Identifying Legitimate Products - The right product for the right reason
By Nick Hartog
In our heavily saturated equine supplement marketplace there are literally hundreds of choices. There are close to one hundred joint supplements alone!
In this environment making the right choice can be pretty challenging. The most important task is to identify the area of supplementation you feel is necessary. This can also open up a debate because a number of products are fed by many horse owners on a purely preventative basis. Joint supplements would be a good example of this. While many people wait until there is visible evidence of a lameness problem to feed joint supplements there are a growing number of riders, particularly in high intensity riding disciplines, who feed them to prevent a problem occurring in the first place. It can also be a good idea to ask your vet if there are some visible problems and you are not aware of the correct solution. For example there can be different reasons why a horse’s coat is dull. If you are feeding good quality hay and a vitamin/mineral enhanced feed your horse should look healthy – perhaps it is a digestion issue rather than a lack of fatty acids or biotin. In most cases, assuming you are trying to correct a visible deficiency, within a few weeks of feeding a supplement you should see some indication that it’s working if you picked the correct approach. Improvement tends to be subtle and it is important to discount the claims of dramatic results in a few days that are claimed by some manufacturers. Another good idea is to ask riding contacts in your area if they have experienced any similar problems and if they found a product that worked for them.
It is also important to recognize that feeding multiple supplements is rarely a good idea. I have talked to riders at shows all over the country and have heard on numerous occasions of horses being fed half a dozen supplements a day or more. Usually none of these products were designed to be fed together and it puts a significant burden on the kidneys to absorb excessive amounts of various ingredients. Selenium in particular is an ingredient to be especially careful with as it has the lowest toxicity threshold of any ingredient currently on the market. 18mg per day is the upper safe level for a 1000 pound horse. If you have multiple problems you wish to address there are a number of products on the market that offer more than one nutrition solution and will generally not contain the high levels of fat-soluble vitamins and minerals that can accumulate when using multiple products.
After identifying the area of nutrition that is most appropriate for your horse we now come to another hurdle – finding legitimate products. Many consumers assume that there is governmental regulation of the equine supplement industry and while one could argue on paper that government regulation does exist to some extent, the reality is very different. A study by the American Nutraceutical Association four years ago discovered that only five out of thirty-two joint supplements matched the label guarantee – not a very impressive statistic to say the least.
So how can you navigate the often bewildering world of incomprehensible labels and alternative delivery systems? Unfortunately there is no foolproof method for the average consumer to know they are buying an accurately labeled and quality manufactured product. There are however some red flags
to watch out for that can help identify products that may not live up to their claims.
First of all, can you read and understand the label? Often values of active ingredients are expressed in % or ppm (parts per million). The vast majority of consumers do not have a clue what these values mean in relation to their horse’s requirements. There is an easy formula (see insert) to convert these values to milligrams per serving. However, you probably do not carry a calculator with you all the time. This is where I feel a number of manufacturers are at fault – it would be easy to convert these values so that consumers, without calculators, could make an informed choice on which product to purchase. If you cannot understand the amounts of the various active ingredients in a product, that should represent a red flag.
Another item to look for is a lot number and/or an expiration date. All supplements have a limited shelf life but if there is no way of identifying when the product was made or when the product has expired you may be wasting your money.
As mentioned earlier avoid products that make dramatic claims. Supplements while effective are not drugs.
The most exciting development in relation to product legitimacy is the long awaited introduction of the NASC Seal of Approval. In the coming months products will start to appear in the marketplace with this seal. For the first time there will be a verifiable quality standard. The hope is that consumers will support companies displaying the logo on their packaging. This will ultimately force some of our more ethically challenged competitors to raise their standards or risk becoming marginalized in the marketplace.
About the Author:
Nick Hartog was born in England and received a degree in Economics from Oxford University. He became involved in the equine supplement industry in 1995 and is currently President and co-owner of Grand Meadows Nutritional Supplements, Inc. He founded and was President of the National Association of Equine Supplement Manufacturers (NAESM) and is now a board member of the National Animal Supplement Council (NASC). He is also a founding member and board member of the Equine Quality Alliance, a new industry trade group that is striving to provide high quality products and high levels of customer service in the equine industry.
Nick has offered to answer questions from our readers regarding supplements and he can be reached at 1-800-255-2962 or info@grandmeadows.com.
The Formula is as follows:
PPM x .0001 = %
% x 4536 = mg per lb.
For a 1oz serving divide by 16 to get the actual amount per serving
For feed products you might need to multiply the mg per lb number if you are feeding more that a lb per day.
