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You want your horse to feel their best, and if they participate in sport, perform their best too.
And when it comes to horse health, you know it comes down to working from the inside out.
You also know that horse supplements can help fill the gaps in a horse’s diet and make sure they get what they need — and nothing they don’t.
Horse supplements with MSM can help not only fill gaps but improve your horse's health.
In this post, we will get into the definition, benefits, and usage of an MSM horse supplement, as well as share some of our favourite brands that offer An MSM horse supplement.
Saddle up, folks, let’s get into it!
What is MSM Horse Supplement?
MSM — what is this mystery acronym, and how does an MSM horse supplement work?
Well, let’s start with the basics. An MSM horse supplement is a type of equine vitamin that has methylsulfonylmethane as the primary ingredient. That’s also the long-winded way to say MSM.
This may sound too good to be true, but MSM is well-researched and studied in horses. An international peer-reviewed study found that an MSM horse supplement helps to protect horses from harmful physiologic changes, while another study showed that an MSM horse supplement can affect how quickly equine muscles can recover from exercise.
What They Do
Okay, so you know what MSM vitamins for horses are. But what do they actually do? Well, in general, an MSM horse supplement is designed to:
- Help reduce pain in horses’ joints
- Reduce inflammation in the body
- Improve skin and coat health
- Support the immune system
We’ll get into each of the benefits later, but that gives you the idea. Basically, an MSM horse supplement allows you to feed your horse a daily joint health booster that also supports their overall well-being.
Pretty sweet, right?
Think about how that could change the game for sport horses’ vitality. They’ll be able to recover faster, perform better, and experience less severe injuries.
MSM Vs Glucosamine For Horses
Both are often included in equine joint supplements but have very different functions. The table below outlines these differences:
| Msm for Horses |
Glucosamine for Horses |
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Types of MSM Horse Supplements
Alright, alright. Enough about what these horse supplements are. How do you actually feed these daily equine MSM supplements?
An MSM horse supplement often comes in several different formats:
- Pellets
- Liquids
- Powders
Which option is best for your horse depends on their needs and, frankly, their tastes! Some horses will accept any format, while others need something undetectable to their picky palettes.
Here’s a bit more information on each of these formats so that you can choose which might work best for you.
Pellets
These small food items are beneficial because they can be easily fed to your horse on their own. That means you don’t have to mix them with your horse’s feed to get him to take those supplements.
Liquids
Another common form for MSM horse vitamins is liquid. For a liquid MSM supplement, horses must be fed using a syringe. If you’re unsure how to feed oral supplements to a horse, liquid equine MSM can be a bit trickier to administer than pellets or powders.
Powders
For owners with pickier ponies who don’t want to eat pellets or liquids, powdered supplements might be a better option. Powders can be easily added to your horse’s feed so that he doesn’t even know he’s eating an MSM horse vitamin!
Integricare’s Equine supplements feature a therapeutic dose of MSM and are an example of an easy-to-feed powder that will get past even the pickiest of ponies. That way, you know you’re giving your horse supplements with MSM that will actually make a difference and not a bunch of filler. Plus, the MSM horse supplement reviews for this product speak for themselves — it’s five stars all around!
TRI-ACTA H.A. for Equine
Our maximum strength formula is perfect for horses that are ageing, experiencing arthritis and stiffness, are in training and competition, or under a heavy workload.
Benefits of MSM Supplement Horses
The benefits of using An MSM horse supplement are pretty extensive. This supplement can help improve your horse’s health from mane to tail, inside and out. Whether you’re fighting the signs of an old horse or a lame horse, or just trying to help your horse feel their best, MSM supplements can do the trick.
We’re going to get into the details on the benefits of An MSM horse supplement in this post, including:
- How MSM keeps tissues in your horse healthy and strong
- How MSM reduces inflammation in your horse’s body
- How MSM can relieve pain
- How MSM can improve the health of your horse’s skin and coat
- How MSM can support the immunity of your horse
Ok, saddle up, and we’ll talk about these benefits next.
