Top 3 Horse Health Problems Your Trainer Is Worried About

Ask any horse trainer or owner what three things keep them up at night. They’ll probably tell you concerns about their horse’s soundness, stomach health, and hindgut function.

These three things can greatly affect your horse’s comfort and overall health, while also directly affecting his performance. Here is a quick overview of the top three horse health problems your trainer is worried about plus, what you can do to combat them.

Learn More: Take the ‘One Health’ Challenge

Equine Joint Health

Whether you rein, rope, barrel race, or trail ride, your horse’s joints take the brunt of the activity. Regardless of your horse’s age or workload, preventative joint support is part of maintaining his overall health. Consider a proactive approach to joint maintenance. This should include a quality joint supplement containing proven ingredients like glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, and Hyaluronic Acid (HA).

Stomach Health

Training, hauling to shows, and increased stall time can result in a stressed stomach, which can negatively impact your horse’s health and attitude. Keeping your horse’s stomach comfortable can help improve his performance. There are several aspects to managing stall stress, but a major factor is diet. This is where adding a supplement targeting stomach health specifically, especially one with proven ingredients like hydrolyzed collagen, can help. A 56-day clinical trial at Louisiana State University demonstrated that supplementing with hydrolyzed collagen promoted stomach health in horses undergoing the stress of stall confinement and intermittent feeding. In addition to hydrolyzed collagen, look for supplements including ingredients like calcium and magnesium, which are also proven to be beneficial to stomach health.

Hindgut Function

The hindgut is your horse’s intestinal tract past the ileum, the end of the small intestine—a 30- to 35-foot-long section of gut comprised of the cecum, the modified ascending colon, dorsal and ventral colon, transverse colon, small colon, and rectum.

Horses are hindgut fermenters. This means they have bacteria and protozoa in their hindgut turning poorly digestible fiber—like grass and hay—into energy. Approximately 75% of your horse’s energy requirements are generated in the cecum and large colon of his hindgut. So, keeping these organs, and the bacteria (microbiome) inside them, in working order is critical to the health of your horse.

Read More: Horse Health by Season

Providing Support in All 3 Areas with SmartPerform Ultra Pellets

SmartPerform Ultra Pellets provide a proactive approach to your horse’s joint care as well as stomach and hindgut health. The picky-eater-approved pelleted supplement uses the research-backed formula contained in SmartStride Ultra. With revolutionary and new ingredients like turmeric and resveratrol as well as tried and true ingredients like glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, HA, and others to optimize your horse’s performance. This easy-to-feed supplement contains ingredients that target stomach health like collagen, calcium and magnesium. Plus, the most advanced hindgut support, including researched-supported ingredients such as Diamond V, Yeast Culture, ButiPEARL Z EQ, and CLOSTAT. 

In addition to daily support for your horse’s joints, stomach, and hindgut, SmartPerform Ultra Pellets when ordered in SmartPaks are part of the ColiCare program. This offers horses enrolled in the program up to $15,000 of colic surgery reimbursement. 

While every horse performs at a different level—from the elite competitor to the treasured trail horse, and all horses in between—trainers and owners know they all deserve support to reach their peak performance. SmartPak’s new research-supported multi-purpose supplement, SmartPerform Ultra offers a way for trainers and horse owners to support their horses from the inside out.

SmartPak Colicare Supplements

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