Joint Support: Keeping Your Horse’s Joints Happy & Healthy

This is a guest post from Dr. Mark Olsen, DVM

Whether you have a backyard companion or an international competitor, you’ve invested a lot of time, energy, and effort to keep your horse in optimum health for peak performance. Horses are natural-born athletes, yet we ask them to do a lot that their bodies weren’t built for. Training and competing in any discipline demands much more of our horses’ joints and bodies.

Circles, lateral moves, slide stops, pivoting and jumping are among the activities that can increase your horse’s risk for developing a wide range of problems. The right joint supplement for horses is critical to reducing the risk of these problems. It can help protect your investment and, equally important, keep your horse comfortable while doing all that you ask of him; now and for the long-haul.

The correct levels of essential joint support ingredients are the key to choosing the right supplement, but before we talk about what’s in the bottle, let’s talk about what’s in the joint.

Why Feed A Joint Supplement?

High-quality joint supplements for horses are a great way to help support your horse’s defense against the degenerative process.  Starting this program before your horse shows any sign of joint discomfort is the ideal approach to prolonging joint health and the peak performance that comes with it.

Microscopic activity is going on in our horses’ joints every day, no matter what he’s doing.  Healthy, well-formed and unstressed joints naturally maintain a fragile and complex balance between breakdown and repair of components. Imbalances can occur when the joint is physically stressed by work, an injury, or age, triggering an increased demand for joint-building nutrients that outstrips the natural supply leading to the progressive deterioration of joint cartilage, bone and soft tissues.

Glucosamine, Hyaluronic Acid(HA), Collagen Type II, MSM and Chondroitin Sulfate substances are naturally produced by the horse. However these substances begin to decline as a horse ages and/or has sustained an injury that also depletes these naturally occurring substances faster than your horse can naturally produce them.  Supplementing more of these joint support nutrients insures your horse won’t run out when needed to help offset the imbalances caused by the daily wear and tear that occurs in any training regimen. Controlled studies show that specific oral joint nutrients can give you the proactive advantage in supporting healthy joint cartilage, tendons and tissues.

Daily Supplements or Injections?

Oral supplements with correct levels of Glucosamine, Hyaluronic Acid (HA), Collagen Type II, MSM and Chondroitin Sulfate are the ideal joint support solution for any horse.  The right supplement ensures a steady supply of cartilage building blocks. By using a high quality supplement with adequate levels of joint support nutrients many trainers find they can extend the period between injections and sometimes even eliminate them. Oral joint supplements for horses are a fraction of what veterinary joint injections cost and lack the risk of infections in the joint.

Dr. Mark Olsen, DVM