Question

My 14-year-old Icelandic gelding (13.2 hands, 715 lb or 325 kg) is moderately thin, a body condition score of 4. He currently has 24-hour access to round-baled hay that he shares with herdmates. He also receives 1 lb (0.45 kg) of balancer pellet, 2-3 cups of soaked beet pulp, a selenium supplement, and 2,000 IU of Nano-E (a natural-source nanodispersed vitamin E). He’s a hard keeper for his breed with a history of dropping weight in the spring. His vitamin E levels are consistently in the adequate, but not normal, range, regardless of what supplement I use. I’d like to see a sustained rise in his vitamin E levels as well as consistent weight year-round and a fuller topline. Otherwise, the horse is sound and healthy.

Answer

How long have you been supplementing with Nano-E before the blood test? Supplementation should be in place for four to six weeks before blood testing is done.

For horses with low or deficient vitamin E levels, we recommend a higher level of Nano-E supplementation, generally 5,000 IU for a 1,000-lb (450-kg) horse per day to jumpstart an increase in blood levels. Because your horse lands in the adequate range, you may want to try increasing the amount to 3,000-3,500 IU vitamin E (12-14 ml per day), which would be appropriate based on a weight of 715 lb (325 kg).

The current diet is also relatively low in dietary fat, so it may help to top-dress with 0.5-1 oz of oil to support improved vitamin E absorption, although we don’t usually find this necessary with Nano-E due to its enhanced bioavailability. It may also help to divide the daily amount of Nano-E into two meals, if you’re not doing so already, as impaired absorption could be a factor in your horse’s history of low or marginal vitamin E status.

Another consideration based on the information provided is to add an amino acid supplement that provides additional methionine and branched-chain amino acids to provide the building blocks for improved muscling and topline. Vitamin E needs can also increase when other nutrients are low or marginal in the diet, so making sure there are no nutrient gaps in the diet is important by providing the optimal amount of ration balancer for his workload.