A Foundation With Room for the Individual
A Foundation With Room for the Individual
How DailyBase AM/PM fits a forage-based feeding plan
A horse's feeding program rarely stays the same forever. A new hay delivery changes what goes into the hay net. Pasture becomes sparse. Training becomes more demanding, or a horse steps back from work. A veterinarian recommends vitamin E after bloodwork, while a nutritionist suggests adding alfalfa to a ration that needs more protein and energy.
These are ordinary reasons for a feeding plan to evolve. They also raise a reasonable question: if a horse already receives a foundational supplement, where do the other pieces fit?
The answer begins with what each addition is meant to accomplish. Alfalfa contributes forage and nutrients. A fortified feed supplies nutrients, calories, and protein in amounts tied to its feeding rate. A vitamin E supplement addresses vitamin E intake, while an electrolyte product may help replace losses associated with sweating. They are different tools, even when they arrive in the same feed room.
DailyBase AM/PM was designed for this kind of adaptable feeding program where factors such as forage are not consistent because hay even changes as it is stored. DailyBase AM/PM's complementary formulas establish a consistent source of selected vitamins, minerals, and amino acids alongside forage. You can then make more specific decisions about energy, protein, vitamin E, or sweat losses, rather than asking one product to do every job.
Begin with what the horse already eats
Before deciding what to add, make the existing diet visible. Include hay and pasture, commercial feed, supplements, salt, and the small extras that can disappear from memory because they are part of the daily routine. A scoop used to carry supplements still contributes whatever is in that scoop.
Forage deserves particular attention because it can account for so much of the diet. Its nutrient content varies with factors including plant maturity, growing conditions, and soil. Appearance alone cannot establish its nutritional value. A representative hay analysis gives a more useful starting point than assuming that a familiar hay name describes every delivery. Rutgers Cooperative Extension: Analysis of Feeds and Forages for Horses
A practical inventory does not require perfect information on the first day. Record what you know, identify what is estimated, and keep the current feed tags together. If pasture intake is uncertain, say so. If several horses share hay, distinguish the amount offered to the group from what one horse may actually consume. Those uncertainties are useful questions for a nutritionist rather than reasons to abandon the exercise.
It also helps to separate the jobs a ration must do. Enough calories to maintain an appropriate body condition does not, by itself, confirm adequate vitamin and mineral intake. Conversely, adding a broad nutritional supplement is not an answer to a genuine shortage of forage or calories. The horse needs the diet as a whole to make sense.
What a foundation is meant to provide
DailyBase AM/PM organizes selected vitamins, minerals, and amino acids into complementary morning and evening formulas. Both formulas belong to the intended daily program. Taken together, they provide a defined contribution that can be counted alongside forage and any feed, making it clearer what the foundation supplies and what remains to be addressed.
The practical aim is to make individualization more manageable. Instead of starting with several broad products and trying to untangle the overlap, start with one coordinated foundation and ask what this horse needs around it. That may be more energy, a change in forage protein, or targeted support for a concern identified with the veterinarian.
This approach reflects EBS’s emphasis on applying nutrition to real feeding decisions. A foundation should give owners a clearer plan, with each additional ingredient doing an identifiable job. Sometimes that means adding a specific product; sometimes it means replacing an overlapping one or changing the forage.
Flexibility works through the whole-ration calculation. Add the combined daily AM and PM contributions to those from feed and forage, then assess any proposed addition.
Commercial feed: the amount matters as much as the name
“My horse gets feed” can mean a handful used as a carrier or a substantial daily amount of a fortified product. Those situations call for different assessments.
A commercial feed designed to supply essential vitamins and minerals may cover that part of the ration when it is appropriate for the horse and fed according to its directions but remember feeds are often designed to cover minimum requirements by NRC. Feeding less also reduces the nutrients it supplies, not just its calories. This is why the product name alone cannot establish whether a foundational supplement is needed. University of Minnesota Extension: Providing your horse vitamins and minerals
When considering DailyBase AM/PM alongside a fortified feed, compare the daily contributions of both. A feed marketed for performance, senior horses, or general maintenance may overlap with the supplement in several nutrients. Neither automatically becomes unsuitable, but the combination needs a reason and a calculation.
A reduced serving of fortified feed is one situation in which this design can be useful: the horse may still need that feed for some calories or palatability while relying on a separate foundation for selected nutrients. The final combination should be calculated at the actual feeding rates, rather than assuming a full serving of each is always appropriate.
