High-intensity exercise leaves humans feeling revitalized, refreshed, and slightly sore for a couple of days. Horses have the same experience in the days following intense training. Even though most horses will recover quickly after exercising, many horse owners decide to quicken the process through supplements and vitamins for muscle repair.
In the past, the focus on recovery nutrition has been on providing proper macronutrients like protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Nowadays, a wide range of nutritional supplements help with recovery, and these supplements usually include vitamin E, selenium, electrolytes, and amino acids.
To ensure that your horse is in good health, especially when the requirements for nutrients rise during training, it is crucial to have a balanced and adequate supply of all the essential minerals and vitamins.
Best Vitamins for Muscle Repair for Your Horse: Review
1. Horse Guard Equine Vitamin Mineral Supplement
Selenium has a vital role in your horse’s health when it comes to immune defense and growth. Organic selenium is also much safer to consume, not only for humans but for horses too. It isn’t like inorganic selenium, which is absorbed passively and allows for unregulated and rapid uptake of toxic levels of selenium.
Pros
- Organic selenium and vitamin E speed up the muscle recovery process
- Only high-quality ingredients are used
- Supplement is formulated by a certified equine nutritionist
Cons
- Not all horses are keen on the taste of this supplement
2. Vita Flex E and Selenium Supplement
This product aids in optimum horse health by combining selenium and vitamin E. These nutrients are crucial to maintain and increase muscle tissue. The blended powder is easy to feed your horse and is also palatable.
Pros
- Useful for digestion
- Great value for money
- Increases the horse’s strength
Cons
- No notable drawbacks
3. Horse Health Vita E and Selenium
The supplement comes in a larger crumble, making the product easier to feed to your horse. It is the perfect candidate if your horse is going through high-intensity training.
Pros
- High amounts of vitamin E and selenium
- Suitable for horses that exercise a lot
- Comes in different sizes
Cons
- No major disadvantages
4. Farnam Vita Plus Balanced Multi-Vitamin and Mineral Supplement
The inclusion of selenium and vitamin E in this product assists in breaking down protein. It is suitable to be consumed by horses of all ages across different disciplines, and the supplement can be easily fed to any horse.
Pros
- Helps your horse achieve peak condition
- Delivers optimal levels of fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins
- Available in both 60-day and 30-day supply
Cons
- Slightly more expensive than other products
5. Horse Health Vitamin B-1 Crumbles
Pros
- Mixes well with all feeds
- Pellets are easy to serve and store
- Offers support for horse’s overall health
Cons
- Contains vegetable oil that could contribute to unwanted weight gain
Factors that Encourage Muscle Recovery
This section will cover factors that help your horse rebuild muscle tissue.
Nutrition
Your horse’s diet undoubtedly affects muscle recovery. Your horse’s ability for high-intensity training will be determined by its nutrition and its ability for muscle recovery.
The type of food you choose to feed your horse, along with the organization of meals, will determine your horse’s recovery time and performance. Before training, make sure that you avoid large meals since they require a lot of fluids from the horse and typically leave the horse feeling dehydrated.
Hydration
One of the most important things you can do to aid your horse’s muscle recovery is to keep it well-hydrated. When horses exercise, they lose a significant amount of glycogen, which are carbs that are stored and act as fuel.
It can take up to three days for the glycogen to be completely refilled in your horse’s muscle. The rate at which the glycogen is replenished in your horse’s muscles will be determined by whether your horse is hydrated, and this is why water is essential for your horse.
This doesn’t mean that you should give your horse a bucket of water right after it finishes exercising. After your horse is done exercising, give your horse lukewarm water with a bit of salt, as this will entice the horse to drink more water.
However, keep in mind that you shouldn’t give your horse a lot of water. Instead, they should take a few sips at a time to avoid abdominal pain.
Warm-Ups
The way your horse is warmed up before high-intensity exercises also plays an important role in muscle recovery. To prepare your horse for a workout, you need to warm up the soft tissues, joints, and muscles. Increasing the warm-up intensity also stimulates the lungs and heart to expect the requirements you’re about to put on your horse.
