Vitamins and minerals are two of the six essential nutrients required by horses (the other four are water, carbohydrates, protein and fat). According to nutritionists, most adult, non-breeding horses not involved in moderate to heavy work and that are on good pasture can obtain sufficient amounts of all six nutrients from forage alone (plus free-choice salt and water). However, a lot of forages are low in trace minerals, so forage alone is not always adequate.

Horses only need relatively small quantities of vitamins and minerals, but the lack of those tiny amounts can be devastating to your horse’s health. We provide the horse owner and caretaker with an overview of different vitamins and minerals and how they can influence a horse’s health.