Horse Supplements: What Your Horse Actually Needs and When to Feed Them

Horse supplements fill a whole wall of most feed stores, and every tub promises something: stronger hooves, a calmer temperament, a shinier coat or more stamina. Some of them earn their place in the feed room. Others simply double up on what your horse already gets from a good diet. We have been making saddlery in South Africa for 35 years, and our team rides endurance, jumping and trail horses, so we have fed plenty of both. This guide explains which horse supplements most horses genuinely need, which ones suit a specific job, and how to choose without overspending or overdoing it.

Start With Forage Before Any Horse Supplement

No supplement can fix a diet that is wrong at its base. Horses are built to eat fibre for most of the day, and equine nutritionists recommend that at least half of a horse's diet by weight is forage. The Merck Veterinary Manual puts the target at 1.5 to 2% of body weight in forage per day on a dry matter basis, which works out at roughly 7.5 to 10 kg for a 500 kg horse.

Good grazing or decent hay, clean water and salt cover the basics for many horses in light work. Horse supplements exist to fill specific gaps on top of that, not to replace it. Before you buy anything, ask yourself three questions:

• What is my horse eating now, and how good is it? Dry winter veld and poor hay supply far less than spring grass.
• How hard is my horse working, and in what weather?
• Is there a specific problem I am trying to solve, such as weak hooves, stiffness or nerves?

Once you have honest answers, browse our horse supplements range with a clear idea of what you are looking for, rather than picking up whatever is on special.

Salt and Electrolytes: The Horse Supplements Almost Every Horse Needs

If you add only one thing to your horse's diet, make it salt. According to the equine nutrition literature, adult horses at maintenance on fresh hay or pasture usually get enough minerals from their feed, with the exception of salt, which should be provided, preferably free choice.

Salt and Mineral Licks

A lick lets your horse top up as it needs to. Our Salt Lick is a registered salt block designed to replace the salt lost through sweating, while the Mineral Lick adds minerals alongside the salt. Both also give a stabled horse something to do. Whichever you choose, keep fresh water beside it. An average 450 kg horse drinks around 38 to 45 litres a day, and more in hot weather or on a dry hay diet.

Electrolytes for Hard Work and South African Summers

Sweat carries away sodium, chloride and potassium, and the losses add up quickly. The Merck Veterinary Manual notes that a horse can lose more than 30 g of salt in just one to two hours of hard work. A lick cannot keep up with that on a humid Lowveld afternoon or a long endurance ride, and that is where a dedicated electrolyte comes in.

Electrolytes Endeavon is a powder mixed into the feed that supplies sodium, chloride, potassium and magnesium, with the dose set by body weight and how heavily the horse is sweating. Electrolytes make sense for:

• Training blocks and competition days in hot, humid weather
• Long trips in the horsebox, before loading and after unloading
• Endurance horses, whose hydration is checked at every vet gate (our endurance saddle guide covers the tack side of going the distance)

Always make sure fresh water is available when you feed electrolytes. They work by replacing what sweat took out and encouraging the horse to drink, so water is half of the job.

Vitamin and Mineral Supplements: Filling the Gaps

A broad vitamin and mineral supplement is the next most common addition, and the one most often fed without a clear reason. Horses in light work on fresh, green, leafy forage usually get enough vitamins from their feed. A vitamin and mineral supplement starts to make sense when:

• Your hay is poor quality, or your horse lives on hay through a dry Highveld winter
• Your horse is under stress from illness, travel, showing or racing
• Your horse is off its food or is not eating a balanced ration
• Your grazing is known to be short of trace minerals such as selenium, zinc or copper

Horse Power is a concentrated vitamin and mineral conditioner. It combines Vitamins A, D, E and the B-complex with calcium, phosphorus, zinc, copper and magnesium, and gives separate feeding rates for foals, resting horses and horses in work.

A word of caution: more is not better. Some nutrients, vitamin A among them, cause real problems when fed in excess over time. The Merck Veterinary Manual advises looking at the total mineral intake from every part of the ration, including hay, hard feed, all supplements and even water. If your horse already eats a fortified commercial feed at the full recommended rate, a general vitamin supplement may simply double up.

Targeted Horse Supplements for Specific Jobs

Hooves: Biotin

Biotin, also called vitamin H, is the best-known hoof supplement. Biotin Vit H Endeavon supplies 1,500 mg of biotin per kilogram at a 15 g daily dose, and is aimed at dry, brittle or cracking hooves and dull coats. Patience is essential. The hoof wall grows roughly a centimetre a month, so any improvement has to grow down from the coronet band, and Endeavon's own guidance is six to nine months of consistent daily feeding before you judge the result.

Pair biotin with good care from the outside using our hoof care range. Our guide to Stockholm tar, hoof oil, hoof balm and hoof hardener will help you work out which topical product your horse needs.

Joints

Joint supplements are popular for older horses and horses in hard work. Flex O Joint Endeavon combines glucosamine, MSM, yucca and vitamin C, and is formulated for horses whose joints are under strain from exercise, competition and age. A joint supplement supports a sound horse. It does not treat lameness, so any new stiffness, heat or swelling needs your vet's diagnosis before it needs a tub.

Calming Supplements

For hot, spooky or tense horses, a calmer can take the edge off. Calm Mix Herbal Horse uses tryptophan, L-theanine, chelated magnesium, B-vitamins and chamomile, and can be fed daily or only around events. As saddlers, we always add one warning: a calmer will not fix pain, a poorly fitting saddle or a gap in training. A horse that suddenly becomes difficult is often telling you something hurts, so rule that out first. If you compete, check every ingredient against your discipline's rules before the event.

Digestion and Condition

Brewers Yeast is a natural source of protein, selenium and B-vitamins, and is fed to support fibre digestion in horses of every age, from foals to veterans. It is a gentle addition for a horse that needs a little help holding condition. A horse that is dropping weight for no obvious reason, though, needs a vet check, teeth included, before any supplement.

How to Choose Horse Supplements Without Doubling Up

1. Get the base right first. Forage, water and salt come before anything else.
2. Pick one problem and one product. Feeding five tubs at once makes it impossible to tell what is working.
3. Read the labels side by side. Feeds and supplements often share ingredients such as biotin, selenium and vitamin E, and the amounts add up.
4. Feed to the label. Use the dose for your horse's weight and workload, and never add an extra scoop for luck.
5. Give it time. Hoof and coat supplements take months, not weeks. Judge the result against a photo or a note taken on day one.
6. Review every season. A horse on summer grass in light work needs less than the same horse on winter hay in full competition.

When to Talk to Your Vet First

Horse supplements are for supporting a healthy horse, not for treating an unwell one. Speak to your vet or an equine nutritionist before you start if your horse is losing weight, is lame or stiff, has a known metabolic condition, is pregnant or still growing, or is on any medication. They can look at the whole ration and point you to the one or two supplements that will actually make a difference.

Shop Horse Supplements at Solo Saddlers

Solo Saddlers has been supporting South African horses and their riders for 35 years. Our horse supplements collection covers salt and mineral licks, electrolytes, vitamin and mineral conditioners, and hoof, joint, calming and digestive supplements. If you are not sure where to start, get in touch: our team are riders too, and we are happy to talk through what your horse is eating and doing before you buy. While you are stocking the feed room, our grooming and veterinary ranges cover the rest of your horse's day-to-day care.