DAN: "How do I know what supplements
to start my horse on?"
DR LYDIA GRAY: All me-- and you.
Because you're on the phones, you get this a lot.
DAN: Yes.
DR LYDIA GRAY: So I'm expecting you to jump in here.
But when I think about-- when I get this question-- and I
get it a lot.
It's probably the second most common question I get asked.
And I say, well, the first thing is
make sure your horse's diet is complete and balanced.
And so it's always forage first.
And then it's making sure that they
have the right amount of calories,
or energy, for the work that they're doing
and to keep their-- maintain their weight.
And then I make sure that the vitamins and minerals,
the protein, meets the NRC levels.
I like to balance my fat.
So I make sure that I have more omega-3s
than omega-6-- at least a two or four to one ratio.
DAN: Do you want to touch on that a little bit--
why that ratio is important?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Well, because omega-6s--
while you need both, the omega-6s
tend to lead to inflammatory reactions in the body.
And so you don't want that to be the primary reactions
happening.
So you need the omega-3s to balance those out.
And so we feed-- many of the feeds
we give horses today are loaded with omega-6s.
Grain is very high in omega-6.
So if you do feed your horse grain,
then it's really important to throw in some omega-3s.
And you get those from flax seed and chia seed and marine
sources, fish oil, algae.
So like that, you mean?
DAN: Yes, exactly.
[LAUGHTER]
Well, I think that's something that a lot of people
necessarily consider as far as omega-6s and omega-3s.
Like people feed corn oil and things of that nature.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Right, which is very high in omega-6s, yeah.
DAN: So it could be setting the horse up for not success.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah, yeah.
And then always make sure my horse has salt.
And I'm not a fan of salt blocks, or licks.
Because I think that they're made for the rough tongues
of cattle.
So I like to top-dress my salt, about a tablespoon a day
or two tablespoons.
And then now I can think about supplements.
So now, I look at my horse, and I go, "what
areas does he need support in?
Or, what is he just not good at?"
Now, I happen to have a horse who's got a lot of problems.
But he has great feet.
So I don't supplement with biotin.
He's not on a hoof supplement.
It's like the one thing he's not on.
But he has muscle problems.
So he gets extra vitamin E and magnesium.
He's in heavy work, so he's on a joint supplement.
He has had colic surgery.
So while he's not eligible for ColiCare,
he does have a digestive supplement.
So I just begin to think of what areas, because
of what I do with my horse or particular issues he has,
just breed or age or size or whatever history, what
he might need additional support in beyond what
he gets from his complete and balanced diet.
And that's how I approach it.
Now, if you can't do that, you can always
talk to your veterinarian.
You can talk to us.
You can go online and play with our wizard, which
asks you questions.
And when you answer it, then ba-bing.
An answer pops out of the supplements that
might be good for your horse.
DAN: Yeah.
The wizard can be a lot of fun to play around with.
DR LYDIA GRAY: It's very time-consuming.
Because you're like, what if I change this one thing?
And then you go back and do it all again,
and you get a different answer.
So there's some logarithm in it.
I don't know.
DAN: Yeah.
But it can be a little overwhelming, especially--
DR LYDIA GRAY: It can, yeah.
DAN: There's a lot of different options.
So luckily, Dr. Gray does a lot of training
with our Customer Care team and keeps
us up-to-date on all the latest supplements, and research,
and everything like that.
So if you do have any questions, you can always reach out to us.
And we'll be more than happy to kind of talk through it
and kind of see what works best for you and your horse.
Because--
DR LYDIA GRAY: And I think we set out
some of the most common.
Like there's a joint supplement.
There's a hoof supplement.
There's digestion.
And for some people, it would make
sense, if you're going to go with the basic,
to use a multipurpose or combination supplement.
And then you have all your bases covered in one.
DAN: One-stop shopping.
DR LYDIA GRAY: There you go, yeah.
DAN: How many wells are in your SmartPak?
DR LYDIA GRAY: I just counted because there's six right now.
But I need to add something.
So I'm going to max it out with seven.
DAN: You got a little room to play with.
DR LYDIA GRAY: I know.
One well, but then you can add more than one strip.
DAN: That's asking for trouble.