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Day 17: HorsePower

Published on Saturday, December 17, 2011 in General

 

HorsePower aim to provide quality equine nutrition products, based on sound, scientific principles, with an emphasis on low-grain feeding and adequate mineral and trace-element supplementation.

Horsepower will provide expert advice and information as part of its package, with the overall health and well-being of the horse always being the primary concern.

Improving the profitability of their clients through the improved performances of their horses is the practical manner in which their results are judged. 

Details of the products in HorsePower's Proven Feed Pack:

Mineral Supplement

Under “ideal” conditions, a horse sources all of its mineral requirements from its daily diet, selectively grazing on a wide variety of plants over an extensive area.

In reality, however, this is rarely the case.  The levels of macro-minerals (calcium, phosphorus and magnesium) and trace elements (copper, manganese, zinc, iron, selenium, cobalt etc) in pastures and manufactured feeds can vary greatly depending on soil type, agricultural practice and processing. The other important variable is that horses' mineral requirements change depending on age, exercise levels, reproductive status, health and stress. Mineral imbalances and deficiency can cause a wide variety of problems, from nutritional bone disease to poor coat condition, lowered immunity and reduced athletic and reproductive performance.

Well-balanced supplementation (such as Horsepowyer Mineral Supplement) is essential for the health and well-being of horses in modern feeding systems.

Vitamin Supplement

Like minerals, adequate vitamin intake is essential to a well-balanced diet, and again, like minerals, a horse's daily requirement for vitamins can vary with age, level of exercise, reproductive status, health and stress.

A deficiency of Vitamin A can lead to night-vision blindness - interestingly, beta-carotene (which the body turns into Vitamin A) is readily found in carrots, so there is some truth to that old wives' tale about carrots helping you see in the dark!
The B group vitamins (including B1 -- thiamin, B2 - riboflavin, B3 - niacin, B5 pantothenic acid and B12) provide a range of health benefits, including the metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins, fats and amino acids and blood cell formation.

Vitamin C is perhaps the best known of all vitamins, acting as an anti-oxidant, as well as assisting in iron take-up and the utilisation of folic acid. Vitamins tend to be destroyed by feed processing and storage, so levels may be low in modern horse diets and a balanced multivitamin supplement ( Horsepower Vitamin Supplement) makes sense.

Vitamin E

With its anti-oxidant effect, Vitamin E is a major factor in many aspects of health, particularly immunity, fertility and cardiovascular and membrane integrity. Vitamin E destroys the dangerous free radicals formed as a by-product of energy metabolism and assists in recovery from exercise by limiting free-radical damage to cells. Studies have shown that horses without access to fresh pasture (even if provided with hay) often have a Vitamin E deficiency.

A handy tip to remember is that if a horse is being fed a Vitamin E supplement and oil, then these should be given in separate feeds (ie oil in the morning, Vitamin E at night). This is because Vitamin E is oil, not water soluble, and therefore the oil can affect the absorption of the Vitamin E in the gut.

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