Equine Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis

07/04/2026

06/04/2026

WHY IRON EXCESS CAN BE A PROBLEM FOR AUSTRALIAN HORSES AND WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW YOUR HORSE'S IRON LEVEL. Iron rich soils are widespread across Australia. The grass that grows on such soils will have a level of iron. Horses ingest soil constantly when grazing and often are taking in more iron than is healthy. Natural water sources can be problematic containing unhealthy amounts of iron.

The following all contain varying degrees of iron which many horse owners may not be aware of; hay, legumes and grains, various premixed feeds highly processed feeds such as beets and copra meals, many mixed mineral supplements, nutritional tonics, performance enhancing products and even a few joint supplements. This demonstrates how Australian horses can inadvertently be consuming additonal sources of often unnecessary iron.

Iron excess and overload are more common than realised and often ignored in veterinary diagnosis. However, researchers have found that "equids exposed to high levels of iron in water, grass or hay over a prolonged period of time can accumulate the minerals in their liver resulting in chronic overload" (1) From approximately 15 horse I test per week forminerals levels, around 8 results reveal iron to be in excess of what the horse needs. The horse requires approx 400 - 500 mg of iron per day and any excess above what is required is not excreted but stored in the liver.

The most common source of iron excess is soil and water. it is beneficial to know how much iron is in your soil. if soil has high iron it will be poor and acidic and will also have a high level of aluminium. If you are using ground water as in bores, springs, wells be aware that minerals concentrations fluctuate seasonally and may require testing each season to monitor iron. "Long term excessive iron intake in equids should be avoided if animals drink from natural water sources, it is important to test the water (3)

There has been a few studies that link iron excess to metabolic diseases such as laminitis. The ECIR group studied 33 horses with metabolic syndrome and found that 100% of the horses were iron overloaded. Another study by Juliet Getty in 2016 states that studies have shown a direct correlation between iron intake and insulin levels in blood making it an imporatn factor in managing the diet of these horses.

THE EXCESS IRON MERRY GO ROUND where iron overload is confused as another conditions. For example; horse has stiif, painful joints so a joint supplement is used with little effect. Horse cannot flex and do a basic shoulder in movement so a body worker or similar is engaged, horse shows some improvement for a couple of weeks but the horse inflexibility returns. NO amount of manipulation, massage or the like will be succesful as this is an internal problem. The iron has to be lowered for symptoms to lessen.

SYMPTOMS OF EXCESS IRON MAY INCLUDE ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING: stiffness and inflexibility mostly in the hind but can have general stiffness, often confused with a sore back, shuffling of hind legs, not tracking up, stiff joints, dull coat, reduced growth rate, respiratory distress when in hard work, liver dysfunction, arthritis in joints, susceptibility to infections, loss of performance, hidn musclespasms, irritable behaviour, pain, locking/stiff gait, muscle loss over hind, skin sensitivity plus all the symptoms of copper deficiency.

Once you know your horse does indeed have iron overload or excess be prepared for it take to months - yes months to lower. It took months to get to an excessive level. IDENTIFYING the cause is essential to lowering the level as the exposure can be environmental, dietary or a combination of both. In most instances it is a case or removing as much iron as possible from the diet and often supplementing withTHE CORRECT INDIVIDUAL DOSAGES of zinc and copper. It may also be that soil and or water testing is necessary if your horses iron level is over 25mg%. Many of my customers had to do just that and the soil and water testing results showed positive for high iron which confirmed the causative effect for excess iron in the hair mineral results.

HOW TO CORRECT EXCESSIVE LEVELS OF IRON IN YOUR HORSE. Firstly know your horse's iron level from a hair mineral analysis test. " Hair is a more stable analytical matrix, providing a lot of information about a given type of expopsure over the years: (2) The hair mineral analysis results can explain whether your horse's excessive iron is from dietary and or environmental sources with changes to diet and often the environment of the horse are undertaken. It will take months but the iron level will lower along with the many symptoms most horses suffer when they are carrying an iron overload. Testing you horse's mineral levels is an inexpensive tool to correct health and behavioural problems and to monitor horse health.

