Feed Additives for Horses
When building a nutrition program for horses, most diets begin with the basics: quality forage, balanced concentrates, and clean water. Those elements form the foundation of a sound feeding strategy. However, beyond those essentials lies another powerful tool that can elevate health, performance, and efficiency from adequate to exceptional: feed additives for horses.
Often included in small amounts but designed for targeted impact, feed additives help horses better digest, absorb, and utilize nutrients. They support gut stability, immune resilience, and metabolic efficiency, all factors that influence how a horse looks, feels, and performs each day.
For owners, trainers, and caretakers seeking consistency in a world of variables like stress, travel, weather, and workload, the right feed additives can quietly make all the difference.
Who is BioZyme?
BioZyme® Inc., is a global fermentation company pioneering advancements in animal nutrition and health. Through innovative research and high-quality manufacturing, BioZyme creates powerful solutions that improve animal performance. We do that through carefully creating a feed additive like AO-Biotics® Amaferm®, a research-proven prebiotic that increases digestibility across species.
Vitalize®EQ is a line of supplements for horses with proven solutions that keep your animal healthy and performing. We are a renowned brand of supplements designed to enhance equine health, provide a good gut feeling, and support bone, joint, and soft tissue health. Vitalize products support all equine enthusiasts. From the ranch horse owner on the Western plains to the Olympic jumper, Vitalize offers products to meet the needs of every horse. Additionally, our products are effective and designed to work on from foals to senior horses.
What Are Feed Additives for Horses?
Feed additives for horses are specialized ingredients included in the diet to enhance nutritional value, improve digestion, or support specific physiological functions. Unlike core nutrients such as protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals, additives are designed to optimize how the horse uses those nutrients.
Think of them as fine-tuning behind the scenes. They help the engine run more smoothly, burn fuel more efficiently, and recover faster after the work is done.
These additives commonly include:
- Prebiotics
- Probiotics
- Yeast cultures
- Enzymes
- Buffers
- Electrolytes
- Targeted vitamin and mineral support
While each plays a unique role, many center on one critical system that influences nearly every aspect of equine health: the digestive tract.
The Gut: Where Performance Begins
A horse’s digestive system is both incredibly efficient and remarkably sensitive. Keeping the gut healthy keeps the entire horse healthy, as we know that at least 70% of the immune response starts in the digestive system.
Designed to process small, steady meals of forage, the hindgut, where forage is digested, houses billions of microbes responsible for fermenting fiber and producing energy.
When this microbial ecosystem is balanced, horses thrive. They maintain proper weight, convert feed effectively, and exhibit steady energy and strong immune defenses.
When that balance is disrupted, performance often declines.
Stress from hauling, competition, environmental changes, high-starch diets, illness, sudden changes in diet, antibiotic treatment, deworming, and medications can upset the microbial population. The result may include:
- Inconsistent manure
- Poor nutrient absorption
- Weight fluctuations
- Immune suppression or an overactive immune system
- Dull coats
- Reduced stamina
- Increased susceptibility to digestive upset
This is precisely where feed additives for horses offer meaningful support. By promoting microbial balance and gut integrity, many feed additives for horses help stabilize the foundation of overall health.
Probiotics: Reinforcing the Microbial Team
Probiotics are live beneficial microorganisms that help populate and support a healthy digestive tract. When horses experience stress or dietary changes, natural microbial populations can decline. Supplementing probiotics helps restore that balance.
Probiotics can help:
- Enhance fiber digestion
- Support immune function
- Improve manure consistency
- Reduce digestive stress during transitions
For horses traveling regularly, competing frequently, or adjusting to new feeding programs, probiotics provide an added layer of digestive stability.
Prebiotics: Fueling What Already Works
While probiotics add beneficial microbes, prebiotics feed the microbes already living in the gut.
Prebiotics are non-digestible fibers that serve as a food source for desirable bacteria microflora. By nourishing these microbes, prebiotics help beneficial populations thrive while crowding out harmful organisms.
This creates a stronger and more resilient digestive environment, leading to:
- Better digestion and nutrient absorption
- Improved gut integrity and barrier function
- More consistent energy release
- Enhanced immune support
Together, probiotics and prebiotics create a synergistic effect that supports both microbial replenishment and sustainability.
AO-Biotics® Amaferm® is an example of a precision research-proven prebiotic for horses. Amaferm has more than 150 published research papers that show it increases digestibility and nutrient absorption.
AO-Biotics: Fermentation at Work
BioZyme’s proprietary AO-Biotics Amaferm is a prebiotic fermentation product developed through a unique, research-backed process. Rather than adding bacteria to the gut like a probiotic, AO-Biotics delivers bioactive compounds that support the existing microbial population and enhance fermentation efficiency in the hindgut.
The result is improved nutrient utilization and a stronger digestive environment.
Research shows Amaferm helps:
- Increase fiber digestion
- Improve nutrient absorption
- Promote gut health and barrier function
- Support a normal immune response
- Encourage consistent performance
- Because AO-Biotics works with the horse’s natural biology, it provides reliable support across different feeding programs and management styles.
