think I’ll pass—if she cycles this badly next spring, I’ll talk to my vet.

Digestion. This is code for pre/probiotics. I’ll be honest here. I think the pre/probiotic craze is total hogwash. It sounds great, but again—I haven’t seen anything to suggest it works or is even necessary. And I am suspicious of the idea that the microorganism would survive the process to create pellets or powders or whatever form they come in. Plus, since it’s the current hot topic, my feed has already added pre/probiotics to their formula. I think that’s hogwash, too, but in the event that these things can survive processing, and survive typical barn storage, and actually do any good… we’re covered. Pass on this.

Ulcers and Gastric Health. I was hoping they were going to offer me Tums, but nope. Not for me. More pre/probiotic stuff plus what looks like the equivalent of Tums for horses. I know someone who put her horse on U-Guard and she felt it made a huge difference in him, but I have taken a different approach with Ro. Although I know not everyone does, I really like feeding alfalfa hay. This is high in calcium, and does a decent job helping average stomach problems. I try to make sure she has a substantial portion of alfalfa in her diet. Currently, that’s via Triple Crown Senior, which has alfalfa meal as one of its primary ingredients. I’m also considering picking up a bale of alfalfa here and there and feeding it to her, because she loves it and can use the extra calories with cooler weather coming on. I much prefer this—addressing potential issues via primary feed choices—the spending $$$ on supplements after the fact. So, pass on these.

Electrolytes. No argument there; she’s already on them during the summer. I think I will be going back to a salt block over the winter, but we’ll see. I hate to change things that are working well, and her current program is working well.

Immune Support. This primarily means Vitamin E. Again, no argument—she’s already on it (although I buy from the drug store, which is cheaper than horse-branded supplements).

Muscle Development. I’ve been tossing this one back and forth. “They” say tri-aminos are great for helping to build a topline, and I feel like this is really hard to do on Ro—and if she loses any weight at all, it disappears off her topline first. The tri-amino supplements are generally cheap enough that I could just buy a month’s supply and see what happens, but there’s a part of me that thinks this is just snake oil salesmanship. This is me, sitting on a fence.

Essential Fatty Acids. By this, SmartPak means SmartOmega3. Which is Omega3s (surprise!), more pre/probiotics (so why did I need to buy them separately again?), and more Vitamin E. However, the amount of Vit E here (500 IU) is less than I would want to feed (I do 1200-1600 IU as a maintenance dose), so it’s not like I could drop Vit E and just use this. And we know what I fan I am of pre/probiotics… so that leaves us with the Omega3s. Did you see the recent picture of Ro? I think she’s plenty shiny. I think I can pass on this one as well.

So, doing the math, of the eight supplements SmartPak thinks I ought to give, I do in fact give two, I was already on the fence about one, and they completely missed the one supplement that is absolutely critical for Ro (magnesium). I suspect this is because so many people think of magnesium as a “calming” supplement that they don’t even try to market it to people who might need it for actual, physical issues. Or something.

I think, rather than paying SmartPak essentially a second board check, I’ll just stick to what I’m doing now, maybe pick up a bale of alfalfa to throw Ro an occasional flake, and maybe—maybe—pick up some TriAminos from somewhere and try them for a month to see what they do.

I still think they are kind of a sham, and we’d probably be better served by doing cavaletti, but someone has to support the economy, right?

Comments

There are 6 comments for this entry. Add yours.