This is a useful point to involve a qualified equine nutritionist. Share the actual amounts and the forage analysis, then ask how the proposed combination contributes to the whole diet. “Can these two products be fed together?” becomes a much more answerable question when both daily intakes are known.
Alfalfa: a forage choice with meaningful contributions
Alfalfa can be a practical way to change a forage-based ration. Compared with many grass hays, it commonly provides more digestible energy, protein, and calcium. The amount it contributes still depends on the particular forage and how much is eaten. Changing the forage mix can sometimes address nutritional needs before another concentrate is considered. University of Minnesota Extension: Using hay in horse diets
That makes alfalfa worth counting carefully rather than treating it as a nutritionally insignificant extra. A small carrier portion and a substantial share of the daily forage ration represent very different contributions.
If alfalfa is added to a DailyBase AM/PMBase program, review energy, protein, calcium, and phosphorus across the diet. The calcium-to-phosphorus relationship matters, but the amounts supplied matter too. A pleasing ratio on one product's label does not describe the combined ration. Health conditions affecting mineral handling can also change what is appropriate. Merck Veterinary Manual: Nutritional Requirements of Horses and Other Equids
DailyBase’s selected amino acids and alfalfa’s contribution can have different roles in the same ration. If the forage program needs additional protein, adding an appropriate amount of alfalfa may help address that need while DailyBase continues to supply its foundational nutrients. Count the total energy, protein, and minerals before making the change.
For an easy keeper whose existing forage already supplies enough calories, that problem may not exist. For another horse, changing part of the forage allocation may be a more practical adjustment than adding several specialized products. The same ingredient can have a different place in two well-considered plans.
Vitamin E: leave room for an individual assessment
A foundation can contain vitamin E without settling every horse's vitamin E needs. Fresh green pasture, the rest of the ration, supplement formulation, and the individual horse all belong in the discussion. When there is concern about vitamin E status, a veterinarian can use serum or plasma alpha-tocopherol testing to help assess it and monitor the response to supplementation. UC Davis Finno Laboratory: Vitamin E in Horses
Research helps explain why counting the nutrient is only part of that assessment. In a controlled study of 19 horses with low vitamin E concentrations but no clinical signs, different natural-source formulations produced different patterns of blood response, with substantial variation between horses. Brown and colleagues, 2017
If additional vitamin E is appropriate, include the vitamin E already supplied by DailyBase and any fortified feed when deciding the total. The veterinarian's recommendation should specify the supplement and amount, rather than leaving the owner to combine several products that each appear to contain the same ingredient.
Check accompanying nutrients as well. Some vitamin E products also contain selenium. A reason to increase vitamin E is not, on its own, a reason to increase selenium; the two should be assessed independently. UC Davis Center for Equine Health: Nutritional Myodegeneration
A targeted vitamin E addition illustrates what “room for the individual” means. A veterinarian can adjust that nutrient for the horse while the rest of the foundation remains part of the ration review. Keep existing veterinarian-directed supplementation in place until that veterinarian has reviewed any proposed change.
Electrolytes: match the plan to losses and water intake
Electrolyte needs can change with sweating, making this a different decision from selecting a daily vitamin and mineral foundation. Horses lose water and minerals, particularly sodium, chloride, and potassium, in sweat. The fact that a foundational supplement contains minerals does not establish that it replaces those losses. Merck Veterinary Manual: Salt requirements of horses
In small randomized crossover experiments, a balanced electrolyte solution helped exercising horses maintain fluid and ion balance compared with water alone. Those experiments used a particular solution, substantial fluid volumes, and controlled exercise conditions. They demonstrate a reason for electrolyte replacement, not a universal dose or proof that every commercial product performs equivalently. Waller and Lindinger, 2021
In practice, review the horse's workload, weather, sweating, existing salt provision, and willingness to drink. Follow the selected product's instructions and ensure access to fresh water. If electrolytes are added to drinking water, offer a separate source of plain water as well. A horse with poor water intake or suspected dehydration needs veterinary guidance rather than repeated additions made in the hope that a supplement will solve the problem. University of Minnesota Extension: Encouraging your horse to drink
An electrolyte product may therefore have a clear job alongside DailyBase: matching support to sweat losses that vary with work and weather. Count any additional vitamins or minerals it contains, and keep the hydration plan separate from the assumption that a general foundation covers every exercise-related need.
