“One Size Doesn’t Fit All”: The lifespan of sport horses begins with smart, individualized care

For Jennie Brannigan, a five-star eventing rider, horses are not tools of the trade; they are her longtime partners.

Since 2010, she has participated in 12 CCI5 competitions, been a member of five Nation’s Cup teams, and, along with FE Lifestyle, won the Best First Timer award at the 2023 Defender Burghley Horse Trials.

Brannigan emphasizes in her training program at Brannigan Equestrian in West Grove, Pennsylvania, to treat each of her special horses as an individual and carefully attend to their different needs.

In our Q&A with Brannigan, this top rider shares her strategies for addressing her horses' specific needs and explains how she keeps them happy, healthy, and at peak performance throughout their long careers.

PH: How do you encourage picky eaters to eat?

JB: In my opinion, the main thing is to know your horses inside and out and understand what works best for each of them.

Some horses do better with smaller but more frequent meals throughout the day, especially those who may need a lot of calories but get bored with food.

Some horses may not like to eat in the stable but will eat comfortably in the pasture.

My five-star Thoroughbred Twilightslastgleam (“Comic”) was really particular about being able to look outside and see his herd mates while eating.

He was very herd-bound and wouldn’t eat if he couldn’t see his friends.

Our amazing head girl, Isabel Turner, suggested putting his feed bucket in front of his stable, and that worked really well.

Often, these situational details are important, and you really need to take the time to figure out where each horse eats best.

I’ve also found using combination supplements helpful for my picky eaters who need multiple types of support at once, so we don’t have to give them a bunch of separate supplements.

One of our favorite products is SmartPak’s SmartCombo Ultra, as it offers five different products for joint, tendon and ligament, skin and coat, hoof, and digestive support in one combination.

We horse people often like to be doing something all the time, which makes us feel like we’re doing better, but with horses, often “less is more”; and combination supplements help simplify our horses’ nutritional needs.

For horses that are picky about drinking different waters or don’t drink well in the summer, we use an amazing product called Gallagher’s Water.

It’s an alfalfa-flavored electrolyte powder that you add to the horse’s water to encourage them to drink.

A few years ago at Burghley, my five-star horse FE Lifestyle (“Foxy”) got muscle cramps, and Steph Simpson, Boyd Martin’s head girl, pulled out a packet of Gallagher’s Water for him, and he drank immediately; since then, Isabel always keeps it on hand.

PH: How do you manage horses that are prone to digestive stress?

JB: What we ask of our horses at the upper levels of eventing is not easy; they spend a lot of time on the road and in the stable, and grazing is limited for them.

In fact, we try to keep everything as natural as possible for them, but when you're traveling and competing, this can be challenging.

I strongly believe that I should give my horses as much pasture time as possible because their bodies are built for constant movement.

The more they can live naturally and outdoors on grass, the better.

In competitions, I always take my horses out of the stable to let them graze by hand.

However, Foxy is prone to tying up, so we really have to limit his access to grass.

Nevertheless, I want to ensure he has time outdoors, which is why we use a grazing muzzle, especially when the grass is high in sugar.

Since Foxy doesn't get all the vitamin E he needs from grass, we use SmartPak’s Smart & Simple Vitamin E Liquid.

Brannigan's top horse in five-star competitions, FE Lifestyle, is prone to tying up, so he limits his grass intake and supplements his diet with liquid vitamin E.

Here, Brannigan and "Foxy" are seen during their cross-country round at the CCI5-L competition at the 2026 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event.

©Amy K.

Dragoo Horses' stomachs are designed to receive a small amount of forage continuously, so when my horses aren't on grass, we make sure they always have access to high-quality, free-choice hay.

When I lived in California, because we didn't have access to the same type of grass we have in Pennsylvania and the horses were more exposed to sand, we had a lot of issues with colic.

There, we also used a product for sand clearance and usually a vitamin E and selenium supplement if they were deficient in either.

SmartCombo Ultra, which most of our horses use, contains prebiotics, probiotics, and enzymes for hindgut health, compounds to support stomach health and natural tissue repair, and psyllium to help clear sand accumulation in the digestive tract.

So, in terms of stomach and digestive support, it covers a lot of different areas.

PH: Can you offer any advice on how you manage your more nervous or hot horses?

JB: I strongly believe that I should give my horses as much turnout time as possible because their bodies are built for constant movement.

And when they are in the stable, we make sure they can see other horses.

For horses that tend to be overly anxious or reactive, we use SmartPak’s SmartCalm Ultra.

Many herbal calming supplements contain ingredients banned by many competition organizations, but this product is not herbal and instead contains compounds with natural calming effects like magnesium, vitamin B1, and tryptophan.

