Hi Dr. Getty, I am an avid reader on your forum and have tried to implement many of your suggestions. I have 2 horses, an energetic and athletic 3 yr old Dutch warmblood filly and a 10 year old mixed breed pony gelding who is generally a good safe mount for my daughter but is prone to "ponyish" attutude at times.

We feed TC low starch: the DWB gets a 2 lb scoop am and pm amd the pony gets 1/4 lb am and pm. They are given free choice hay NY grass hay that is of moderate quality (very mature, stemmy and coarse). I am happy with their weight, but I worry about their nutrition.

We added quiessence to adjust the "ponytude" and to help with my filly's over-exuberance and distractability.(My old bones don't bounce the way they used to and I wanted to minimize the number of times I had to hit the dirt ) Great success!! I love the results of the quiessence. A happy safe pony and a calm compliant young horse.

Then I tried to find a multi vitamin to compensate for the small amounts of concentrate fed along with the lower quality hay. I tried both accel and reitsport and they wont eat either. All the powder is left at the bottom of the bucket. They are also barefoot and I wanted to encourage more hoof growth because they are wearing down too much but they wouldn't eat masters hoof blend either, all the powder is left.

I have tried various pelleted suplements and they eat all of them. I wanted your opinion on a pelleted multi vitamin that has enough biotin and lysine for my barefooted young horse and that is suitable for my fat easy keeper barefoot pony.

I have poored over nutrition lables trying to find the right combination of nutrients but I am just getting more confused because I don't know what the optimum levels should be, or that if by combining multi-vitamins and hoof supplements I am risking over supplementation. I know you don't offer many pelleted supplements, but I was hoping for a little guidance in finding a pelleted multi vitamin / hoof supplement that will complement their diet.

Thank you so much for you wonderful and informative site, I recommend it to everyone.

Kim

Where are you from? Connecticut

How did you locate this forum? research on equine nutrition

Hi Kim!

I'm so delighted that you're finding this forum helpful!

Reitsport is such a complete and excellent product. It is flaxseed-meal based and horses often do not like the lack of something to chew, so it stays on the bottom of the bucket, as you described. How 'bout adding some water to the feed, to mix it all together, so it sticks to the Triple Crown feed?

Let me know if that works for you and if not, I will search for pellet supplements that when combined, offer a comparable level of nutrients.

All the best,

Dr. Getty

Where are you from? Bayfield, CO

Thank you for your answer. The first thing I tried with all the powdered supplements was a spray of water to make it stick. I don't think the pony cared for the taste or texture because he chose not to eat at all. If I remember I think he ate a little of the hoof supplement but not the accel or reitsport. The mare ate it but made such "I've got peanut butter on the roof of my mouth" faces that most of it fell out into the bedding or onto the isle. Really almost half of her feed! Reitsport is expensive and I couldn't see one wasting it and the other just not eating it. I thought of pellets only because I've been able to get them to eat the worst tasting stuff in pellet form, I don't think they even chew! (I too taste everything I feed to my horses) I gave away the remaing supplements to others in the barn and no one else had any troubles getting their horses to eat them. Just mine ...

I had thought of the combination of Select II as a milti vitamin and Biotin II 22X by Med-Vet because of its nutritional similarity to Masters hoof blend. Do you see any problems with those two plus Quiessence? I have to order prepackaged supplements (Barn Rules) so I am a little limited to what is offered in pellets. Thank you again, and please let me know if this is beyond the scope of what is allowed in the free forum.

Kim

Where are you from? Connecticut

How did you locate this forum? research on equine nutrition

Kim:

Probably shouldn't stick my nose in, but there's a hood supplement called Grand Hood (with or without MSM) that comes in a pellet. Don't know if that's an option or not.

Nancy

Where are you from? Tennessee

How did you locate this forum? google search

Hi Kim,

This combination could work, though Grand Meadows does have combination products that may be pelleted. I will contact them on Monday for you.

I wrote to you personally to discuss more.

All the best,

Dr. Getty

Where are you from? Bayfield, CO