Amino acid. Sounds like something leaking from a Spanish battery, rather than a supplement you’d want to give to your horse.

But an acid isn’t always something that burns or is even “acidic.” In this case it describes a specific order of molecular composition. And amino comes from the word “amine,” which refers to a kind of organic compound.

So yes, they’re fine to give to your horse. No, let’s rephrase that: Amino acids are critical to your horse’s health. There are 21 different amino acids used as building blocks to form proteins. Your horse needs all 21 of these building blocks to build those proteins in his body. The power of nature is such that a horse can create 12 of those amino acids himself without a dietary source (other than carbon and nitrogen). For the other nine, however, he’ll need some outside help.

Are Your Horse’s Nutrient Requirements Being Met?

If you want more details as to whether your horse’s diet is meeting all of its nutrient requirements, the National Research Council offers a free online tool at https://nrc88.nas.edu/nrh. However, you will need to have a basic knowledge of the actual nutrient composition of the diet components to use this tool. You might be able to obtain some of this information from the feed’s guaranteed analysis or possibly from the hay supplier; however, in some cases it might be necessary to send the feed to a laboratory for analysis to know exactly what is in it

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.