Keeps Tissues Healthy
For active horses, having strong and healthy soft tissues and joints is essential to their performance and their well-being. After all, you wouldn't want your horse to be in pain when they're working, performing, or competing.
That's where MSM supplement horses come in.
These horse supplements can help reduce damage to tissues after exercise.
How, exactly? Buckle up for a quick science lesson to better understand.
Glutathione is one of the most important intracellular antioxidants and MSM helps contribute to its production in the body. When tissues are stressed by exercise or disease, glutathione keeps them healthy. That's because it defends the muscles from oxidative damage and speeds up their recovery after exercise. An MSM horse supplement also promote good circulation, which can help with muscle recovery after a hard day on the track or in the ring.
Basically, it makes sure your horse’s tissues are healthy and strong and helps keep them that way as they exercise. It even protects them from the pain of an injury.
Reduces Inflammation
When your horse experiences an injury, they also experience inflammation in its joints and soft tissues where the injury occurred.
When your horse’s muscles get injured, and they aren’t taking daily MSM supplement horses, they can experience:
- Lameness
- Gate or stride in impaired
- Refusing to move or rise from a resting position
- Changes in behaviour
None of the above is very fun for either you or your horse, and adding a daily horse supplement MSM to their routine can help avoid these symptoms.
What’s the secret to the anti-inflammatory nature of MSM?
MSM decreases exercise-induced inflammation, speeding up post-workout recovery and contributing to improved performance. It happens because MSM disrupts the steps in the signalling pathway that promotes inflammation, and pro-inflammatory compounds and blood vessel dilation responses are reduced, essentially stopping or reducing your horse’s body from triggering the inflammatory response at the site.
Pain Relief
MSM supplements for horses can unlock less pain for your busy equine athlete or slow senior, whether recovering from an injury or experiencing the effects of degenerative joint disease.
That's because MSM helps with pain relief, offering an analgesic effect to heavily worked horses and improving their comfort when they are in pain. And while it's not 100% clear why this is the case in horses yet, we do know that by mechanism, MSM is an excellent source of dietary sulphur. This mineral is involved in the integrity of collagen, cartilage, hooves, and hair, as well as joint fluid and many important enzymes.
And if you've got an equine with arthritis in your stable, MSM supplements for horses can also help alleviate arthritis-related pain relief.
When bone surfaces don't heal well and aren't cushioned properly with soft tissue, arthritis happens. A lot of it is caused by age-related progression, but some horses are predisposed to arthritis due to other factors like obesity, early injuries, and strains, or poor farrier care.
MSM can help prevent arthritis by reducing some of the tissue degeneration that can contribute to arthritis and supporting the body to form a strong collagen matrix. That, combined with good exercise and equine nutrition, can offer your horse a longer, happier, more pain-free life.
Skin and Coat Health
Hoping your horse will be the mane attraction?
Then try adding An MSM horse supplement to their diet.
Horses supplemented with MSM have healthier skin and coats because MSM supports keratin formation.
An MSM horse supplement help the production of keratin, which supports the formation and strength of healthy:
- Hair
- Hooves
- Skin
How exactly do MSM horse joint supplements do this?
Researchers hypothesize that MSM, a sulphur-rich compound, can give sulphur to keratin. This can, in turn, help strengthen bonds between keratin molecules, leaving you with stronger, healthier hair and skin -- something horses can appreciate just as much as we humans can!
Immune Support
If you’re trying to find a way to make sure your horse stays as healthy as possible, you’ll definitely need to make sure you’re doing your part to protect their immune system.
Horses have an immune system designed to protect them against disease-causing invaders such as bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens. The immune system is an intriguing and intricate yet effective physiological process for maintaining your horse's overall health.
But your horse's immune system is like a car. It needs regular tune-ups and repairs to make it work as expected.
Three factors that influence equine immune system function that can be supported by An MSM horse supplement are:
- Stress
- Nutrition
- Age
By providing MSM joint supplements for horses, you can create better immune support from within, thanks to the antioxidant properties of MSM.