It is less about adding more feed & supplementation and more about helping the horse get more nutrient value from what is already there.
Enzymes & Feed Efficiency
Even well-balanced rations can leave nutrients partially unused. Enzyme additives help break down complex feed components such as fiber, starches, and proteins into forms that the horse can more easily absorb.
Improved digestion leads to:
- Better feed conversion
- More consistent body condition
- Reduced waste
- Steadier energy levels
For horses consuming concentrates or performance diets, enzymes can help maximize the value of every pound of feed.
In today’s environment of rising feed costs, improving efficiency is both nutritionally and economically beneficial.
Beyond Digestion: Whole-Horse Benefits
While many feed additives for horses target the gut, their impact extends far beyond digestion.
A healthy digestive tract supports:
- Strong immune defenses
- A normal inflammatory response
- Better metabolic function
- Enhanced muscle recovery
- More consistent behavior and focus
Performance horses, broodmares, growing foals, and senior horses all benefit when nutrients are fully utilized. Simply put, when the gut functions well, everything else works better, too.
It’s a ripple effect that touches every system.
VitalizeEQ: Nutrition Powered by Fermentation
Building on BioZyme’s fermentation expertise, the Vitalize Equine line was developed to deliver targeted digestive and nutritional support specifically for horses.
Formulated with AO-Biotics Amaferm, Vitalize’s nutritional health and gut health products are designed to help horses:
- Digest fiber more efficiently
- Absorb nutrients more completely
- Maintain gut health during occasional stress
- Support immune and metabolic function
- Perform consistently
Whether supporting a high-performance athlete, a broodmare, or a leisure horse, these VitalizeEQ products focus on helping horses get more from their diet.
In practical terms, owners often notice improvements such as:
- Healthier coats and topline
- Steadier energy
- Improved manure quality
- More consistent body condition
- Overall vitality
It’s not a dramatic overnight shift. Instead, it’s a steady, dependable improvement that shows up day after day, like a horse that feels good in its own skin.
Choosing the Right Feed Additives for Horses
We realize you have lots of choices when it comes to selecting feed additives for horses. However, at VitalizeEQ, we are more than just a supplement. We are a company backed by research and our core values. At BioZyme, we truly believe in care that comes full circle.
We want your horse to have a good gut feeling, and that is why we have dedicated years of research to our formulations. We use a three-pronged approach when it comes to research, one of our core principles.
Discovery studies focus on the generation of new hypotheses that fit or explain given data sets. In the narrowest sense, the term “discovery” refers to the purported “eureka moment” of having a new insight.
Mechanistic studies use the difference between treatment groups to explore the mechanism of action of the treatment. The result of these efforts is to not only know that a treatment works, but to know how it works.
Validation studies generate and document data by observing animals in their normal and natural environments either as a control or with a specific treatment. Validation helps define the scope or range of conditions under which reliable results may be obtained.
Trust Safe, Accurate Products Made by Vitalize
We have decades of research that help us provide horse owners with premium equine nutrition and gut health supplements powered by our prebiotic Amaferm. Why do we put a premium on science-backed products? We want horse owners like you to know they can trust the safe, accurate products with a VitalizeEQ label. Our team has undergone numerous quality training courses, including Safe Feed, Safe Food, FAMI-QS, and others.
VitalizeEQ products are research-proven, and our manufacturing facility utilizes an ionophore-free closed production system to ensure a safe product for horses. BioZyme has taken great care to ensure that our Vitalize products are safely made and have no risk of ionophore contamination.
In addition, BioZyme Inc., the maker of VitalizeEQ, is a member of the National Animal Supplement Council (NASC). Several VitalizeEQ products carry the NASC Seal, meaning they are produced under the highest quality standards for equine supplements on the market.
Start with the Basics
Feed additives for horses work best when layered onto a strong foundation. They are not shortcuts or replacements for proper management.
Always prioritize:
- High-quality forage
- Balanced rations
- Fresh water
- Regular dental care
- Consistent feeding schedules
- Stress management
Once these fundamentals are in place, additives can amplify results and support long-term success.
The Bottom Line
Feeding horses is both an art and a science. It’s the daily act of turning forage and feed into strength, stamina, and health.
Feed additives for horses provide targeted tools to make that process more efficient. From probiotics to prebiotics like BioZyme’s AO-Biotics Amaferm, these ingredients help horses digest more, absorb more, and ultimately perform better.
Through solutions like those offered in the various VitalizeEQ supplements, fermentation technology brings measurable support to the gut, the immune system, and the whole horse.
Because sometimes the biggest gains don’t come from feeding more. They come from helping the horse use what it already has.
And when nutrition works from the inside out, you see it everywhere – in the shine of the coat, the steady stride, the quiet readiness at the gate.
Vitalize Offers Feed Additives for Horses in a Tidy Package
It is easy to purchase VitalizeEQ products and provide your horses with the support they need to ensure they get the most nutrients from every bite. You can purchase them online or from a variety of other retail outlets.
Not sure which product best suits your horse and its needs? Check out our Vitalize Product Navigator.
Do you prefer to shop locally? Discover where to buy VitalizeEQ from the nearest authorized BioZyme dealer.