Anti Inflammatory Equine Diets

The Impact of Inflammation

Let's talk about inflammation in your horse's body and how it affects his health and overall performance. A small amount of inflammation can be a good thing. Inflammation helps kill off bacteria and helps heal unhealthy tissue, such as a cut or lesion on your horses skin. However, too much inflammation is problematic and can be dangerous for your horse. Inflammation can lead to or aggravate chronic illnesses such as metabolic disorders, EPM, allergies and heaves, navicular, gastric ulcers, Cushing's, PSSM and so much more. This post is going to be a long one, but bare with me because it is definitely worth the read. Equine nutrition and anti inflammatory diets are a HUGE topic, way too big for me to cover everything in one post, but let's dive into some of the basics.

Inflammatory Ingredients

Common commercial feeds that we give our horses are full of unnecessary ingredients that promote excessive inflammation. These ingredients include grains and their by-products such as oats, corn, wheat, rice hulls, and wheat middlings. Soy products are also pro inflammatory such as soybeans, soybean hulls, soybean oil, and soybean meal.

Canola, vegetable oil, and molasses are also ingredients to watch out for. Any ingredient with a form of sugar will be inflammatory. Horses never need excess sugar. They already get some from forage and it is not beneficial to supplement it. Sugar will aggravate chronic diseases and can cause laminitis, thin soles, and founder. It is best to keep their NSC (sugar + starch percentage) below 10%.

Anti Inflammatory Ingredients for Equine Diets

So now that we've discussed the ingredients in your horse's diet to avoid, what is the ideal diet to prevent inflammation and encourage self healing in your horse?

Horses need forage, a source of fat, and vitamins/minerals.

Forage should make up the majority of your horse's diet. Forage includes hay, pasture, and hay pellets. Ideally they should have pasture or hay in front of them almost 24/7. Some horses with metabolic disorders make this difficult. Putting their hay in a slow feeder is a good way to keep hay in front of them without them eating too much. The type of hay and grass that your horse needs depends on their health, age, nutritional needs, and exercise level.

The next thing your horse needs is a source of fat. The healthiest fats that provide an anti inflammatory affect are ground flax seed and ground chia seed. Make sure whichever fat you choose does not have any extra or inflammatory ingredients. Omega-3s and omega-6s are the common fatty acids found in supplements. Omega-3s are the anti inflammatory fat and omega-6s are considered pro inflammatory. With this being said you will want the omega-3 content to be at least 2 time higher than the omega-6 content, preferably more.

There are vitamins and minerals that need to be supplemented in their diet that aren't abundant enough in forage or that your horse's body can't make themselves. Examples of these include salt, magnesium, selenium, copper, and zinc. Vitamin E is only found in pasture, so if your horse doesn't have very much access to fresh grass, this will also need to be supplemented as well. Make sure to supplement vitamin E that is labeled d-alpha tocopheryl acetate (natural) not dL-alpha tocopheryl (synthetic). The natural form is a lot more bioavailable for your horse and better bang for your buck.

Never supplement iron in your horse's diet unless they are confirmed by a vet to have an iron deficiency. Horses can't excrete extra iron and an overload can increase insulin resistance and lead to mineral imbalances or deficiencies. A common symptom of a horse with too much iron is a bleached or dry coat, mane, and tail. This is because of the direct relationship iron has with copper and zinc. It can inhibit the absorption of them and they are required for a healthy coat and hooves. If your horse has a poor coat quality and you are supplementing plenty of copper and zinc, you can get your water tested for iron. If it has high levels, install a water filter. This can help reduce your horse's iron intake without spending a ton of money on copper and zinc to offset it.

There are also essential amino acids your horse needs that their body can't make themselves. They may not get enough of them from forage. Examples of these include lysine, methionine, and threonine. They are important for your horse's protein production and muscle development.

You can find forage balancers that have these vitamins, minerals, and amino acids in them, such as Vermont Blend by Custom Equine Nutrition. A forage balancer is different from a ration balancer. A ration balancer will still have grains and other pro-inflammatory ingredients.

Supplements

If, for example, your horse has arthritis, and you are adding a joint supplement to your horses diet, you need to watch out for inflammatory ingredients in the inactive ingredients list. Inflammation is going to aggravate your horses arthritis. So if you are feeding a supplement that has corn distillers and soybean oil as inactive ingredients with glucosamine and MSM as the active ingredients, the grain and soy are going to prevent the glucosamine and MSM from working as well. In order for the anti inflammatory ingredients to help to their full potential, inflammatory ingredients should be eliminated from the diet first. For this particular example, adding pure MSM and pure glucosamine to a forage diet free of grains and soy will help your horse's arthritis so much more and could possibly even be cheaper per day if you purchase it in bulk.

Including herbs in your horse's diet is another way to promote self-healing, balance hormones, and reduce inflammation. Some of the beneficial herbs are yucca, mullein leaf, slippery elm, chaste tree berry, and garlic. There are too many for me to list in this article so be expecting another in the coming weeks regarding herbs and their uses!

You can use wet hay pellets as a carrier for a forage balancer and any additional supplements and herbs you give your horse. The water on the pellets will help the powders stick to them, ensuring your horse gets it all. It is also best to water down hay pellets to prevent choke. The type of hay pellet you use depends on your horses nutritional needs. If your horse is an easy keeper you can use pellets such as timothy or teff. If your horse needs more energy and protein you can use pellets such as alfalfa or orchard grass.

Switching Your Horse's Diet

Always introduce a new diet slowly and slowly wean them off their previous diet. If your horse is used to getting high sugar and starch meals and you pull them off cold turkey, they may have withdraw symptoms. Kind of like if you drink caffeine every day and if you miss your morning coffee, you get a headache. There is always a risk of colic when quickly changing diet as well. With this being said, change their diet slowly and introduce only one new thing at a time.

Conclusion

Wild horses have evolved over time to thrive on a diet primarily consisting of grass. This natural diet not only provides our domesticated horses with most of the essential nutrients they need but also supports their ability to self heal and cope with chronic diseases.

I've personally seen this diet work with my own horse after he was diagnosed with a chronic issue. After months of on and off again lameness, I switched him to a forage diet with great success. As with anything, it takes time to see a difference. You may see a difference within a month or two in their behavior and any lameness issues. It may take six months or more before you see a difference in their coat and hooves. While this article is not a comprehensive guide to every horse's nutritional needs, my hope is that it gets you thinking about what you are feeding your horse and how there may be better alternatives that will help keep your horse happy, safe, and sound, no pun intended.

Written by Michaela Pemberton