In normal metabolism, free radicals (unstable molecules created by oxidation) cause damage to cells. Antioxidants like MSM protect cells from these damages that can lead to cancer, heart disease, stroke, and other diseases of aging.
Additionally, when stressed, the natural immune system triggers an acute response, followed by an adaptive response. MSM modulates immune response by influencing oxidative stress and inflammation, helping keep your horse healthy and strong.
MSM Horse Joint Supplement Safety and Usage
Regarding our precious equine pals, only the best will do. So it only makes sense to check for possible side effects and safety when using a product like MSM equine joint supplements.
You should ensure your equine pal is consuming high-quality, filler-free, dietary-grade MSM joint supplements for horses, and that the dose contained in the supplement is therapeutic.
Choosing an equine joint supplement like Integricare's TRI-ACTA line ensures your horse is getting the best, with high-quality ingredients and zero fillers. That way, they get a therapeutic dose of MSM, and you aren't shelling out for a supplement packed with fillers that necessitate larger serving sizes — aka, more costs for you.
TRI-ACTA for Equine
Providing preventative support for younger horses and helping mitigate the early onset of joint degeneration and other mobility issues.
Other safety tips to keep in mind when choosing an MSM supplement for horses include:
- Caution in pregnant and/or lactating mares
- Don't feed MSM supplements to goats or other ruminants in the stable
- A horse with clotting problems or on clotting aids should avoid MSM
- Horses with a history of urinary tract stones should also skip MSM
Are There Side Effects?
Before giving your steed a new MSM supplement, horse owners almost always want to know whether or not there are any side effects they need to be aware of.
The good news is that there are no known side effects of using an MSM horse supplement. Additionally, there is no indication of toxicity from using MSM in various species, including horses.
Still, if you want a bit of added safety and security, you can always have a chat with your vet first. He or she may be able to provide you with some tips to make sure your horse doesn’t get upset by any other ingredients in your MSM equine supplements and can help ensure the supplements you choose really are up to snuff.
Symptoms of Too Much MSM
They say there’s no such thing as too much of a good thing, but perhaps that’s not entirely true. You see, giving your horse too much MSM in one sitting is possible.
So, what are a couple of symptoms of too much MSM that you might want to look out for? In general, if you’ve overdone it on the horse MSM supplement, you’ll want to keep an eye out for
- Nausea and upset tummy
- Diarrhea
- Bloating
- Fatigue
Despite these little reported side effects, they haven’t been directly linked to excess of MSM. As a result, it’s largely agreed that horses cannot overdose on MSM, making it safe to administer about 2 grams of MSM for every 100 kg of body weight.
When to Avoid Using MSM Supplements
Remember, even though horses can consume MSM, that doesn’t always mean that they should. There are a few specific situations in which it’s best to avoid MSM supplements to maintain superior horse health.
A couple of situations in which you’ll want to avoid offering up an MSM joint supplement for horses include:
- Horses with a history of urinary tract stones
- Horses with hyperglycemia
- Horses with diabetes
If your steed suffers from one of these conditions, your best bet is to consult your veterinarian before giving your horse any supplements.
MSM Equine Joint Supplement Alternatives
Wondering if there are other options out there for your horse’s joint health protection?
You’re in the right place!
MSM is a fantastic joint health ingredient that alone is great. But when combined with other compounds, like glucosamine and chondroitin for horses, you can support their joint health even more.
Or, maybe MSM may not be the best choice for your horse based on the criteria we listed in the safety section.
Either way, it’s important to consider all the options for horses available to you.
Alternatives to MSM equine joint supplements we’ll cover include:
- Glucosamine
- Chondroitin
- Hyaluronic acid
OK, let’s dive in!
Glucosamine
Glucosamine is an amino sugar that occurs naturally in the bodies of horses and humans alike. This substance is actually like a building block of cartilage, helping it form and stay strong. Cartilage is the structural tissue between the joints in a horse’s body.
