Are commercial supplements good or bad?

The short answer is no, they are neither good nor bad but they cannot provide your horses with a diet balanced in minerals. They can be expensive though and contain ingredients your horses don't need and not enough of what they do need.

Let's have a look at one of the popular hoof supplements on the market. This hoof supplement contains the following amongst other 'fillers'.

It is typically recommended when horses present with poor hoof growth, thin walls, brittleness or cracks. The idea is to buy a supplement designed for hooves to solve the problem at usually a fairly high price for long term use. Once the problem is supposedly solved then the hoof supplement may be discontinued or it may be a permanent addition to the diet without any real understanding of what was causing the problem with the hooves in the first place. And this may be in addition to a coat supplement because the coat was dull and 'bleached'. Many horses are over supplemented as owners have nothing better to go on than buy a supplement by its 'problem to be solved' label.

But will this solve the problem? The approach that Balanced Equine Nutrition takes is to look at the whole diet and to supplement with what is missing and then to ensure that the proportions of the nutrients and minerals are in the right ratios, as guided by the National Research council (NRC).

Poor hoof growth is more likely due to deficiencies in copper, zinc, selenium, vitamin E, inadequate B vitamins like biotin, pyridoxine, folic acid and B12 and possibly the amino acid, methionine.  Amino acids are building blocks for constructing protein. Methionine, an amino acid with a sulphur bond is found in grass and hay so if your horse is on pasture or hay then unlikely that your horse will need supplementing with methionine.  B vitamins are found in in grass and hay and also by the micro organisms that ferment forage so again unlikely to need supplementing.  If there is no deficiency, more is not better. Biotin supplementation has been shown to be effective in some studies but in others it had no effect.  Again grass (and lucerne) is a good source of biotin and unlikely to need supplementing.  Omega-3 (anti inflammatory) and omega-6 (pro inflammatory) fatty acids can also be a problem but again not an issue if the horse is eating grass as the main source of forage. To add shine to your horses' coat at a similar ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 found in grass, simply add 15 ml of linseed oil to your horse's diet. All other oils have higher omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3. (Note: Linseed oil must be refrigerated as omega-3 fatty acids are heat sensitive.)

Lecithin is an emulsifier that contains fatty acids and the B vitamin choline amongst other ingredients. Tyrosine is a non essential amino acid which means that the horse is able to manufacture it himself. B vitamins do not need to be supplemented for a horse on pasture or hay. Other ingredients such as alfalfa meal (lucerne meal) and calcium iodate are sources of calcium, which will help if your horse is calcium deficient but if your horse is not, then the extra calcium could throw the calcium to phosphorus ratio out, assuming there is a significant enough amount in the recommended dose.

Neither of these photos have been altered or doctored in any way in Adobe Photoshop or any other graphic manipulation program.

The change in diet from an unbalanced diet to a supplemented balanced diet can clearly be seen in each hoof. The hoof on the left side is from a horse that was having issues with sand cracks and larger cracks. The second hoof is of a horse whose feet despite regular barefoot trimming still continued to be brittle and crack easily.

If you are finding horses with hooves that don't improve, despite your best efforts with regular and timely trimming, then it is most likely that the problem is due to nutritional issues that cannot be solved by trimming alone. Nor can the diet solve all issues wih hooves - hoofcare and diet go hand in hand.

The most common deficiencies that cause hoof, coat and skin issues are copper and zinc as most pastures are poor in these nutrients, particularly copper.  The obvious solution is to find a supplement on the market that can supply copper and zinc.  But how much is needed?  Not only is it best to provide sufficient amounts of these trace minerals as set out by the NRC based on a horse's weight, age, reproductive status and/or workload but it is also necessary to provide them in the right proportions for an optimised, balanced diet.  Too much zinc can block the absorption of copper so excess zinc will set the horse up for a secondary copper deficiency even if you are providing enough copper in the diet to cover his requirement. This could mean the copper goes in and comes out the other end with no effect.

But there is a way to work out how much to supplement and what with.  A pasture laboratory test will tell you what your horse is actually getting for protein, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and the trace minerals, iron, copper, zinc and manganese and is inexpensive.  Balanced Equine Nutrition will balance the diet with what is missing and in the right amounts and then provide the 'recipe' for a custom trace mineral mix with copper and zinc using salt as the base.  Very easy to do once you know what your horse needs and a lot cheaper than the commercial supplements, especially in the long run.  Commercial supplements can be used but it really is throw everything at the horse and hope something in there will work and the horse has to excrete the rest.  Since no pasture test has come back with results showing the minerals in the correct proportions and in sufficient quantities, no balanced commercial supplement or feed will ever be able to balance a horse's diet as they don't know what your horse is getting from pasture and other feeds/supplements to start with.

Contact details:

Carol Layton B.Sc, M.Ed
Balanced Equine Nutrition

Phone: 02 4953 2580
Email:

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