Equine America UK

Equine America UK is a traditional, family run business, founded in 1997 by Phil and Julie Middleton and now run by their son, Lee. Wishing to maintain the trusted image of the Equine America brand, whilst moving it into the 21st century, Lee brought on board world-leading equine nutritionist Deborah Lucas MSc.

In order to maintain peak health and performance, it's important that horses have a balanced diet with the correct mix of vitamins and nutrients. Equine athletes have higher nutritional needs in order to support the additional energy they're expending, so the best course of action for owners and trainers is to add in horse supplements to their feeding regimen.

Horse's joints, tendons, ligaments and muscles are subjected to considerable stresses as they work, whether they are elite performance horses, or leisure horses hacking in the countryside, and signs of joint discomfort may be more noticeable in older horses and ponies.

Cartilage and joint fluid are often the first areas of the joint to show signs of wear and tear - cartilage is the spongy, elastic material which covers the ends of bones within a joint and acts as a major shock absorber.Joint fluid should be thick and viscous, to bathe and lubricate the joint, also acting as a vital shock absorber.

Horses are fright and flight animals, and can be prone to excitability, stress and nervousness in unfamiliar situations or surroundings (such as new competition or training venues), which can cause them to lose concentration and focus. Providing nutritional support for the nervous system can help the horse to maintain a calm outlook and concentrate on his work.

Modern horses and ponies are subjected to many challenges and stresses, including training and competition, travel, moving yards, often involving unavoidable changes in forage and companions, meal feeding rather than ad-lib forage, and limited grazing.

All of these factors can affect the horse's complex digestive system, resulting in gastric disturbance and disruption to the delicate balance of the horse's microbiota - the population of vital, beneficial microorganisms in the horse's hindgut which play such an important role in the horse's health, from fibre digestion to vitamin synthesis and also a key role in the correct functioning of the immune system.