Joint

Happy, sound horses have healthy joints.

Don’t let joint deterioration sideline your horse

Whether your horse is floating across the pasture or the dressage ring, working on reining patterns or racking up miles on the trails, flexible, fluid joints are a must. But joints take a beating. Daily wear and tear, injuries, poor confirmation, and normal aging all contribute to the damage that causes inflammation, pain, and the eventual deterioration of the joint structures.

Too little, too late

There probably isn’t a horse alive today that couldn’t benefit from a joint supplement, but joint supplements have to be correctly formulated to be effective. The ingredients found to be beneficial to the joints—glucosamine, chondroitin and hyaluronic acid—are not easy for a horse to digest. It is essential that enough is provided so adequate levels can be absorbed into the bloodstream and delivered to the joints.

Support for horses with arthritis

Other ingredients, like omega-3 fatty acids, have been found to impact the inflammation levels in horses with joint damage. Recent research shows that horses with active arthritis had a reduction in swelling and pain in affected joints when omega-3 was provided in the diet. Omega-3 fatty acids are often lacking in modern equine diets, making supplementation important.