Amino Acids

Supplements Provide Essential Amino Acids For Horses

Amino Acids are the building blocks for protein and make up over 70% of the horse’s body.  There are 21 amino acids that are used to make proteins in horses. Every day horses need amino acids in their diet to continually maintain their body.  Active horses and pregnant mares will require more to keep up with their needs.

It is recognized that there are 3 categories of amino acids into which the 21 amino acids are used by horses to make proteins in their body.

1. Essential – horses are unable to produce and must be provided in their diet
2. Non-Essential – those that horses are naturally able to synthesize
3. Conditionally Essential – can be synthesized but may need supplementation during heavy work load, stress or rapid growth.   Glutamine and glycine are two of these.

Essential amino acids are those which the horse cannot produce on their own.  There are 10 essential amino acids that should be provided for horses in adequate levels to meet their needs and allow synthesizing of the non-essential amino acids they require.

Here are the 10 essential amino acids horses need:

• Arginine
• Histidine                   
• Isoleucine
• Leucine
• Lysine 
• Methionine
• Phenylalanine                    
• Threonine
• Tryptophan
• Valine

For horses, the three most limiting amino acids are lysine, methionine and threonine.  If those three are not provided in adequate levels, a horse cannot efficiently utilize the other essential amino acids and more importantly, synthesize the amino acids they normally produce from their diet.

Supplying these comes from ingredients that can be added to a horse’s diet and supplement to ensure your horse gets the amino acid support they need, especially in active horses requiring high muscle activity to do their job.

While you can add specific synthesized or extracted amino acids directly to your horse’s diet or supplement program, there are numerous natural ingredients that deliver excellent amino acid profiles that contain many, if not all of the essential amino acids and more.

Common sources include dairy, eggs, beans, nuts, seeds, soy, fish and yeast.

Adding KAUFFMAN’S^® Premium Equine Supplements Can Help With Amino Acid Needs

Our supplements are formulated to include amino acids by adding them directly and also via the protein content of other ingredients such as flaxseed, soybean meal, alfalfa meal, fish meal and brewer’s dried yeast.  Areas that our supplements focus on include essential amino acid needs, hoof, muscle support, ration balancing, heavy training/working, high performance, weight management and young stock growth.

The KAUFFMAN’S Premium Equine Supplements on this page, including Amino-E™, contain many of the above natural ingredients that can help provide added amino acid support your horse needs for fueling their active lifestyle, every day.