Your Horse and B Vitamins

at least B1 thiamine B2 riboflavin and B3 niacin in the formulation of their equine complete feeds. There is no requirement for vitamin C supplementation in equine feed in Canada because horses are capable of manufacturing their own.
my horse getting enough vitamin C?
Horses manufacture their own vitamin C in the liver but because vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant it has been of interest to researchers as a potentially valuable addition to the diets of performance horses. What research has shown though is that it takes a lot of vitamin C over three grams daily to actually make a difference in serum levels of ascorbic acid and as a result it is difficult to provide it in amounts great enough to make a significant difference to the horse. In addition there has been some suggestion in research that supplementing performance horses with vitamin C may actually downregulate their own ability to manufacture it. For this reason it is advisable to stepdown gradually the inclusion of vitamin C in the diet of your horse if you have been supplementing it.
Is my horse getting enough B vitamins?
The group of B vitamins of interest in equine diets includes choline B1 thiamine B2 riboflavin B3 niacin B5 pantothenic acid B6 pyroxidine B7 biotin B9 folic acid and B12 cobalamin. All except B12 are provided in fresh forage or by the mutually beneficial metabolic processes of the gut microbes. Cobalamin B12 is manufactured by the microbes in the small and large intestine of the horse only and not found in forage. Horses need a source of cobalt in their diets to facilitate the manufacture of cobalamin by the gut microbial population while niacin can be manufactured by the horse or by the gut microbes. Sufficient supplies of B vitamins for most horses basically boils down to the provision of good quality forage and healthy hindgut function.
What role do the B vitamins play?
The B vitamins are diverse in their function but only two of them B1 thiamin and B2 riboflavin have had a minimum dietary intake recommended by the 2007 National Research Council NRC Nutrient Requirements of Horses. The rest have been shown to have specific functions and in some cases deficiencies and toxicities have been determined in research but these have been very difficult to reproduce reliably.
Vitamin B1 thiamin is significant in carbohydrate metabolism and manufacture of adenosine triphosphate ATP an important molecule in the