Your horse’s coat isn’t looking as good as it should. Your neighbor attributes her horse’s fantastic coat to a supplement she’s been using–but then, this is the same neighbor who swears by a lose-fat-while-you-sleep supplement for herself. With a myriad of tempting advertisements for equine nutritional supplements, each promising to improve health or condition and generally backed by numerous testimonials and little or no research, it’s difficult to know what to believe, which product to turn to, or where to get solid data.

The truth is, the consensus among many veterinary experts is that a nutritional supplement won’t improve the coat of a healthy horse which is properly groomed and fed a complete and well-balanced diet suitable for its stage of life. However, nutritional supplements that correct deficiencies in the horse’s diet can lead to improved coat condition–and some from the veterinary community believe that overall, horses’ diets just aren’t what they should be.

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A scruffy, thin, or dull coat can occur for several reasons, many of which are related to nutrition. At the top of the list are dietary deficiencies