Stiff Pony

Cherry has arthritis. This is no secret and hardly surprising. She's 20 and has worked hard for her living. The last few years it's been quite mild and easily coped with by ensuring that Cherry lives outside and is warmed up for 20 minutes prior to work.

However, it seems that the number of "stiff days" has increased of late. Maybe it's my imagination, but it seems to take her longer to warm up, and she really doesn't want to walk out of the cross-ties after standing there for a 20 minute grooming and tack up. Once she's moving, she's fine, but those initial steps make her look about 110 years old.

So I'm thinking about adding a daily joint supplement to Cherry's feed. She gets a complete vitamin/mineral supplement with her soaked hay pellets and handful of Equine Senior. She really doesn't need grain, so I give her the pellets with the ES to jazz it up a bit, and she thinks it's awesome. Works for me. It's also a perfect medium for her vitamins, occasional probiotic, and bit of salt to encourage the would-be Arab camel to drink.

Anywhoo, choosing a joint supplement is like choosing a hoof boot. There are way too many damn choices!!!! Seriously, there have to be over 500 different ones on the market. I'm fairly sure I want one with glucosamine sulfate (as opposed to HCl) and MSM, but after that I really don't know.

Well, I suppose I'll throw darts at the computer and whenever the screen breaks, I'll buy that one. Can't hurt, and if it doesn't work, I'll pick another.