Supporting your horse’s joints

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Looking for more information on how to support your horse’s joints? Then this article will certainly help you out. Written by the experts at The Golden Paste Company, the piece covers how joint disease can effect the horse’s joints, other problems that are related to the condition of joints and how you can help support your horse with diet.

Joints are found where two bones meet and are made up of layers of connective tissue and fluid which enable movement. Joint disorders in horses can affect different components in the joint including membranes, surrounding tendons, underlying bone, cartilage, bursae (fluid filled sac), and/or fluid within the joint (synovial fluid). A healthy joint in the limb of a horse should be frictionless and allow easy movement. Each joint depends on the function of each of its components to serve this purpose. All joint diseases that affect horses, will produce some degree of inflammation.

In addition to joint diseases, inflammation can be brought on by changes in environment or routine for the horse. Exercise often increases for horses over summer months and combined with hard ground as the weather dries up, this will result in inflammation in the joints, whether visible or not, which occurs as part of the body’s natural response to physiological stress. Although horse’s bodies are generally good at dealing with inflammation day to day, when additional pressure is put on the body, it can require supplementary support.

Conditions such as laminitis can also seriously affect the joints. Put simply, laminitis is damage and inflammation of the tissue between the hoof and the underlying coffin bone. In order to try to reduce the occurrence of laminitis and manage a horse who is already suffering with it, a diet which supports the inflammatory system is a positive step.

How can you support your horse’s joints with diet?

Given that inflammation is a significant factor in laminitis, it makes sense that adding turmeric to the diet would be beneficial. Although the benefits of Turmeric for human health have been utilised for over 4,000 years, its benefits for horses are something that has only been spoken about more recently.

Turmeric is a plant from the ginger family with a familiar yellow colour which comes from a compound called Curcumin. As one of over 200 compounds within Turmeric, Curcumin is the main active ingredient in Turmeric. It is a strong antioxidant and has a metabolic effect in the natural inflammation cycle of the body’s defence mechanisms. From muscle recovery, joint function, through to insulin sensitivity, turmeric components can help optimise efficiency of metabolism and so support general health and wellbeing over the lifetime of the horse. Curcumin has shown the ability to regulate the inflammatory pathways, which is particularly important alongside its insulin sensitivity, for horses and ponies who may be at risk of laminitis or inflamed joints.

When choosing how to add Turmeric to your horse’s diet, it is important to note that not all the options out there will be as effective as each other. Turmeric is not easily absorbed by the horse’s body, so its delivery and formulation are vital to ensure horses receive maximum benefit and you don’t waste money on adding something to your horse’s diet that doesn’t make a difference.  The Golden Paste Company recognised the challenges of feeding Turmeric in powder form which included poor bioavailability, wastage, stained skin and horses not finding it palatable. This inspired them to create TurmerAid™, a powerful pelleted Turmeric supplement.

Carefully formulated with key ingredients for maximum absorption and bioavailability, the TurmerAid™ complete Turmeric pellet contains a minimum 5.1% curcumin, yucca, black pepper, linseed and apple cider vinegar.

A 2kg tub of TurmerAid™ costs £23.20 and will give you approximately 40 days of supply for a 500kg horse. You can find out more about TurmerAid™ including feeding guidelines, ingredients, FAQ’s and more reviews on our website The Golden Paste Company or speak to one of our dedicated experts on 01423 503319.