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Research Efforts Pay Off for New Purina Mills WellSolve™ Horse Feeds for Special Needs Horses
For years the Ph.D. equine nutritionists at Purina Mills saw the need for specialized horse diets that addressed the unique needs of certain horses. Obesity, Equine Metabolic Syndrome, Insulin Resistance, Cushing’s Syndrome and Laminitis are just a few health challenges some of these horses face. And there are nutritional theories about how to formulate an equine feed to help these horses. The Purina Mills equine nutritionists wanted to challenge those theories and test formulations to see what could be done.
After completing research that spanned 6 years, involved 8,768 individual tests, 7,576 feeding trials and two published articles in the Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, WellSolve™ horse feed was born. Formulation study and in-depth research protocols for WellSolve™ began at the Equine Research Unit at LongView Animal Nutrition Center – Purina’s 1,188-acre research facility. The equine nutritionists set about first testing their hypotheses on horses there, then took the products out to field trials to ensure their success in the populations of horses they were intended for.
“We really wanted to do something that could make a difference for special needs horses,” said Dr. Mary Beth Gordon, Director of Research and New Product Development for Purina Mills. “We had some unique nutritional ideas, and our equine research unit is the perfect first step for safely testing those ideas.”
The team’s work started with gathering existing data on special needs horses, examining those, developing their own ideas and then evaluating those ideas.
“From the beginning, we theorized that special needs horses metabolize and utilize carbohydrates in a different way. So we assembled all of the research and observations that our veterinarians and nutritionists have accumulated over the years. We also seriously examined anecdotal evidence and considered countless suggestions and theories about how to feed these horses. We sorted, combined and reconfigured various possibilities in an effort to develop a product that could produce measurable results. Finally, we used the latest technology to apply this wealth of knowledge to actual formulations until we arrived at WellSolve L/S® horse feed.”
Dr. Gordon’s research involved comprehensive blood analysis. She and her team filled hundreds of tubes and then measured the insulin response to many different feed prototypes.
From the formulation perspective for WellSolve L/S® (low starch), they evaluated digestible/fermentable fibers as an alternative energy source, omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, Page 2 of 3 protein types and quality (amino acid profiles), antioxidants, key vitamins, minerals and feed form. She also studied how meal size and hay play a role.
After years of exhaustive study, the result was WellSolve L/S®. “I’ll never forget when the data started coming in showing the low glucose and insulin response to the feed that we had hypothesized. It was a great moment for me, our research team and special needs horses.”
One of the major features of WellSolve L/S® is the maximum combined sugar and starch content which is guaranteed at 11%. This is especially important to those special needs horses that are sensitive to high soluble carbohydrates.
Gordon went a step further and pursued having her data published in the veterinarian journal community. Her work has been peer-reviewed and published in the Journal of Equine Veterinary Science and has also been accepted for publication by the Equine Science Society.
“WellSolve L/S is like no other ‘low starch’ diet out there,” says Dr. Gordon. “For one, it has peerreviewed, published data supporting it, so vets can have confidence in recommending it. And two, the data show WellSolve L/S has a low glucose and insulin response to feeding. This means the data shows it works. And that’s great news for special needs horses.”
The other breakthrough that came out of Dr. Gordon’s extensive research is WellSolve W/C® (weight control) horse feed. Obesity remains a large problem for horses in the United States. And Gordon felt they could develop a formulation that could help overweight horses lose weight while still enjoying the satisfaction of full meals.
Dr. Gordon studied a statistically significant number of overweight horses measuring body weight, body condition score, rump fat, baseline glucose, insulin, cortisol, leptin and others.
Feed form was also important. “Purina Mills already has some great feeds for weight loss and weight maintenance in horses. But the problem with those is they are rather concentrated, and so the horse doesn’t get many pounds to eat per day. Since horses love to eat and owners love to feed them, we felt we needed a type of feed that they could eat more of while still losing weight.”
Gordon’s data showed strong weight loss by horses eating WellSolve W/C® during the study. As part of a total weight management plan, the diet helped support measureable weight loss and reduction of body weight, body fat and body condition score.
Another advantage of WellSolve W/C® is its form. The diet is an extruded nugget that provides extra volume. This allows owners to feed more than their horses normally get to eat while still losing weight.
“Owners generally don’t like putting their animals on a weight control diet because most require restrictive feeding. With WellSolve W/C®, the owner can feed a more normal size meal to their horses and they can still maintain or lose weight.”
Dr. Gordon remains confident that her efforts will really help obese horses. “WellSolve W/C is better than anything else out there because we have the clinical data showing it helps horses lose weight. It helped support measurable weight loss and reduction of body weight, body fat and body condition score along with an improved insulin response to a glucose load.”
WellSolve® Horse Feeds are available exclusively through certified Purina Mills dealers. For more information, visit www.wellsolveequine.com or call 1-877-454-7109.
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