Vitamin and Mineral Nutrition of the Horse

Minerals are inorganic nutrients that are needed in relatively small quantities by the horse. The essential major minerals are calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, chloride, potassium and sulfur. The essential trace minerals needed are iron, zinc, copper, selenium, manganese, iodine, and cobalt.

A horse's mineral requirements will vary based on its body weight, age, physiological condition (e.g., pregnant, lactating) and activity level. For example, late gestation and lactating mares as well as young, rapidly growing horses have a proportionally greater requirement for some specific minerals e.g., calcium, phosphorus, copper, and zinc, than do other horses. The National Research Council (NRC) 2007 publication entitled, Nutrient Requirement of Horses lists daily mineral requirement as well as the mineral content of common feedstuffs. The mineral content of most grains and supplements are consistent enough that you can use values in the NRC tables; however, the quantity of minerals in forages can vary significantly with soil mineral content, plant species, stage of maturity at harvest, harvest conditions etc. Consequently, forages should be sent to a laboratory for mineral analysis.  This can be done for a small fee of $10 through NCDA&CS Farm Feed Testing Service.  Check with your Extension agent for more information.

Providing minerals at less than the recommended quantities can result in a dietary deficiency whereas providing minerals in excessive quantities can result in toxicity. In addition to the amount of mineral required daily, the ratios of minerals with each other and with other components of the ration are important due to effects on absorption, metabolism and/or excretion. In particular, a critical consideration in mineral nutrition of the horse is the calcium to phosphorus (Ca:P) ratio. 

Although the quantity of trace minerals required for normal growth, development and metabolism is very small, they are all absolutely essential.  Providing mineral supplementation can be accomplished in a number of different ways. You can use:

1.  Trace mineral salt, either in block or loose form containing Na, Cl and trace minerals but no Ca or P. This approach assumes that the Ca and P levels as well as the Ca:P ratio provided in the rest of the ration are appropriate. 

Photo Credit: myhorse.com

2.  Commercial complete mineral supplements containing major minerals such as Ca, P, Na, Cl, trace minerals etc. The mineral supplement should be chosen to compliment the mineral content of the remainder of the ration e.g., type of forage and concentrate if any. The complete mineral supplement is fed daily at the recommended rate to each individual horse. This method ensures that each horse consumes the appropriate amount of mineral. When using a complete mineral supplement horses should also have access to a white salt block that does not contain trace minerals.

3.  Commercial grain mix which contains major and trace minerals. If fed at the manufacturer's recommended rate, this method ensures that each horse consumes the appropriate amount of mineral.  When using a commercial grain mix, horses should also have access to a white salt block that does not contain trace minerals.

Vitamins are organic compounds that are needed in even smaller quantities than minerals by the horse, although no less critical. Vitamins can be divided into two groups, the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K and the water soluble C and B-complex vitamins. The National Research Council (NRC) 2007 publication entitled,Nutrient Requirement of Horses lists estimates of the daily requirements for vitamins A, D, E, and the B-vitamins thiamin and riboflavin. 

Vitamin A (or its precursor beta-carotene) and vitamin E are present in high concentrations in fresh green forages or newly harvested hay. Consequently, a horse grazing pasture will meet its vitamin A and E requirements. However, during the winter, when hay is stored, the levels of vitamins A and E in hay drop significantly, necessitating supplementation to meet requirements.  Sun-cured forages contain vitamin D. The vitamin D requirement is also met if the horse is exposed to sunlight for four to six hours a day because the ultraviolet rays of the sun will convert a precursor present in the skin to vitamin D.

Source: Marcia Hathaway, PhD. Department of Animal Science, University of Minnesota

To view the full article click here: http://www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/horse/nutrition/vitamins-and-minerals/ 

Own a Horse? How About a Horse App!

No, I’m not talking about horse apples. Horse apps!  With the proliferation of electronic devices that will make and receive calls, send text messages, surf the internet, and run apps, it is only natural that there is are plenty of apps available to install on a phone, tablet, or pad that in some way pertain to horses.  Many of those apps are even useful as tools to help manage one’s horses.  Most of those cite the advantage of having your equine records in your pocket and always available.

There are a whole lot of those apps in the app stores that are games, wallpaper, or other mostly useless stuff, but there are also some likely gems when it comes to managing a stable and keeping financial records, keeping vet records, learning dressage, reining, or pleasure patterns, planning trail rides, training horses, or training a hippology or horse bowl team.  Any one of these needs might make an app on a phone or tablet worthwhile.

