Ageecee:
Succeed is sold as a feed supplement for horses and, as such, cannot make any drug claims (i.e. prevent, treat or cure any disease or condition). I happen to know a bit about this…as I’m in the field of their regulatory/government affairs!
Here’s how I can explain it the way I understand it. Sorry for the novel!!!
As a long-time horseman, you understand that the natural diet of a free-range horse is a combination of grasses, herbs and bark, and it grazes 16-22 hours. Horses’ digestive systems are not made to handle intermittent feeding and use of high-energy diets. We all can visualize the horse that bolts down grain or pellets in a few minutes (seconds for SOME!!). It is TOTALLY unnatural, and causes the horse to miss out on the first key part of good nutrition, i.e. chewing thoroughly. Did you know that the natural horse makes about 5 gallons of saliva per day??
Today, we necessarily stall our horses (especially performance horses in training), feed high concentrate feeds and often provide limited hay: it’s like feeding children on candy bars, with similar effects. Just as important, these high energy feeds, when bolted down by a hungry horse with an empty stomach, rush through the digestive system and can end up in the hind gut undigested: there, they are fermented and lead to excess lactic acid rather than the volatile fatty acids the horse needs to absorb for nutrition. Here is your source of colonic ulceration and, in strictly my OWN opinion, a major source of colic.
Succeed forms a gel that slows down the rate of transition though the digestive system and also has been shown to be a boost to the immune system. The special yeast (killed) balances the digestive flora and provides nutrients unavailable otherwise. By the way, this is why the old horsemen fed brewers grains, the by-product from brewing beer! It also has two amino acids to help with digestive mucous production.
It modifies the rate of absorption of feed so it lessens the “sugar-high” effect—that’s why some people on the board are saying it changed their horse’s temperament. Some people say it’s expensive—well, so’s the vet. And I don’t know about you…but I’ve found that you get what you pay for when it comes to supplements. You may save a few bucks going a cheaper route, but they don’t work and you end up paying more in the end. My TB’s have never looked better.
Hope that helps.
TBHorseNut