How Can Joint Care Benefit Your Horse?

2 min read

Keeping joints healthy is not only important to help your horse perform at their best, but also for supporting their well-being and quality of life. Without healthy joints, even the simplest of movements such as walking or trotting can become painful and potentially lead to lameness. Caring properly for your horse’s joints is important to avoid damage that can lead to injury and degenerative joint diseases like osteoarthritis.

Joints are made up of cartilage, ligaments and lubricating synovial fluid that work together to provide support and cushioning between bones, helping to maintain flexibility and mobility. Like any other part of the body, joints need the right nutrients to help keep them healthy and strong. Nutritional supplements are a way to provide your horse with good quality nutrients to support joint health and cartilage development while also helping to naturally decrease inflammation to improve joint function. 

Adding supplements specifically designed for joint health to your horse’s diet can be an effective way to both help prevent future joint problems and aid in the ongoing management of established joint issues. Typically, joint supplements are used in older horses with joint issues so they can help in slowing the progression of disease such as osteoarthritis and support improved joint health and function. However, providing daily supplements to younger horses, particularly performance horses, may help to decrease the likelihood of them developing joint problems as they age, potentially prolonging careers and improving quality of life.

Joint supplements are only beneficial if they contain ingredients that support the health of joints in horses. Glucosamine is the most common active ingredient in oral joint supplements as it’s a naturally occurring base for molecules present in joint cartilage, synovial fluid, ligaments and tendons. It can be beneficial when used long term as it provides the essential building blocks for healthy joints especially when they are under stress during training and competition. Other ingredients such as chondroitin, methylsulphonylmethane (MSM), amino acids, vitamins and minerals are commonly included in joint supplements because they’re also thought to contribute to joint health and mobility through various pathways and actions.

Choosing the right supplement for your horse can be confusing as not all joint supplements are created equal. Whilst many claim to contain ingredients known to help improve joint health and function, the quality and purity of these ingredients varies considerably product to product. The easiest way to ensure you are getting what’s written on the label is to buy joint products that have been assessed and approved by the veterinary medicines regulatory authority, the APVMA. This ensures that the product contains the ingredients on the label, at the specified concentration and that the product is manufactured with quality ingredients to GMP standard in an approved manufacturing facility.

Horseland’s own joint supplement Horseland Joint Health Powder contains the active ingredient glucosamine and is formulated with other quality ingredients such as MSM, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and trace minerals to help improve joint function and health in horses. It’s safe to use for long term supplementation in adult horses of any age, providing the essential nutrients to support healthy joints to help with mobility and flexibility. Horseland Joint Health Powder is APVMA approved and manufactured in Australia with quality ingredients so you can ensure your horse is getting the right nutrients for their joints to help keep them performing at their best.

Give your horse the best chance of optimum health with our new Horseland Health products! To shop the new range and give your horse the nutrition they deserve head into your local Horseland store or browse online.