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I have always been a bit cautious about supplements. I don’t have a problem with supplements, I just feel that reassessing your horse’s diet can often negate the need to add a supplement. We have all known at least one horse to be fed a calming supplement when the horse is fed racehorse food to go on the occasional hack… But as Scottie gets older, I have accepted that his balancer won’t quite cut it.
Joint Supplements
I first started looking into joint supplements when Scottie injured his tendon. While this was a tendon issue rather than a broader joint issue, I did look into joint supplements for him. I ended up trying an Aviform supplement what had ingredients for tendon recovery. I gave it a good try and possibly saw an improvement, although it is always so hard to tell. In the end, I couldn’t justify the cost.
Dodson & Horrell Devils Claw
After I decided I couldn’t justify the cost of the Aviform supplement I had been feeding, I went for a different angle. I wanted something anti-inflammatory what might just help to keep Scottie’s very mild flare up of lameness at bay. After a bit of research I settled on the natural anti-inflammatory properties of Devils Claw. The fact it has to be withdrawn before competition also helped to reassure me that it would help.
We have been feeding Dodson & Horrell Devils Claw Root granules for about a year now and while we haven’t seen an obvious improvement, it is cheap to feed and Scottie hasn’t had any obvious problems with his tendon, despite having done a bit more work than previously. It is now a staple in Scottie’s diet.
NAF Glucosamine 10,000 + MSM
If you follow our progress regularly, you might have seen that Scottie has recently been diagnosed with arthritis. Luckily arthritis can be managed and often keeping the horse moving and in light work is much better for them. But I want to do as much as I can to keep him comfortable. I spoke to my vet about what ingredients to look for in a joint supplement for him and they recommended Glucosamine and MSM.
I reached out on social media for people’s recommendations for joint supplements and NAF Super Flex and NAF Glucosamine were some of the top recommended. I looked into both of these. Both have the same, high level of Glucosamine and both contain MSM. The Super Flex contained more MSM, but was also roughly double the price. I decided to start with the Glucosamine 10,000 + MSM.
My frst 900g pot should last us about 2 months and towards the end of the tub I will try and decide if it has had an effect or not. If I don’t think it has I will think about upgrading to Super Flex. But fingers crossed the cheaper option does the trick for us.
Read my review of Naf Glucosamine.
Other Supplements
Over the years I have added other supplements to Scottie’s diet as and when I thought he would benefit from them. When he had sarcoids in places what weren’t causing him a problem, I added turmeric to his feed based on the sheer number of people who saw an improvement in their horses skin. I personally didn’t see an improvement in Scottie’s sarcoids until I swapped him to a balancer. When his balancer used to have lower levels of Biotin, I fed half the recommended amount of the biotin supplement to top up his biotin intake. I was a huge improvement in the quality of his hooves from this.
I have always been open to trying a supplement for specific issues we have. So I was very excited when EquiNutritive reached out and asked if I would be interested in trying some of their 100% natural supplements.
EquiNutritive Breathe-Rite Respiratory Supplement
Scottie has been at our current yard for 5 years now. Since arriving at the yard he has had an occasional cough. I have tried soaking hay, changing bedding and other tips for reducing Amonia in the stable. But I have come to the conclusion that the cough is caused by something at the yard, as taking him away for the weekend with the same hay & bedding he doesn’t cough. I suspect it could be that our stables overlook the school. It’s not a bad cough. He is rarely coughing on the yard. It’s more when he first starts trotting he has a few coughs to clear his throat out then he is fine.
But when EquiNutritive reached out, asking what supplements I would be interested in trying, their 100% natural ingredients respiratory supplement stood out to me. It arrrived this week in cardboard packaging, making it easily recyclable and I am excited to see how we get on with it.
Read my review of EquiNutritive Breathe Rite
EquiNutritive Revive ‘n’ Shine Skin & Coat Supplement
Another issue Scottie seems to struggle with is his skin. Specifically his skin in winter. I don’t think his skin likes being rugged. Over winter he gets quite flaky and occasionally a bit lumpy and scabby. I am careful not to over rug him as it always seems to be worse if he is warm. The vet has seen him and couldn’t really pin down the issue. It could be an allergy, it could be a fungal infection like ringworm or it could be something bacterial like rain scald. Weirdly it doesn’t seem to behave how any of these things typically behave and luckily doesn’t seem to cause him a problem. But I am always aware of it and try to keep him cool and get his rugs off when I can.
EquiNutritive’s skin and coat supplement felt like another obvious choice for us. I am interested to see if it makes a difference or not to Scottie’s skin. Any improvement could make his winters more comfortable as while it doesn’t seem to cause him a problem, not having it would surely be more comfortable.
Read my review of EquiNutritive Revive N’ Shine
Last Updated on 05/04/2022
