Horse Products: Triple Crown Horse Products Featuring EquiMix® Offer Superb Equine Nutrition

EquiMix® is a unique blend of supplements only found in Triple Crown® horse feeds. The inclusion of EquiMix® eliminates the need for many of the additional supplements used by horse owners for improved digestion and appearance. Moreover, EquiMix® helps protect your horse from the often debilitating effects of mycotoxins and pathogenic bacteria.

At Triple Crown, we incorporate the latest advances in equine health and guarantee the nutrients in our bags. Our products are proven by years of research and feeding experience. We'll keep your horse healthier and happier.

Kelp Meal
Kelp meal is a source of natural organic minerals, such as boron, chromium, and vanadium. Research has indicated that these micro trace minerals are required by the horse in extremely small amounts to maintain structural soundness and to improve protein and energy utilization.

Digestive Enzymes
The feed portion of a horse's diet provides important vitamins and minerals often lacking in hay and pasture. In addition, the feed supplies additional protein and calories needed for varying exercise or metabolism levels. These nutrients are primarily digested in the small intestine, utilizing naturally occurring enzymes. However, this digestive process is often inefficient.

EquiMix® improves digestive efficiency by supplementing your horse's natural enzymes. Protein, fat, and carbohydrates are digested efficiently and effectively, rather than passing into the large intestine, where they can either negatively affect hindgut fermentation, or are not utilized at all. While many Triple Crown diets are already low in soluble carbohydrates, the improved digestion from these enzymes will help reduce the amount that may make it into the large intestine.

Live Yeast Cultures
All Triple Crown feeds include live strains of an equine-specific yeast culture. Research supports the fact that yeast is very beneficial to improve fiber digestion and increase protein utilization while helping to stabilize cecal and colon pH. Added advantages are increased digestibility and retention of calcium and phosphorus. For breeding operations, yeast cultures favorably alter the nutrient composition of milk, improve the efficiency of mare diets in converting feed to foal tissues, and maintain structural integrity in pregnant and lactating mares. For foals, it strengthens growing bones and accelerates weight gain while maintaining linear growth. Yeast cultures are also the base of many of the other digestive improvements included as part of the total EquiMix® package.

Mycotoxin Protection
In animal feed research, an important topic that is quickly gaining momentum is the effect of mycotoxins. These are toxins created when normal fungus, molds, or yeasts found on plants are stressed, typically by weather. Proper testing techniques can identify mycotoxins in grains, but university research indicates that as much as 80% of hay may contain some level of mycotoxins. Low levels of mycotoxins can cause declines in appearance, body condition, and performance. Higher levels may trigger colic. Mycotoxins cannot be visibly seen in hay or grain, and will cause damage before the problem can be diagnosed.

University researchers have developed a product from the cell wall of yeast that interacts with potential mycotoxins. This technology reduces the impact of mycotoxin exposure and provides a natural way to promote a healthy digestive tract. By promoting a healthy intestinal environment, your horse's own immune system functions more effectively, allowing your horse to remain safe and healthy.

Organic Selenium
Yeast forms the same kinds of selenium compounds that plants produce, which is the form that horses and other animals evolved to consume. Sodium selenite or selenate are inorganic forms, which until recently, were the only selenium forms in use in horse feeds. The primary difference between organic selenium and inorganic selenium sources is the way in which they are metabolized. The organic forms are more easily digested, metabolized, and retained in tissues by horses. Organic Selenium helps equine professionals address problems of marginal selenium status that affect health and productivity, particularly in mares, performance horses, and stallions.

Organic Minerals
Organic minerals (also called proteinate or chelated minerals) are mineral salts chemically bonded to a protein/amino acid complex. EquiMix® utilizes five different organic minerals: magnesium, iron, zinc, manganese, and copper. Normal minerals are usually added into feeds or supplements in the form of oxides or sulfates. Their form limits the digestibility of both these mineral salt forms, oxides more than sulfates. In the organic form, the minerals are recognized as an organic substance by the digestive system and absorption is improved by as much as 50%. In fact, by combining the mineral to the right protein complex, you can target specific body tissues that will benefit the most by the mineral addition.

Research has proven that organic minerals are associated with improved stress and heat resistance, reproductive performance, and energy utilization during exercise. Organic copper and zinc, specifically, have been shown to reduce structural disorders in growing horses and improve hair and hoof quality.

Feed companies that include organic minerals do not provide 100% of the mineral source in the organic form, primarily because of cost. Many may use as little as 5% or 10%. Triple Crown Nutrition utilizes 40% or more of the added mineral as organic.

Mos
Horses are constantly exposed to pathogenic bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella. They can become infected if they are exposed to high doses of these bacteria or if the immune system is functioning inadequately.

Direct Fed Microbials (Probiotics)
The fiber, primarily pasture and hay, that your horse eats is converted into energy by a fermentation process in the hindgut (large intestine and cecum). The microbes that are responsible for the fermentation process convert the fiber into volatile fatty acids. Changes in internal body temperatures and pH levels caused by stress, heat, and diet changes constantly challenge the microbial population in the hindgut. An unhealthy microbial population is a common cause of digestive upsets such as loose stools, hay bellies, poor weight maintenance, and colic. Supplemental digestive bacteria have been specifically selected to improve digestion in the hindgut to help prevent digestive upsets. Constantly fed, probiotics have proven to be much more effective than products that you dose only during periods of stress.

Triple Crown® and EquiMix® are registered trademarks of Triple Crown Nutrition Inc, Wayzata, MN