Question

Hurricane Hetta is my 10-year-old Quarter Horse mare. She weighs about 1,100 lb (500 kg), stands 15.2 hands, and maintains a body condition score of 5. I use her for barrel racing and trail riding. I feed her mixed-grass forage twice a day as well as 2 lb (0.9 kg) of ration balancer once a day. She has access to a salt block. She is turned out 24/7 on low-quality pasture. I’m considering adding a magnesium supplement to her diet. Do you think that is OK?

Answer

The ration balancer is providing appropriate nutrition to balance Hetta’s all-forage diet. Feeding good-quality forage and fortified feed at the manufacturer’s recommended rate typically meets or exceeds the magnesium requirement for performance horses.

Some horses respond to supplemental magnesium when the diet is deficient in magnesium or with certain health problems, such as chronic tying-up or colic resulting in endotoxin release and damage. Magnesium is also found in some calming supplements but there is little research behind the effectiveness of the most common types of magnesium.

An omega-3 fatty acid supplement, like research-proven EO-3 from Kentucky Equine Research, is an effective wellness product that shares some of the purported benefits of magnesium, including anti-inflammatory properties, enhanced immunity, and metabolic support. Just 1 ounce a day of EO-3 significantly boosts the omega-3 fatty acid content of the diet, which is particularly important for horses with restricted access to fresh pasture.