Turn “can I combine them?” into a useful review
A manageable review starts with four questions:
1. What is the purpose of the addition? Write down the need it is intended to address: energy, forage quality, a measured nutrient concern, or sweat losses, for example.
2. What is the horse receiving now? Record weighed daily amounts, current labels, the forage analysis where available, and any veterinarian-directed feeding instructions.
3. What else comes with the addition? Look beyond the headline ingredient for overlapping vitamins, minerals, calories, and other components.
4. How will the decision be reassessed? Agree on what to monitor and what change would justify another review.
For the arithmetic, put nutrient concentrations and feed weights on compatible bases. A hay result reported on a dry-matter basis cannot simply be multiplied by the weight of hay as fed without accounting for moisture. Feed and supplement contributions also need matching units. The underlying calculation is the nutrient concentration multiplied by the amount eaten, then added across the ration. Oklahoma State University Extension: Evaluating Rations for Horses
As a purely hypothetical example, a feed containing 400 IU of vitamin E per kilogram contributes 200 IU when 0.5 kg is fed. That is an arithmetic illustration, not a DailyBase value or a feeding recommendation. The next step is to include the other sources and determine whether the combined intake fits the horse.
Pay particular attention to selenium when combining fortified products. It has a narrower margin of safety than many other nutrients, and sources elsewhere in the ration must be included. Merck Veterinary Manual: Selenium requirements of horses
Where label information is incomplete, ask for it. A missing guarantee is an information gap, not evidence that the nutrient is absent. The final product labels and feeding directions are the necessary starting point for an individual compatibility assessment.
Keep the plan responsive without making it complicated
A practical feeding plan needs to work for the person measuring meals as well as for the horse eating them. Once the ration has been reviewed, write clear instructions for everyone who feeds. Record the product, amount, meal, and any preparation directions. When a product changes, update the instructions instead of relying on a familiar scoop or an old feed-room note.
Revisit the plan when a meaningful input changes: a different hay supply, reduced pasture access, a new workload, a change in body condition, or a veterinary recommendation. Avoid changing several optional products at once when there is no urgent reason; keeping a clear record makes later observations easier to interpret. Routine observations can guide a conversation, but they do not diagnose a deficiency or prove that one supplement caused an improvement.
Professional review is especially important for growing horses, pregnant or lactating mares, horses with diagnosed conditions, and those on prescribed diets. DailyBase should not be assumed to meet the specialized needs of those groups simply because it is described as foundational.
DailyBase is intended to make this process more organized: forage first, one coordinated nutrient foundation, and specific additions for specific needs. Suitable feed, additional protein source, vitamin E, and electrolytes can each have a place around it when their contribution fits the total ration.
Start with the forage and the DailyBase daily contribution, then ask what this individual horse needs next. The value of a foundation is having a clear place to build from, whether the next step is a targeted addition, an adjustment elsewhere, or keeping a plan that already works.
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References and further reading
• Brown, J. C., Valberg, S. J., Hogg, M., & Finno, C. J. (2017). Effects of feeding two RRR-α-tocopherol formulations on serum, cerebrospinal fluid and muscle α-tocopherol concentrations in horses with subclinical vitamin E deficiency. Equine Veterinary Journal, 49(6), 753–758.
• Waller, A. P., & Lindinger, M. I. (2021). Pre-loading large volume oral electrolytes: tracing fluid and ion fluxes in horses during rest, exercise and recovery. The Journal of Physiology, 599(16), 3879–3896.
• Hiney, K. (2017). Evaluating Rations for Horses. Oklahoma State University Extension, AFS-3928.
• Williams, C., & Ralston, S. Analysis of Feeds and Forages for Horses. Rutgers Cooperative Extension, FS714.
• Hathaway, M. Providing your horse vitamins and minerals. University of Minnesota Extension. Reviewed 2021.
• Martinson, K., & McIntosh, B. Using hay in horse diets. University of Minnesota Extension. Reviewed 2023.
• Johnson, J. Encouraging your horse to drink. University of Minnesota Extension. Reviewed 2021.
• UC Davis Finno Laboratory. Vitamin E in Horses.
• Young, A., & Berryhill, E. (2020). Nutritional Myodegeneration. UC Davis Center for Equine Health.
• Liburt, N. R. (2026). Nutritional Requirements of Horses and Other Equids. Merck Veterinary Manual. Reviewed by Ashley G. Boyle.
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