Question
I have an overweight four-year-old Warmblood mare that weighs about 1,400 lb (640 kg) and stands 16.3 hands. She spends an equal time in a stall as she does in turnout, year-round. She is fed 1.5 lb (0.7 kg) low-starch feed, 0.5 lb (0.2 kg) balancer pellet, and 22-24 lb (10-11 kg) grass-alfalfa hay with a salt block. She is fed biotin for hoof health and EO-3 (marine-derived oil) in the spring and fall for skin problems. Her work shifts from moderate/intense to light/idle as winter settles in, so she gains weight as winter wears on. She becomes stressed in new situations, and becomes irritated during girth-tightening and when grooming her barrel. As spring approaches, I am interested in matching her nutritional regimen with the demands of combined driving. I would like to address possible hindgut irritation. Is EquiShure appropriate for this? Would flax oil work as well as EO-3? Finally, the biotin has helped her hooves a bit but still she has chips and cracks.
Answer
While your mare is in light work, you can stop feeding the low-starch feed and offer a full serving of ration balancer (at least 1 lb or 0.5 kg), as this will remove unnecessary calories from her diet during the off-season. Horses that have chronic hoof problems may require above average nutrient intakes and this can be achieved with increasing the amount of balancer pellet.
As her work increases with the warm weather, you may have to integrate the low-starch feed back into her diet to help fuel exercise and maintain body condition. Keeping track of her weight through regular body condition scoring will help you detect changes.
If you would like to provide research-proven hindgut support, then I recommend EquiShure, a time-released hindgut buffer that helps neutralize subclinical hindgut acidosis and stabilize the hindgut environment.
Regarding the omega-3 supplement, flax oil doesn’t offer the same omega-3 fatty acids as EO-3. The primary omega-3 fatty acid contained in flax oil is alpha-linolenic (ALA), whereas EO-3 contains eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), the two most potent anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids.
According to a study conducted at Kentucky Equine Research, EPA and DHA found in red blood cell membranes were significantly increased in the horses supplemented with EO-3, but not in those supplemented with flax oil, indicating horses do not appear to efficiently convert ALA into EPA and DHA. Red blood cell membrane omega-3 fatty acid composition has been shown to be highly correlated with omega-3 fatty acid concentrations in body tissues. Given this information, I would stick with EO-3 for combating your mare’s skin conditions, especially since you’ve had success with the product.
The combination of a higher intake of balancer and hoof supplement may yield improvements in hoof quality, especially coupled with timely and correct farriery. If you don’t notice improvement, then you may want to consider a high-quality hoof supplement that contains biotin and other important nutrients for hoof health.
