Hair analysis has been popular with naturopaths for many years, and for 30 years Europeans have been applying this technology to their horses. When Standardbred racehorses came to Canada from Europe, this practice came with them. Naturopaths work toward optimum health; not just fixed on fixing health problems, these specialists push horses in the direction of perfection.
Hair analysis provides them with a tool to determine a horse’s weak points by pinpointing nutritional deficiencies and exposure to toxins.
Twenty years ago,
Hans and Elizabeth Söderström started their company in Sweden to provide
hair analysis as a diagnostic tool and products to address non-optimal equine conditions diagnosed, including gastric conditions that could lead to decreased performance and eventually illness and even death.
Elisabeth Söderström, who runs the United States’ distribution point for Swedish Horsepower, is based in Clearwater, Florida. She enthusiastically shares successes from clients who’ve experienced miracles with the company’s supplements.
A heartwarming story comes from Texas, where doting grandparents gave their young granddaughter an aging and gentle broodmare, a perfect first horse for a child. Unfortunately, the mare developed diarrhea lasting for months, and no treatments seemed to work. The young girl faced the loss of her new friend, so the grandparents turned to
Swedish Horsepower. Joann suggested Gastromin to address the gastric issues, and the mare was started on the supplement.
A week later, Elisabeth received a welcome phone call. The grandfather had gone into the barn and begun shouting. His wife rushed to him, expecting, as she had been for days, to find the mare down and unable to rise. Instead, she found her husband, triumphantly holding a handful of manure aloft, exclaiming “This is the first solid poop she’s had in months!”
Today, the mare is doing fine and the granddaughter is enjoying her first horse.
Increased performance brings racehorse trainers to
Swedish Horsepower. Successful harness racing trainers Erv Miller and Trond Smedshammer are listed among Swedish Horsepower’s satisfied customers. On a racetrack, optimum conditioning can shave the fraction of a second off a horse’s time that makes the difference between first place and out of the money.
Another satisfied customer is barrel racer Emma Haynes. She began supplementing her eight-year-old Quarter Horse mare, LA Showtime, with Pre and Post Competition, designed to increase the effectiveness of the circulatory system and thus improve performance. With the help of this supplement, Emma and LA Showtime shaved a full second off their racing time.
And about those deer…in Indiana, a deer farmer has found that by supplementing the fawns as they are weaned, they show fewer symptoms of stress. The common “weanling diarrhea” is eliminated, and they grow larger and stronger.
There are many symptoms and indications that a horse may be experiencing some non-optimal physical condition that can be addressed nutritionally, such as stiff neck and shoulder muscles, problems with the knees and front vertebra joints, tension in the groin, poor and dull coat, colic, sluggishness in the muscles, poor appetite, weight loss, significant increases in the production of saliva or dry mouth and swollen glands under the jawbone. Or perhaps you just want to boost your horse’s performance in a competitive field.
To find out more about this fascinating science, visit
http://www.swedishhorsepower.com/.
