Vitamins and minerals for horses
If your horse is getting a balanced diet - do you really need to feed a good quality broad-spectrum multivitamin and mineral supplement like PegaVite® as well?
In some cases the answer is a very definite ‘Yes’, and to find out why we spoke to respected equine nutritionist John Chapman.
He also helped us understand why some manufacturers and retailers are so keen on the use of ‘chelated’ supplements. Are these more expensive ingredients and products really worth it, we asked? John told us what chelates are and why he believes that only a small number of animals really need them.
John explained that horses have evolved over time to become herbivores, living mostly on grass and “other leafy or succulent material that takes their fancy”!
In the wild, horses are normally able to naturally obtain all the vitamins and minerals they need from the wide variety of plants and herbs on which they can graze. In some cases, wild horses will travel long distances to find what they nutritionally need.
In common with other animals, the main nutritional needs of horses are for proteins, oils and fats which they need for energy.
But vitamins and minerals are also vital for various bodily functions. Some have structural functions - such as the calcium needed for healthy bone and connective tissue. Others are involved in transporting substances around the body - such as iron in haemoglobin. Many minerals and vitamins are involved in the many biochemical processes that enable the body to properly digest and metabolise the food it eats. Vitamin E and Selenium are jointly involved in many metabolic processes, especially those associated with fertility.
“Considerable attention has to be paid to ensuring an adequate, balanced supply of all essential nutrients for horses in captivity which rely on their owners to meet their needs,” said John.
He explained that the necessary minerals in a horse’s diet, which also include phosphorus, zinc, copper, iron, manganese and cobalt, are frequently combined with complex organic compounds such as amino-acids and polysaccharides. One common method for this is chelation, in which the mineral ions are strongly bound to the compounds.
John said: “Minerals often occur within plants as chelates; some of these can be transported across the gut wall; others have to be broken down by digestion to release the mineral ions before digestion can take place.
“Some are very stable (e.g. phosphorus in phytin in bran) and
cannot be digested. The digestive processes may release mineral ions into solution in the gut, only for these to form indigestible compounds with other digestion products, which pass out in faeces.”
Traditionally horse diets have been supplemented with ingredients such as limestone (for calcium), bone meal (for calcium and phosphorus), salt and seaweed (for trace elements - which are those needed only in very small amounts).
Nowadays a much higher degree of precision goes into formulating supplements using the latest research data - and one such example of this is the Pegasus Health PegaVite® equine vitamins and minerals supplement which John himself formulated.
John explained: “Most minerals are added in inorganic form as oxides, hydroxides, or salts such as carbonates, phosphates, chlorides and phosphates.
“The efficiency of digestion of these varies considerably. It is affected by the needs of the animal (a higher percentage is often digested when deficient); also the relative amounts of other minerals (e.g. relatively high phytin phosphorus interferes with calcium uptake); relatively high levels of any one mineral can restrict absorption of others.
“In some circles it is considered essential to supply trace elements as chelates. The evidence in support of this is variable; some comes from organisations selling chelated supplements!”
For more than 25 years, John - who is also proprietor of Gravenhorse Feeds - has been supplying horse feeds using supplements WITHOUT ANY chelated ingredients and has had
no reports from any customers to suggest any problems as a result.
“Where a high level of bio-availability is required, for example in hoof supplements the use of chelates such as zinc methionate is appropriate. This compound gives the further advantage of the sulphur-bearing amino-acid methionine, essential for horn growth."
“Some high intensity livestock systems use chelated minerals in order to minimise faecal content and subsequent application to the land in manure. Where diets contain high levels of a mineral or compound which would suppress normal absorption of a particular mineral, adequate supply of the latter can be achieved by using chelates. They can also be useful for animals recovering from illness, and in milk replacers and the diets of foals.”
John does believe there is evidence to support the use of selenium chelate as part of selenium supplementation and this is incorporated in the current formulation of PegaVite®.
John recommends feeding PegaVite® at the higher levels of 75g (for ponies) up to 150g (for heavies) a day to horses and ponies on straight feeds, and working hard or breeding.
It can also be used to complement proprietary mixes or pellets (which normally supply enough minerals and vitamins) when they are being fed
rather below the manufacturers' recommended rate, he said.
John added: “I often encounter problems with horses in good condition but lacking stamina. PegaVite® will correct this, providing more of the essential minerals and vitamins for energy metabolism in the muscles. Conversely restriction of mineral/vitamin intake can temper an over-excitable horse’s behaviour”
Do we manufacture liquid PegaVite®?
PegaVite® is only available as a powder, because it is very difficult to stabilise such a rich abundance of so many vitamins and minerals within liquid. Some of the goodness of the vitamins and minerals can be destroyed by the chemical reaction that results when some minerals are combined in a water environment.
To obtain some of the macro-minerals in soluble form would also be expensive, and the high concentrations needed for a supplement of the quality and power of PegaVite® would make it probable that they would precipitate into a solid in the solution and therefore be wasted.
Signs of mineral/vitamin deficiency include poor coat, pigment loss around the eyes (copper), lethargy, failure to come into season; eating soil; eating droppings (B12 or cobalt).
