Filling the Nutritional Gaps in Your Horse’s Diet

Vitamins and minerals are vital to the horse’s physical well-being. Without sufficient vitamin and mineral intake, it is impossible for horses to remain healthy. Even those horses asked to perform no exercise need proper vitamin and mineral fortification when concentrates and pasture are fed at less than optimal levels. Easy keepers, senior horses, and horses on restricted feeding programs are most often at risk for deficiencies. It is up to horse owners to fill these nutritional gaps.

Mature horses exposed to little or no exercise are often plagued by obesity. These horses are simply eating more calories than they burn. The obvious response is to remove the surplus feed from the diet; however, this may lead to nutrient deficiencies. A simple solution to this problem is to reduce the caloric intake by replacing the concentrate (grain or pellets) portion of the diet, either completely or in part, with a low-calorie vitamin and mineral supplement. The supplement will provide the vital nutrients the horse requires without contributing unnecessary calories.

In extremely easy to keep horses or horses struggling with metabolic disease it may be necessary to restrict grazing to help curb obesity. Green grass is rich in vitamins. These vitamins are lost when grass is cut and dried for hay. Horses on restricted grazing regimens consume lower levels of essential vitamins than horses grazing full time, even when they are eating normal amounts of hay. A well-balanced, low-calorie vitamin and mineral supplement can provide the missing nutrients and fill the gaps in a horse’s diet.

Feeding programs composed of straight grains such as oats, or those consisting of fortified concentrates cut with oats, may contain nutritional gaps. Oats are a popular feed for horses but even when combined with hay or hay cubes, the diet may contain insufficient amounts of several vitamins and minerals. In order to ensure a properly balanced diet is being provided, the appropriate vitamin and mineral supplement should be added.

Older horses will often benefit from a vitamin and mineral supplement even when they are eating recommended levels of a fortified commercial feed and good quality forage (hay and grass). As horses age, their gastrointestinal tracts become less effective in absorbing nutrients. Therefore, they may need higher levels of nutrients to meet their requirements.

Micro-Phase vitamin and trace mineral supplement bridges the gap in your feeding program. Micro-Phase is formulated by equine nutritionists to ensure your horse receives adequate and balanced vitamin and mineral nutrition. The minerals in Micro-Phase have been chelated, a process that protects minerals during digestion and increases their absorption in the intestine, so you see optimal results from your supplement.