BUCKEYE™ Nutrition publishes research on the benefit of supplementing natural vitamin E in performance horses.
Vitamin E’s main role as an antioxidant is to help prevent free radical chain reactions, especially in cell membranes, to protect the body from oxidative stress.
Vitamin E is abundant in fresh forages, making it readily available to horses with access to pasture; however, it becomes unstable in the process of baling and storing hay. Performance horses are often housed in stalls, lacking access to pasture, and due to their high-intensity work load, tend to incur more oxidative stress than horses at maintenance. To account for horses that do not have access to fresh pasture, many commercial equine feeds formulated for performance horses include vitamin E in their ration.
Dr. Nettie Liburt's latest Nutrition Nugget talks about the differences between natural and synthetic vitamin E.
Click here for more information and research on natural vitamin E.