Think of it as the cushiony material that absorbs the shock that happens when your horse jumps and runs. When cartilage degrades, it causes your horse’s body to experience bones rubbing together. That leads to pain, discomfort, and mobility challenges for your horse.
In order to prevent cartilage degradation from getting in the way of your horse’s daily life, you can offer them glucosamine for horses.
Glucosamine repairs cartilage, allowing you to build back lost cartilage and help restore your horse’s quality of movement.
And you can trust that it’s effective. Glucosamine has been shown to help improve lameness as well as stride length and gait quality thanks to its demonstrated chondroprotective properties. In other words, the compound in glucosamine supplements for horses prevents cartilage damage when they are experiencing a degenerative joint disease.
Chondroitin
Chondroitin sulphate is another important compound for joint health, containing glycosaminoglycans, glucuronic acid, and galactosamine. Chondroitin contributes to joint lubrication by drawing nutrients into the cartilage matrix through its structure.
Together with collagen, chondroitin helps ensure the cartilage is able to do its job as a tough, wear-resistant, weight-bearing, shock-absorbing cushion for the joints. Furthermore, chondroitin inhibits and neutralizes destructive enzymes in the joints, preventing cartilage breakdown.
And that’s not an empty promise. The good news is that ample research has proven that chondroitin can successfully alleviate the symptoms of degenerative joint disease by impeding structural changes in joints.
Hyaluronic Acid
Looking for another joint health superhero to add to your horse’s routine? Check out hyaluronic acid.
This substance occurs naturally and can be found in connective tissues like cartilage, bone, skin, and body fluids.
Additionally, it plays a critical role in joint function by increasing the supply and viscosity of the synovial fluid. And what exactly is synovial fluid?
It's the fluid that keeps joints lubricated so they move easily. In a joint without proper lubrication, cartilage rubs against the bone, causing pain, inflammation, and decreased joint stability.
When you feed hyaluronic acid supplements to your horse every day, you can help replenish the synovial fluid within the joint capsule. Therefore, the joint structure stays lubricated, ensuring smooth movement of the joint and optimal performance.
Study after study shows that when hyaluronic acid is injected directly into osteoarthritic joints of horses or is taken orally as a supplement, it improves joint health and prevents lameness.
Top 4 Best MSM Supplements for Horses
You want only the best for your horse. We get it. So we’ve rounded up the best of the best MSM supplements for horses.
Check out our picks for the best An MSM horse supplement so you can skip hours of research and get straight to providing your horse with joint health support.
TRI-ACTA for Equine
If you’re searching for the best MSM supplement for horses – look no further than TRI-ACTA for Equine. This formula features not only MSM but other key ingredients that will support their soft tissues and joints.
Alongside An MSM horse supplement, TRI-ACTA features:
- Glucosamine
- Chondroitin
- Hyaluronic Acid (in our H.A. formula)
We covered the functions of each of these ingredients earlier, so you already know how powerful each of these ingredients is on their own. So you can understand why Integriare’s TRI-ACTA and TRI-ACTA H.A. is the most well-rounded MSM horse joint supplement on the market – it tackles protecting and repairing cartilage, pain, and inflammation in one small and easy-to-use serving size that’s concentrated and pure.
Another bonus when you choose TRI-ACTA? Our products are tested in a third-party lab and come with the backing of a Health Canada approval and the designation as a Veterinary Health Product, so you know we aren’t just throwing big claims around that amount to empty promises.
TRI-ACTA H.A. for Equine
Our maximum strength formula is perfect for horses that are ageing, experiencing arthritis and stiffness, are in training and competition, or under a heavy workload.
* Priced $89.99 – $259.99 CDN for TRI-ACTA, and $129.99 – $369.99 CDN for TRI-ACTA H.A. as of June 2023.
