Mineral Hair Analysis

There has been a LOT of discussion lately on social media regarding a video made by a fairly well known trainer/equine professional on how she feeds “forage only.” There is nothing inherently wrong with that philosophy, as all horses should be on a forage-based diet. I would even go so far to say that a lot of horses do just fine on a “forage-based” diet, plus a suitable vitamin/mineral supplement, flax seed and a handful of herbs, much like the trainer/professional, in question, feeds. However, that does not mean that it will be suitable for EVERY horse. As a matter of fact, a number of horses at a higher level of performance, breeding or growth phase of life may not thrive on such a diet without the supplementation of a suitable commercially fortified feed.

So after seeing several discussions, I had to find the video. Needless to say, it was 20 minutes of my life I cannot get back. Thankfully, there are several PhD equine nutritionists that have addressed the misinformation regarding a ‘forage-based’ diet and the fact that not all commercially fortified feeds are the equivalent of McDonald’s fast food in a shiny bag and that not all horses can thrive on just forage alone.

However, there is something I would like to address that the equine trainer/professional addressed several times in her video to further clear the air…

MINERAL HAIR TESTING -- FACT OR FICTION?TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY!

The value of hair analysis as a reflection of diet is limited for several reasons:

1)A mineral hair analysis doesn't tell us why any given mineral is low or high.

2)Another very significant problem is that circulating levels of minerals are under tight hormonal control. Many minerals are also rapidly secreted by the kidneys if their levels are outside the tightly controlled range. Thus, circulating mineral levels do not necessarily = dietary levels. In other words, correlation DOES NOT equal causation!

3)There is no standard of analyzing the hair, and even if there was, there is no standard of interpretation. There is much better correlation between blood status and body status.

4)You can send the exact same hair sample to two different labs and get two distinctly different results. Also, hair collected from exactly the same horse on the same day but from different places on the body will often analyze differently. So tail is different from mane is different from chest or belly hairs.

BOTTOM LINE -- If you want to know the basic mineral status of your horse evaluate the diet (both forages and hard feeds).