Your horse’s health and soundness rely on you, as the horse owner, to make proper and educated decisions. In many instances, a horse’s health continues to deteriorate or their lameness persists, despite you making choices when it comes to supplements, medications, and supportive care. So, why isn’t your horse’s supplement regimen working? There are very simple reasons, but often overlooked. Don’t get frustrated!
You’ve got a horse with a health or soundness problem. Maybe it is a metabolic issue, poor insulin function, Cushing’s disease, or even laminitis or an ongoing foot or tendon problem. You’ve had the condition diagnosed per se, with routine laboratory testing, ultrasound exams, or even x-rays. Then, because you desire to help your horse and assist in their health and well-being, you opt to supplement them. In many instances, the horse has no problems at all, but yet is supplemented because others are doing it in the barn, or a trainer pushes the regimen upon you as the owner.
Either way, one of two things happens in this situation.
- Your horse benefits and improves in health and soundness
- Your horse fails to benefit, worsens, or just stays the same in their poor health and lameness situation
So, why is this happening and why, in most cases, are owners spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars on supplements and even medications each month on their horse but failing to get results. Why isn’t your horse’s supplement regimen working? It seems to be working for everyone else, right? In reality, it isn’t, that is an illusion.
Why Your Horse’s Supplement Regimen Doesn’t Work
Your intentions for your horse are meaningful and good, but for some reason things are not working out. Do you recognize that something is not working? Or are you like many other horse owners that just continue the same old regimen, despite results, or worse, just add more things to the regimen?
The reality is that if something is not working, then it is not the answer. This could apply to the wrong screw for a woodworking job, the wrong glue, the wrong antibiotic, the wrong anti-inflammatory medication, or even the wrong supplement.
When it comes to health in the horse, like us, most view supplementation as the answer and to one extent it is, but it is a question of what you choose to supplement. It is very popular in today’s equine world to supplement vitamin-mineral blends or ration balancers, or use various ‘joint’ supplements for instance. While some horses benefit, the reality is that these choices are not the answers in almost any situation. Why?
First, we have to take into consideration one major factor in horse health, like human health, and that is the digestive microbiome. This gut microbiome is responsible for either promoting health or disease. It is all a question of what the state of the microbiome is at that time, imbalanced or balanced. It makes all of the difference, because when it is in balance, then not only is your horse properly digesting the food you are providing and extracting the nutrients, but they also have a reduced degree of inflammation and oxidative stress, which is also behind every disease and injury in the horse. This is vitally important in every horse for optimal health and soundness.
The reason that most supplement and even medication regimens fail to provide results is because the root problem, being the gut microbiome imbalance and oxidative stress, are still a factor, despite your approach. In reality, most regimens being utilized are making this situation worse, rather than helping it, thus the horse fails to improve or becomes clinically worse on many levels.
Horse Supplements; The KISS Rule
When it comes to health, there is one rule and that is the KISS rule, which means “keep it simple stupid.” This applies to any situation, medications and supplements alike. This is one reason why we fail in most cases, again whether if this is a medical situation in the horse or one which is being supplemented.
When it comes to a horse supplement regimen, there are generally three main reasons for failure:
- Poor compliance on the owner’s part
- A persistent factor that has not been addressed
- Wrong approach
I will discuss briefly the first two reasons as the third is an obvious one, but requires investigation on the owner’s part regarding choices being made.
Poor compliance:
Poor compliance is a natural factor or tendency of man, as a human. We do not generally do things consistently, when in fact, they should be done. This could be changing the oil in our car or even riding lawn mower, exercising, or even eating well. This also applies to medications and supplements both in the veterinary and human world of medicine. It is a known fact that only about 30% of people refill long-term medications for themselves and for their animals. Pretty sad, but it is a fact.
In my world of supplements, meaning the Cur-OST and Secondvet line of herbal formulas, I have seen two things when it comes to compliance.
First, the owners choose or are guided to the right herbal regimen, and they start off on a good foot, but reduce the dose down too quickly or are dosing improperly. When a product says 1 or maybe 2 scoops per day for maintenance, as an example, this does not mean 1/2 scoop in the AM and 1/2 scoop in the PM, or 1 scoop in the AM and 1 scoop in the PM. Herbs are like medications in many respects and a lower or diluted dose is generally not effective, especially if other factors are not addressed in the horse’s regimen.
Second, the owners fail to give the supplement consistently. They may obtain results or improvement in their horse over the first 4-6 weeks, but then stop or give it when they remember or some stop completely when the trigger time of the year is not present. This is not hard to detect or predict as a problem when the owner calls to cancel or postpone an autofill on an herbal formula because they have somehow accumulated many pouches.
Persistent Factors Not Addressed:
There are six main factors which contribute to a horse’s health and lameness which need to be addressed first and foremost:
- A proper diet with high quality, nutritious forage and pasture
- A good lifestyle, adequate exercise, and socialization
- Proper digestive health and a balanced digestive microbiome
- Proper management of oxidative stress and inflammation
- Proper management and balancing of the feet
- Avoid over-supplementation
Given these 5 factors, one or more of them is the reason behind the failure of your horse’s supplement regimen. It is very common, in fact, to have a horse owner that is feeding 4 or more synthetic based supplements to their horse and still having clinical issues. Many of these owners follow the advice in our articles or even in a consultation, using the recommended Cur-OST or Secondvet supplement for their horse, but fail to stop the other things they are giving or fail to realize the impact of the poor lifestyle.
All factors need to be addressed and it is important to keep in mind that you cannot supplement your way out of a bad diet, poor lifestyle, improperly trimmed feet, or over supplementation in your horse.
So, if your horse’s supplement regimen is not working, then it is time to re-evaluate the situation and the factors mentioned above. If we recommended a regimen in an article or during a equine consultation, and it is not working or helping, then there is a reason. It is just as important NOT to over-supplement and create more of a problem in your horse as it is to use the correct formula and address digestive health.
Author: Tom Schell, D.V.M, CVCH, CHN