What is the best joint supplement?

When it comes to supplements for horses I like to first seek out the advice of my Veterinarian before feeding anything new to my horses. I know that in recent years the most popular supplement for joints have been the Chondroitin/Glucosamine supplements. My veterinarian also told me recently that the supplement “Lubrisyn” was becoming very popular for performance horses. Lubrisyn is made with Hylaronic Acid, one of the most common substances used in injecting horses joints (its basically synthetic joint fluid and the theory is that it helps lubricate the joints).

I have been involved with horses for over 20 years now and I have seen a lot of fads come and go. Personally I think that it is best to keep it simple when it comes to supplements. The fact of the matter is that while joint supplements may help improve the longevity of a horses joints, they wont make an unsound horse sound again. The best thing that you can do to keep your horses joints healthy is proper conditioning. Many people think that conditioning only strenghtens the heart, lungs, and muscles, but long term consistent exercise also strengthens the horses tendons, ligaments, bones and joints.

When I am creating a conditioning program for a horse I take into account the horses ability and what it is going to be used for. You also need to consider the horses present fitness level; are they in good shape already or are they out of shape, are they over or under weight? What is the horses age? It takes an older horse longer to get in shape than it does a younger one. The most basic rule of conditioning is to start out with a work out level that the horse is comfortable with and gradually increase the level and length of the workout over time until the horse is comfortable at the new increased level of exercise.

Another technique that I use often is to diversify the work out, don’t do the same thing everyday and try to switch up the workout as much as you can. I am a big fan of trail riding to help a horses soundness and fitness, also cavaletti trainig is an excellent thing for jumping horses. You don’t have to do the same amount of exercise every day either, if you have a day where you work your horse extra hard, maybe the next day you just go on a long walking trail ride. Keeping it interesting also helps keep the horse mentally stimulated and happy with his work.

For more information on conditioning I highy recommend the book “Conditioning to Win”, by Equine Research Inc.