We have also found that feeding hay is helpful.

Many riders worry that hay will make horses hot.

But for some of our top-level horses that need more calories, Isabel and I have found that giving hay instead of more grain is very beneficial.

PH: Eventing, of course, is very demanding on horses' joints.

Can you explain any preventive measures you take to help maintain your horses' joint health?

JB: In our discipline, maintaining the health of horses' joints is very important, as jumping and galloping at speed put pressure on the joints.

Part of this care relates to nutritional support.

SmartCombo Ultra for my horses contains proven and effective ingredients for joint health, including glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, hyaluronic acid, MSM, and vitamin C.

When you think about your horse's supplements, I recommend really reading the nutritional labels to know exactly what's in the product.

If you compare the ingredients SmartPak uses with some other companies, you'll see that by adding research-backed ingredients, they've really covered all aspects.

So here, the saying "you get out what you put in" holds true.

It's easy to think: "Oh, this supplement is very popular now, so it must be great!"

Read the labels and do your own research.

Jennie Brannigan considers this very crucial for protecting her horses' joints, as eventing inherently puts more pressure on them.

In this image, she and Twilightslastgleam are navigating the 2024 Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill five-star course.

©Amy K.

Dragoo For horses that need it, we also use Polyglycan injections.

But for strengthening the long-term health of my horses' joints, I firmly believe in keeping them moving.

In addition to turnout, we also use a hot walker for low-pressure movement.

It's also very important to me to give my horses enough time to warm up by walking.

It's easy to get used to just getting on and going, but early in my career, my coaches taught me that horses should always walk for 15 minutes before trotting.

This is a good way to give your horse a chance to loosen up, especially if they've been cooped up in a stall for a while.

If you spent most of your time in bed and were then asked to do a heavy workout, you'd probably want to warm up first too.

PH: The saying "no hoof, no horse" is an undeniable truth in eventing.

How do you support the health of your horses' hooves?

JB: In recent years, I've learned a lot more about hoof care.

Foxy was actually the first American horse to win the “Best Shod” title at Burghley to date.

Having a good farrier is at the top of my horse care list.

It's not so much about the type of shoe; it's more about finding a farrier who specializes in maintaining the balance of hoof trimming.

From Brannigan's perspective, having an experienced farrier is at the top of her horse care list.

Comic had absolutely disastrous and completely unsuitable hooves for a Thoroughbred, so it's really amazing how much can be achieved with the right plan and care.

But good shoeing work goes hand in hand with nutrition.

The SmartPak combination supplement for my horses includes biotin, amino acids, copper, and zinc to ensure they receive the key nutrients necessary for hoof health.

PH: What other aspects of your training program contribute to the longevity of your horses?

JB: I believe in giving my horses enough rest time between competitions.

These days in the U. S.

The amount of competition is truly amazing; except for December, you can event every month.

Foxy is 16 years old and, as they say, has never had an injury except for a cut in the trailer.

Every time you participate in eventing, especially at higher levels, micro-tears occur in the horses' tendons.

If you take the horse for a gallop or a jumping lesson a few days later, you significantly increase the risk of injury; that's why I've learned that these micro-tears need time to heal before going back to competition.

My horses are not machines.

They are my partners and have been working with me for years.

Therefore, I don't send them to every competition on the calendar.

I target important competitions and give my horses a good rest in the winter to fully recover.

Then I gradually bring them back to peak fitness.

The British are a good example of why these rests are so important.

Their weather makes competing all year round impossible, but see how well they perform.

I also use a heart rate monitoring program and collaborate with New Bolton Center at the University of Pennsylvania in a study; so over the past five or six years, I have a large volume of data on how Foxy's heart rate is and how high his Chaharnal has been.

This information provides us with a very good basis regarding his physical fitness and what condition he should be in to enter a major event like Kentucky.

Brannigan considers all his horses his partners and, to increase their longevity, carefully chooses how many competitions they participate in and always gives them rest and enough time to recover between competitions.

The better you know your horse, the longer it lasts, and the less you need to work on preparing it.

It's a complete cycle: if you give them time to recover and make them participate in only a few selected events each year, they build a better fitness base and can perform better and longer.

To me, this means simply being a good horse person.

I've had most of my horses since they were 4 years old.

Comic, like many of my horses, is a Thoroughbred and had many physical limitations due to his racing track background; so I'm very grateful that now at 16, he's retired from competition and is happy and healthy in the pasture.

My goal as a horse lover is just that; not just to win several events.

For more information: To learn more about the SmartPak supplements Brannigan gives to his horses and to study all SmartPak products, click here.

You can find more information about feeding sport horses here.

Source: Practical Horseman – Health

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