This message is from: "Sharon" <s_obri...@verizon.net>
Hope wrote " <<Does anyone know if any of the supplements that are supposed to promote healthy hoof growth really work? Eve would benefit. Still waiting for her to grow out of the abcess from last summer. Farrier's opinion is that she has thinner hoof walls than average.>> Hi, I read the posts about salt and hoof supplements and here's what I do. salt supplements - In an effort to streamline my horse's supplement bucket and save some $$, I started her on Dr. Dan's Red-Cal minerals http://www.thenaturalvet.net/RED-CAL_c_3.html and his vitamins and oil. (Red-Cal 25 lb bag is $95.69 which is 440 oz, at 1oz/day that's @1 year and 2 months worth, @$6/mo. I get the high magnesium for $14 more a bag. The extra magnesium helps the easy keepers with insulin resistance). All my friends panic at the price until they realize it lasts one horse over a year and has probiotics and antioxidants in it. Red-Cal is mined from a Utah sea bed. It contains GUARANTEED ANALYSIS: Calcuim, Min. 13.5% - Max. 15.5%, Phosphorus, Min. 0.10%, Organic Natural Sea Salt, Min. 38% - Max. 41%, Zinc, Min. 25 ppm INGREDIENTS: Organic Natural Sea Salt, Ground Dried Grape & Seed Pomace, Calcium Carbonate, Yeast Culture, Diatomaceous Earth, Garlic, Montmorillonite, Thiamine Mononitrate, Selenium Yeast Culture, Distillers Grain, Mineral Oil. CONTAINS NO ADDED POTASSIUM OR COPPER. CONTAINS ORGANIC SELENIUM. Red-Cal can be put in a bucket for free choice. If they need it, they'll eat it right off but don't seem to overeat it. Once they fill their deficiency, they eat it as needed. If it gets wet, just pour off the water, break up the clumps and it's good to go. Or if you want to make sure how much they get, (minimum amounts so no excess peeing) you can put it in a bucket with the vitamins. I board my horse is in a pasture so I have to go the bucket routine. I put 1 oz in her every other day bucket with the water softened oat pellets and a scoop of vitamins, a ounce of Dr. Dan's GMO-free soybean oil which makes her shine like she's wet. Putting table salt into her bucket was too salty for her, she wouldn't touch it. Wouldn't lick salt blocks (Redmond or white) either. But she takes the Red-Cal in her bucket with no hesitation. I'm in southern Cal I worried about riding in the dry summer. Once she started the Red-Cal, no worries! She's always hydrated, drinks and sweats and pees normally, great feet, etc. RE: Hoof supplements- I was surprised, but the second thing that occurred with the Red-Cal for my horse and every other horse I knew with hoof troubles was their hooves responded to the naturally balancec minerals and got better! (thin wall, thin sole, white line disease, hoofs that wore too fast, hoofs that were too hard and brittle, didn't grow, etc). My friends and I did this test very scientifically. I gave them a 2 mo supply (1oz/day) to start just after a trim. (My 6 friends and I all share the same barefoot trimmer and we did not tell him so it was a blind test). When the trimmer returned 6 weeks later, he vouluntarily exclaimed how much each hoof had changed and improved. None of us prompted him. (2 quarterhorses-one brittle, one thin sole, paint, mustang, throughbred, foxtrotter, pony, curley). The walls and soles got thicker and began to shed off normally, hoofs got harder, the brittle ones-softer, and the most dramatic was the one with bad white line disease was transformed into normal! That horse's owner ran out and didn't get more. She called me in a panic 3 weeks later-the white line was back 1/4" deep and wide, and now his front feet were affected too and the rears were additionally coming apart! I loaned her more Red-Cal until her's arrived. 2 1/2 weeks later- white line was just about gone and she will not run out again. After our trimmer saw each improvement he was told of the Red-Cal supplement, which was the only common denominator. He used to recommend another hoof/mineral supplement. Now he recomments Red-Cal. A bag Red-Cal is pricey up front but lasts over a year, and it taken the worry from me about my horse not eating enough salt or eating too much, or getting the right balance of minerals. Additonally the montmorillite clay takes care of any mycotoxins from bad feed (encapsulates and ushers out of the body), it contains probiotics so I don't have to pay for a separate supplement (yea), the diatomaceous earth lowers the worm population in the digestive tract by slicing the exoskeletons of the worms, garlic for flies and the grape seed extract is an antioxidant. I know this must sound like an ad. My friend and I started it as our vitamin and mineral supplement. But after a few weeks the hoof improvements were so noticeable. And it's improved every foot of my friend's horses who have tried it. I love it because her bucket is so simple now. One more thing- when it gets real hot in September, I bump up the Red-Cal to 2 oz/day every other day for a few weeks or when it's real cold so she'll drink. good luck, Sharon in So Cal Important FjordHorse List Links: Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e FH-L Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw FH_L Shirts: http://tinyurl.com/8yky94l
