Do you have an equine metabolic horse? A horse with PPID or Insulin dysregulation?
Then its worth looking into the mineral Chromium.
Chromium is a trace mineral that assists in the body’s utilization of carbohydrates and fats, which are important sources of energy for the horse.
It has been identified by the Nutrient Requirement of Horses (NRC, 2007) as being dietarily essential; however, a minimum daily requirement has not been identified in horses. This suggests that there is enough chromium in the horse’s base diet, coming naturally from the ingredients, to support their basic needs.
However, there is the possibility that additional chromium added to the diet could be beneficial to your horse.
Recently, the primary interest in chromium as it relates to horses is in its role as a potentiator of insulin to facilitate glucose clearance.
Chromium can in some cases, help horses maintain healthy blood glucose levels by increasing insulin’s ability to bind to its receptor on cells.
This means that insulin can more effectively move glucose out of the bloodstream and into cells where it can serve as a source of energy or be safely stored.
Some research has shown chromium helps improve glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in horses. This is particularly important for the overweight horse or pony whom are at higher risk for insulin resistance.
Note that not all research has shown improvement in isulin resistance, therefore much research still needs to be undertaken. However it may be beneficial to feed chromium to some horses.
If you would like a nutrition programme formulated for your individual horses needs see DL Equine Nutrition. Research has proven individual diets increase the health and wellbeing of metabolic horses and ponies!
www.dlequine.co.nz
