How Helpful Are Vitamins and Supplements For Our Horses? - The Horse's Advocate Podcast #182

There are two ways to provide vitamins, minerals, and amino acids to your horse: through factories or nature. In this episode, I discuss how horses obtain these nutrients naturally and where natural sources fall short. I also explore the production of these nutrients in laboratories and factories.

I spend some time looking at where using man-made materials is required due to the environments in which horses live. For example, horses grazing large fields of fresh green grass undoubtedly have different needs than those raised in a dry lot. You will be surprised how adaptive horses can be up to a point. What may be more surprising is how few companies make the ingredients we discuss. Of concern are the many hands in the supply chain, in the production of the final product, and how often they sell the same ingredient under different brand names.

0:01 - Why horses may need supplements.

01:49 - Water: ground versus distilled.

02:17 - Minerals: macro and micro. Common deficiencies. Chelation. Why horses rarely get mineral deficiencies. Thumps (Synchronous Diaphragmatic Flutter), Electrolytes, Rickets, Magnesium deficiency and its associated behavior changes.

09:02 - Protein and amino acid deficiency: Natural versus synthetic amino acids, Signs of an amino acid deficiency, Genetic modification of microorganisms.

13:29 - About 80% of all amino acids and vitamins are made in China—discussion of the supply chain from raw materials to production facilities.

17:15 - The first of two problems: Man-made vitamins and amino acids are either made from chemicals or from genetically modified microorganisms, and the long supply chain from raw materials to the final product in your barn has too many points of non-verifiable steps and materials.

18:32- The second of two problems: How can the deficit or the results of supplementation be verified in the horse?

21:37 - Testing the diet that the horse is eating and comparing that to the signs of deficiencies.

23:21 - The fallacy that placing supplements in the food, other than macronutrients, will fix an underlying energy problem (mitochondria).

25:17 - The chemical in gunpowder that caused increased mitochondrial function and subsequent loss of body fat despite over-eating. It was called DNP (dinitrophenol), which acts as a mitochondrial uncoupler: It disrupts the proton gradient in cells, causing the body to "waste" energy as heat (thermogenesis) instead of storing it as ATP. This ramps up metabolic rate (sometimes by 30–50% or more), leading to rapid fat and carbohydrate breakdown and significant weight loss—even without dieting. (Wikipedia) Banned in 1938 by the FDA.

26:45 - Without the ability to test horses for a deficiency, feed companies just throw in amino acids, vitamins, and minerals to cover any possibilities without any proof they are needed.

29:30 - Vitamin C in humans and horses.

31:06 - Vitamins A, D, E, and K in horses.

33:51 - The B Vitamins.

34:35 - Summary of how and where raw materials are made, and the long supply chain to the final product sold to horse owners. Look at the horse for a deficiency. Look at the diet for deficiencies. Protein deficiency is the most common one seen, with the most problems in horses due to the lack of protein. Remove ingredients that inflame the gut.

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