Vitamins and Your Horse

Vitamins are a very important part of the horse diet.

Vitamin A - also known are ‘retinol’. Maintains good vision, helps protect bone and muscle growth, assists reproduction function and provides a healthy skin. It also helps to improve the immune response to infections.

Horses obtain their Vitamin A requirement from their diet, which should have green leafy plants and yellow vegetables such as carrots. These plants contain beta carotene which the enzymes in the small intestine breakdown to usable compounds. Some are converted to vitamin A and stored in the liver. The liver can store it for several months and release it when the body requires it back into the bloodstream. If there is an excess, the body just excretes it. The other carotenoids that are involved in the breakdown process are transported to other areas such as fat, skin and ovaries.

A deficiency in beta-carotene, interferes with the functions of the body and can be seen as suppressed diet, weight loss, lack lustre in the coat, night blindness, amenia and seizures. This usually only occurs if a horse is deprived of good hay or pasture for over 6 months.

Toxicity can occur if the horse is overfed supplements in the diet. The average horse only needs about 30 IU/kg per day.

Vitamin D - also known as the ‘Sunshine Vitamin’. A chemical reaction occurs when the ultra-violet sun rays touches the skin, creating the vitamin D. This reaction also occurs when the UV rays touch dead leaves of plants. In living plants, the chlorophyll blocks the UV rays, but in dead plants such as hay, there is no chlorophyll created once the hay is cut.

Vitamin D is essential as it assists the absorption of calcium and phosphorous in the intestine. It improves cell growth and developing an unspecific cell into a specialized cell anywhere in the body. It could be a heart cell or a skin cell that is needed. It also reacts with the stored calcium allowing the calcium to mobilise and assist in bone structure.

Deficiency can occur in severe cases as “Rickets”, which causes the bones to soften and bend. Often early signs are decreased bone strength, slower growth and low feed intake. Horses exposed to several hours of sunlight a day should never need supplements. However those stabled for long periods will needs supplements.

Toxicity – common occurrence due to overuse of supplements. Calcium will collect around the heart, walls of the blood vessels, in the kidney etc. Symptoms include – weight loss, stiffness, decreased activity, increased heart rate, high water and urine functions.

Vitamin E -Find out more here
Vitamin K occurs naturally in green leafy plants or by the horses cecal bacteria (found in the cecum – part of the large intestine). Its function is as an activator to clotting blood and activating other proteins in the body. Absorption is usually from pasture or hay but can also be from the activity of the bacteria. The amount absorbed from these sources is considered adequate for the daily requirements, assuming the pasture and hay are reasonable quality.

Deficiencies can occur when the gut flora (cecal bacteria) are compromised such as the use of antibiotics, colic, diarrhoea and liver disease. Usually seen as an inability to clot blood, bleeding from the nose, depression, irregular heart beat and weakness.
Vitamin B

There several in the B group essential to good horse health.

B1 - Thiamin is used in the carbohydrate metabolism process and how the nerves are stimulated and transmit messages. Much is obtained through the processes that occur with the activity of the intestinal bacteria. Green foliage and brewers yeast are also excellent sources. Deficiencies and toxicity are not very common.

B2 - Riboflavin is required to synthesis an enzyme called adenosine triphophate (ATP) and for lipid metabolism. It is normally sourced from fresh foliage such as clovers. The gut flora also produces some amounts. Deficiency and toxicity are not known.

Niacin and Pantothenic Acid Both of these assist to regulate the process of energy metabolism by processing carbohydrates, amino acids and fats. I t is normally sourced from various vegetable matter. Deficiencies and toxicity are not known.

Pyroxidine - This metabolises amino acids and fats into other chemical compounds such as glycogen usage, adrenaline and norepinephrine. Widely available from many sources within a horses diet.

Biotin more information here - Commonly used as a supplement for the hoof. It is actually one of the B complex vitamins. Its purpose is as a co-enzyme in a complex chemical reaction involved in metabolism and considered very important in cell development.

Readily available in plant material. Researches have recorded deficiencies in other animal species but not horses. These symptoms have included skin, footpad or periople lesions. The major comparison in horses is the shelly tin hoof.

Feeding higher concentrations has in same cases shown a growth and an improvement in the hoof horn. High doses are tolerated but there is no known optimum amount.

B 12 - Cobalamin and Folacin Folic Acid (Folate) Both are essentially required to synthesis the red blood cells of which a deficiency will cause amenia. They are required to assist to perform many different chemical reactions, mostly involved in rapid cell growth and its replacement. Folate is sourced from green foliage. B12 is unique in nature as it is synthesised by micro-organisms.

Vitamin C - An antioxidant that protects fats, proteins and membranes from damage caused by free radicals. It has man uses. • assists in enhancing the formation of bones and teeth, • part of the utilization process of different vitamin B’s, cholesterol and glucose • improves absorption of Iron in the intestine • part of the structure of collagen • forms part of several amino acids.

With the horse structure, it is unlike humans who can not synthesise their own vitamin C from glucose in the liver, horses are able to perform this function to obtain the required amounts. Deficiency does not occur in horses.

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