Conditioning
Keep in mind that muscle recovery needs to begin before the horse’s training session. For instance, you need to ensure that your horse has been adequately conditioned for the level it is competing and training at.
Your horse will perform better in competitions when they have a consistent training program. Besides this, they will recover much more quickly, and the chances of an injury or illness will be much smaller.
Supplements
Another effective way to help muscle recovery is through supplements. The muscles will get the nutrients they need for recovery by feeding your horse essential supplements. Supplements that are often used include vitamins, electrolytes, and amino acids.
Horse Solariums
Infrared light often has a large impact on the muscle recovery process, as the light encourages a faster metabolism and improves blood circulation. Horse solariums can be used before the exercise to warm up the horse’s muscles and aid with muscle recovery after the exercise.
Leg Exams
Another important factor for muscle recovery is regular leg exams. After a workout, always make sure to examine the horse’s legs for scratches, cuts, bumps, scrapes, lumps, localized or abnormal heat, or swelling. After an intense training session, soothing poultices can help draw out extra heat from the legs.
If you want to prevent leg irritation, add compression by using a salt-based poultice or soothing clay and wrapping it around your horse’s legs. It is also essential for the pressure to be distributed evenly. To avoid cutting off blood flow to a particular part of the leg, apply bandages with a regular overlap.
Cool-Downs
After a heavy exercise, it is important to cool down your horse. You should help your horse return to normal breathing rates, respiratory rates, heart rates, and temperature. To do this, all you need to do is walk your horse at a steady pace until the breathing rate goes back to normal.
Proper Equipment for Training
Finally, proper training helps with muscle recovery, which is why you need to have adequate horse riding equipment.
Best Ingredients for Muscle Health
If you own a horse, you must understand proper nutrition and ingredients that are important to keep your horse’s health in top shape. The following list includes a few ingredients that are essential for the muscle health of your horse.
Selenium
Selenium plays an important role in your horse’s body. The body tissues are protected from free radical damage that occurs during oxidation thanks to selenium that works together with vitamin E. Selenium is also crucial for maintaining proper circulating thyroid hormone levels.
Zinc
When it comes to nerve function and muscle contraction, zinc and calcium enzymes are vital. Zinc is fundamental to many basic cellular functions involved in immune response, muscle function and production, and the process of recovery.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin that acts as an essential antioxidant for horses. Selenium and vitamin E work together to help defend the body from the oxidative stress of illness and exercise.
Vitamin E can be found in fresh pastures. However, if you feed your horse hay, you need to keep in mind that the levels of vitamin E begin to decrease from the moment the fresh pasture is cut. For this reason, if your horse isn’t being fed fresh grass, you should watch out for symptoms of vitamin E deficiency.
If your horse’s diet lacks selenium, your horse’s diet will likely be deficient in vitamin E as well. Horses need added vitamin E since they can’t create it internally in their bodies.
Vitamin B
Usually, your horse consumes vitamin B through foliage and fresh grass. However, it is important to see if your horse is getting sufficient vitamin B if they don’t have access to fresh grass. Vitamin B has many functions, including the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, energy production, cell division, reproduction, and proper nerve cell transmission.
Magnesium
Almost a third of the magnesium in your horse’s body is used to maintain muscles. Magnesium promotes normal blood pressures, helps regulate blood sugar levels, and aids in maintaining normal nerve and muscle function. This micromineral supports the delivery of oxygen to the muscle tissue, promoting healthy muscle activity and function.
Lysine
Protein availability often depends on the amino acid lysine, especially If your horse is on a diet that’s based on grass hay. Your horse’s ability to create and maintain muscle is dependent on protein availability.
Final Thoughts
Developing healthy and strong muscles is an essential part of any fattening and training program for your horse, and this can easily be accomplished with vitamins for muscle repair. In order for the rider to be adequately supported, the horse needs to have healthy muscles.
Strong muscles are also needed to support ligaments, tendons, and joints and perform athletic tasks. Vitamins, antioxidant minerals, and plant-based compounds are essential to support your horse’s health.