SmartPak Equine
MSM Pellets for Horses from Smart and Simple is an easy-to-feed pellet-style MSM horse supplement. The pellets in this formula contain 10,000 mg of 99% pure MSM in a delectable form that horses will enjoy. The formula contains minimal fillers in order to make the pellets, so if you’re looking for a 100% pure option, this may not be the best choice for you.
* Priced $22.44 - $69.42 CDN as of June 2023
Mad Barn
Do you like to buy things in bulk? Maybe you’re hoping to offer your equine friend a pure MSM horse supplement? Look no further than this Bulk MSM Powder for Horses from Mad Barn. Perfect for adding to your horse’s daily food intake, this powder is 100% MSM and can offer your horse the joint health superhero ingredient all on its own. While this is great because it means zero fillers for your precious pal, they don’t get any added ingredients that are designed to support joint health like MSM glucosamine for horses.
* Price $21.99 - $99.99 CDN as of June 2023
Herbs for Horses
Another great option for feeding an MSM horse joint supplement is this option from Herbs for Horses. We can definitely appreciate that this formula is 100% pure MSM with no fillers in a concentrated powder serving your horses won’t mind at all! Again, the one caution we’d share is that this is purely MSM, which means no fillers, but you do miss out on other joint health supports like chondroitin and glucosamine.
* Priced $50.00 — $330.00 CDN as of June 2023
Q&A
How Much MSM Should a Horse Take Daily?
It’s important to know how much MSM to feed your horse daily. After all, you want it to be effective, but you also don’t want to overdo it. The recommended daily dose is 7000 - 10 000 milligrams per day for MSM to be effective.
There are no known side effects of your horse taking too much MSM, so you don’t have to worry about an overdose. In any case, make sure you read and follow the label of the MSM equine joint supplement you choose to feed your horse.
How Long Does It Take MSM to Work in Horses?
Like many horse supplements, it takes a bit of time for MSM to work on horses. MSM is also more effective in the presence of Glucosamine and Chondroitin for horses. You should see positive results within 10-14 days, depending on whether you start your horse on the loading dose or not. Follow the loading dose instructions, and you'll see results after 10 days. Results will vary depending on your horse's age and workload, and if they're taking NSAIDs, and also every horse is unique, and will respond to the supplement in their own way.
Is MSM for humans the same as for horses?
Just like horses, humans can also use MSM. In fact, humans can actually take horse MSM and vice versa because the ingredient is the same. Despite this, most MSM supplements for humans and horses contain additional other ingredients. Not all of the other ingredients in the MSM equine supplement are safe for horses, so it’s best to stick to the horse variety for equines.
Which is the easiest way to feed MSM to a horse?
Although there are several ways of giving MSM to your horse, in general, the easiest way to feed MSM horse supplements to your steed is in powder form. The powder can be mixed into your horse’s regular feed so that he doesn’t even realize he’s eating a supplement.
Conclusion
You need to make sure your horse is happy and healthy, and you know it starts from the inside. That means supporting joints, soft tissues, and muscles with ingredients that help your horse feel their best, and perform their best, too.
And what’s one thing that helps get that job done?
MSM joint supplement for horses.
Feeding An MSM horse supplement allows you to strengthen your horse’s soft tissues, reduce pain and inflammation, and help combat signs and symptoms of equine arthritis.
And even better than MSM on its own?
A supplement like TRI-ACTA for Equine contains MSM plus glucosamine and chondroitin for horses. That way, you can support your horse’s cartilage from breaking down, and help repair damaged cartilage, too. And if you’re dealing with an old horse who’s fighting arthritis, our TRI-ACTA H.A. offers the bonus of hyaluronic acid alongside those other key ingredients to help make sure they can move fluidly and comfortably.
Find out where to buy TRI-ACTA so you can get your horse feeling like their old self again with the power of MSM.
TRI-ACTA for Equine
Providing preventative support for younger horses and helping mitigate the early onset of joint degeneration and other mobility issues.
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Proactive & Therapeutic Joint Supplements
When given daily, Integricare joint supplements recover bone and joint injuries faster and help prevent mobility injuries from happening in the first place.
