The Plan
Daily:
• Good quality water
• High quality forage
As needed:
• High quality, balanced electrolytes – OVVET Metabolic Balance
• High quality feed supplement for joints – OVVET JointPro
• For added immune system support use OVVET Omega Complete
Healthy joints, capable of full range of motion, strong and resilient are important to achieving peak performance in performance horses of all disciplines. Compared to muscles, joints adapt more slowly to stresses such as from exercise, training and competition. The nutritional requirements of joints are very different from other tissues, due in part because some of the tissues and fluid compartments have a poor blood supply.
Maintaining or re-achieving joint health is also very important as our horses age – functional mobility equates strongly to quality of life. Joint dysfunction and pain can be managed, and quality of life improved, through excellent nutrition and horse management. Joint pain and inflammation associated with poor joint health is a cause of lameness, poor performance, suppression of immune function and increased irritability of the horse.
MOST joint products on the market are not backed by evidence-based science, including products containing glucosamine, MSM and chondroitin sulphate (see research review by Pearson and Lindinger 2009). OVVET JointPro is backed by evidence-based research, with daily use of the product associated with reductions in joint markers of oxidative stress and inflammation in horses that performed high intensity exercise (see Lindinger et al. 2016).
Essential parts of any good health maintenance program are water and forage. Both high quality water and forage should be available 24 / 7. This helps to relieve all types of stresses, including mental stress associated with confinement in stall and stresses on the GI tract associated with meal feedings.
Water is essential for maintaining hydration, and most horses turn over between 30 and 50 litres of water each and every day. The other key to maintaining hydration are electrolytes balanced to match the losses occurring at the skin through sweating. Balanced is important because it is the electrolytes, in the right proportions, that contributes to maintaining hydration of fluid compartments both outside of cells and inside of cells through your horse’s body including within the joints. OVVET Metabolic Balance provides these electrolytes in the proportions required and beneficial for your horse – this product is also backed by evidence based research (see Lindinger and Ecker, 2013).
Why is hydration important to joints? Hydration affects the volume of fluid within the joint capsules, the physiological quality of the fluid within the joint, and blood volume. The synovial fluid within joints receives compounds in two ways:
1) by passage of molecules from the blood and extracellular fluid through the joint (synovial) membrane.
2) from cells associated with the joints such as synoviocytes and chondrocytes as well as cells that may have entered from the extracellular fluids such as macrophages and lymphocytes. Dehydration causes cell and tissue stress and this, in turn, results in increased metabolic activity, increased production of reactive oxygen species with ensuing oxidative stress and inflammation. Dehydration, on top of the physiological stresses of intense or sustained activity, needs to be avoided.
OVVET JointPro was scientifically developed to assist joint health in two ways:
1) From within the joints by reducing detrimental effects of excessive oxidative stress and inflammation.
2) Systemically in the body through immune system support. This second mechanism is very important because the body fights infection, inflammation and oxidative stress through the immune system.
OVVET JointPro. Scientific research using horses has shown that daily supplementation of the feed with JointPro supports healthy cartilage in extreme conditions, supporting normal and healthy joint function. The carefully selected, high quality natural ingredients in OVVET JointPro have anti-oxidative potential and anti-inflammatory potential. Nutrients in OVVET JointPro support a healthy tissue immune response, facilitating high intensity training and competition. It is also recommended for ageing horses needing nutrient support to maintain an active lifestyle. JointPro has exceptional levels Omega-3 essential fatty acids, SOD and catalase antioxidant enzymes (classified as a “Primary”) and is capable of inducing anti-oxidant systems throughout the body. These natural ingredients have been well researched for their ability to support a healthy joint environment and joint cartilage.
Claims:
• Support healthy cartilage in extreme conditions, supporting normal and healthy joint function.
• Support a healthy tissue immune response
• Nutrient support for ageing horses to maintain an active lifestyle
Health Science for your Horse ™
Ingredients:
• Golden Flaxseed- ALA (beneficial fatty acid)
• Laltide® – Proprietary yeast source of nucleotides, peptides and amino acids
• Synozyme – Proprietary Plant based enzymes
• Levucell – Saccharomyces cerevisiae
• Omega 3 rTG, EPA+ DHA (from fish oil)
• Freeze Dried Melon rich in SOD and Catalase
• Ganoderma lucidum
Golden Flaxseed
Golden flaxseed is a rich, natural source of beneficial unsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) is an omega-3 fatty acid present in milled flaxseed at 22%, and the omega-6 fatty acid linoleic acid is present at 7%. ALA is easily converted by the body to the other beneficial PUFAs EPA (eicosapentanoic acid) and DHA (docosahexanoic acid).
• Supports maintenance of healthy, robust cells
• Supports cell and tissue anti-inflammatory activity
• Supports immune health
• Supports generation of PUFA’s from ALA
Laltide®
Laltide® is Lallemand’s proprietary yeast (S. cerevisiae) product that provides natural sources of nucleosides and nucleotides, free amino acids & peptides, glutamic acid and other important nutrients. Many of these are directly beneficial for gut health including barrier function (glutamine, threonine, arginine) and immune health, and all are used in the body to maintain healthy cells and tissues.
• Supports tissue protein synthesis
• Support cell and tissue repair
Levucell ®
The probiotic Levucell® is Lallemand’s proprietary strain of live Saccharomyces cerevisiae boulardii (CNCM I-1079) and is termed a digestibility enhancer for monogastric animals. It is especially associated with oxygen scavenging in the gut, promoting the proliferation of beneficial or commensal bacterial populations. The products produced by these beneficial gut bacteria promote gut health in many ways including maintaining barrier function, communication with other but microbiota, and with cells of the intestinal epithelium and the innate immune system.
• Supports healthy gut microbiota
• Supports healthy gut structure and function
• Supports gut barrier functions
• Supports immune health
Powdered Omega Fatty Acids from Fish Oil
The freeze-dried pulp and juice of proprietary strain (non-GMO) of cantaloupe is coated so as to pass protected from acid degradation by the stomach. Once in the intestinal system numerous beneficial compounds are released include some that act directly within the GI tract (superoxide dismutase – or SOD, and catalase) and others that are absorbed into the body. By design, this ingredient reduces the need for antibiotics to combat infection and instead supports immune health through cellular anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory defense systems. This product has been shown to be associated with reductions in joint fluid markers of oxidative stress associated with high intensity exercise (MacNicol et al. 2017).
Dried Melon rich in SOD and Catalase
Whole, ground oat flour is a rich source of beta-glucans that are present within the hulls. Beta-glucans are associated with numerous health benefits including anti-inflammation, immune-stimulating, and gut microbiota-modulating activities, ability to beneficially modify short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) production, protective effects against an intestinal parasite, protection against bacterial infection, and a synergistic effect in antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. Beta-glucans are a non-starch polysaccharide and contribute to the class of carbohydrate nutrients termed dietary fiber. Beta-glucans present in oat bran and oat flour are not degraded in the stomach and the small intestine, and are therefore delivered to the large intestine where they provide a source of non-starch polysaccharides to microbiota of the large intestine.
• Contains beta-glucan prebiotics to support beneficial gut microbiome
• Supports gut health
• Support immune health