I will put the disclaimer in here:  I am not endorsing any specific apps for use with a horse, stable, or veterinary service.  With that said, there are some apps out there that are from .edu sources that should be trustworthy. 

Some of these apps might be useful in keeping feeding records, breeding records, registration papers, financial records, veterinary records, or other important information about your horse.  There are apps that will estimate a horse’s weight, though there are some measurements that have to be taken to make this one work.   There are apps that show that anatomy and physiology of the entire horse, and apps that only show the parts of a horse’s hoof.  There are plenty of “how to” apps also.  Of course, there are lots of equine game apps to help pass the time between classes at shows.

When choosing an equine app for your highly sophisticated communications device, be sure to do a little research.  Before downloading and installing any app on your phone or tablet, be sure to check out any reviews, see when the last update was made, or even if the app is still available. If it hasn’t been updated in a couple of years, it may not be one to use. If the reviews are poor, it may not be very useful.  Talk with friends and folks in the horse business to see if there might be any particular app that they like and how it is best used.  Adventurous folks might try a new app and write a review to share with other horse owners.  Most of these apps cost between $1.00 and $10.00.   That’s a lot less than buying a software package for the home computer, but folks should try to find some information that will help them make an informed decision.

I don’t know if there is a linear relationship or correlation between owning a horse and also owning an Apple product, but a lot of the equine apps are only available for Apple gear.  I did see several reviews of apps that said Android versions were planned or would be released soon.  Hopefully, the best apps are available to anyone.

The University of Minnesota has a couple of apps that Apple users may be interested in.  One is a “Hay Price Calculator” app that converts the per-bale price to a price per ton for a better price comparison.  The other is called “Healthy Horse” and is a body weight estimator that folks can use to see if their horse is over or under weight, or is at the ideal weight for that type of horse.  Adjustments to the feeding program can then be made to have horses gain or lose weight, or maintain the current weight.   These can be found at http://z.umn.edu/ituneshorsehay ($0.99) and http://z.umn.edu/itunesHealthyHorse ($1.99).

Have fun deciding which equine app or apps will be most useful.  Now I’m wondering how to best wrap one of these to put under the tree this holiday season!

Caring For Your Senior Horse

We’ve all heard the phrases “Well, I’m no spring chicken” or “I’m not as young as I used to be”.  The older we get, our joints creak and pop a little more than they used to, our eyesight is not as sharp and it takes a little bit longer to get moving.  With everything that happens to us on a daily basis, it’s easy to forget that they happen to our equine friends too.  As our horses get older, there are things that we can do, steps that we can take to help them age gracefully and comfortably.  Researchers from the University of Georgia and University of Florida have detailed some of the most common problems for senior horses and their solutions and compiled them in the article below.

Caring for the Older Horse: Common Problems and Solutions    

Equine Embryo Transfer

By: Margaret Ross

Adapted from: Embryo Transfer in Mares. Fred M. Hopkins, Professor, Large Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science; Doyle G. Meadows, Professor, Animal Science

Embryo transfer, also known as ET, is a reproductive technology that has various uses in the equine reproductive industry. These uses include:

·      Mares under 2 years old can have offspring

·      Show mares can have offspring without being removed from the show ring

·      Mares that are less fertile can have offspring

Embryo transfer has lots of advantages and well as disadvantages, including that it is a technical and time-consuming procedure that doesn’t always have a very high success rate. To add, some breed registries have restrictions for ET use. Each registry has different rules and registrations regarding embryo transfer.

When selecting a donor mare, one should look for a successful reproductive history and the mare should be gaining weight with a moderate body condition score. They should also be experiencing normal heat cycles and have a physical examination conducted to be sure they are in good health.

Recipient mares should be les than 10 years old and also be in good physical condition. They should also be prepared for the transfer dependent upon if they are intact or if they have had their ovaries removed. Intact mares can either be teased to determine heat cycle stage or they have their estrous cycle manipulated by giving hormones to synchronize their cycles. Mares without their ovaries have a different protocol that includes administering hormones. See the full article for more information.

Seven days after ovulation, the donor mare is collected. Only 1-2 embryos are typically collected, since horses cannot be superovulated like cows. Usually in healthy mares, an embryo is actually found in 50 to 80 percent of attempts.

Surgical implantation or nonsurgical methods are options for placing the embryos in the recipient mare. Most horse embryos are transferred by the nonsurgical option using an embryo transfer gun. The rates for recipient mares implanted with embryos determined to be of good quality range from 40 to 70 percent.

See full article here.