Vitamins are a key part of the diet for every horse but are particularly important when we ask more from our horses in terms of exercise performance. The physical signs associated with an obvious deficiency or excess of one vitamin or another are rare; but despite this we should not presume that the level of vitamins provided in our horses’ diet is optimised for performance. Horses are generally quite tolerant of minor deficiencies or excesses with regards to vitamins and so the margin of acceptable intake to prevent health issues is mostly quite wide. Maintenance of health, however, is a separate issue to optimal performance, which is the ultimate target for horses in race and competition horses.