Kerry Marsh BAgrSc
kerrymarsh@htma.com.au

Bibliography
1.Bazay C. Unsafe water can cause deadly iron overload in horses. The horse 2019.
2. Cygan-Szczegielniak D & Stasiak K. Concentration of selected essential and toxic traceelements in horse hair as an importsnt tool for themoniroring of aniumal exposure and health. Animals 2022, 12 2665
3. Theelen MJP et al. Chronic iron overload causing haemochromatosis and heptopathy in 21 horses and one donkey. Journal Equine Vet Science 2019
Reference. GettyJuliet PhD. Too much iron can be detrimental to the insulin resistant horse. Getty Nutrition 2016

12/03/2026

MORE ON BEET PULP. Some of you may remember a few years ago now I posted about copra products being a poor feed choice and high in iron. I had death threats, abusive messages and no end of aggressive comments. I kid you not. The police were involved. Yesterday I posted about the high iron content in beet pulp and I have had four private messages of a threatening nature including being sued. I had posts on FB stating I am scaremongering etc. ALL FROM STATING THE IRON LEVEL ON A BEET PRODUCT BAG!

Revisiting what I posted yesterday: Beet products are high in iron. I DID NOT state stop feeding beet products or speedibeet or any of the branded beet products. I STATED THE IRON CONTENT which is there for all to see on the labels of the products. Horses in Australia rarely require additional iron in feeds as the environmental impacts from iron on horses can be an issue for many in AUSTRALIA.

I have been seeing the effects of iron toxicity and excess for decades and only since about 2019 is it being discussed. Iron overload as Dr. Kellon states in her literature is an issue " If you ask any veterinary pathologist, they will tell you that finding black, loaded livers at necropsy is common in horses"

From the posts yesterday people stating soaking, washing or rinsing the flakes, pellets or whatever form it comes in has to be done to remove the iron. SOMEONE please show me the evidence from a laboratory assay where the iron level has been reduced. I have searched everywhere and I'm not too shoddy on the research, I found nothing but did find this pertinent study called Processing and Soaking of Sugar Beet Pulp Changes the Feeding Behaviour of the Horse. In Animal Science and Feed 2025. Of interest for this discussion was, "horses fed sbp (sugar beet pulp) either dry or soaked....Interestingly, the physical and hydration of spb were altered by processing but the chemical composition was not. Thus, the nutritional value of the three products tested remained the same" No reduction to nutrient levels which includes iron.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2025.116426

If you feel you want to abuse, threaten or discredit me for posting the level of iron stated in beet products don't bother commenting on my page. If you are from overseas and you think you know about Australian conditions and horses don't bother commenting. If you want studies from me which I keep getting asked for about the level of iron in beet products READ THE DAMNED LABELLING AND DATA SPECS. If you want my before and after lab results of horses with iron toxicity scroll through the posts on this page to Iron Toxicity in Australian Horses Feb 2024 where soil and water reports are very similar to the hair mineral reports revealing iron toxicity.

Before I am accused of no knowledge of iron levels in horses, I am a scientist and have been testing mineral levels in horses as for over 20 years and was the first to do this with horses in Australia using a Govt licensed and accredited laboratory.
Kerry Marsh BAgrSC

10/03/2026

THE BEET PULP ARGUMENT CONTINUES...IT IS VERY HIGH IN IRON

Many horse owners in Australia not to mention world wide feed beet pulps with or without sugar. What many in Australia do not realise is the HIGH IRON CONTENT in beet products.

Australian horses rarely require additional iron in their feeds as most our soils are high in iron. The grass and hay from those soils known as ferralsols also contain high levels of iron.

PLEASE READ THE LABELS on your beet products. For example on the Barastoc Speedi beet label iron is stated at 762ppm and calcium is 0.8.
The excellent resource Feedipedia states dehydrated beet pulps which is what most people feed as having iron levels at 647ppm.

ALL beet products are high in iron. All are highly processed waste. They provide very little protein and there are more inexpensive, healthier forms off fibre. Doesnt look very appetising!

26/02/2026

HORSES THAT DO NOT HAVE ADEQUATE LEVELS OF COPPER ARE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO WORMS AND PARASITES.

A round up of this week's hair analyses results is worm/parasite burdens AGAIN which equals a degree of anaemia. All the horses with this profile have low iron, low copper, low cobalt.

Supplementing your horse with copper will not kill worms and copper should not be used for that purpose EVER. However, horses with normal copper levels have more resistance to worms and parasites.

Copper is an ESSENTIAL trace element that all horses require on a daily basis for a range of health benefits ranging from poor hooves to glossy coats and all in between. The dose is different for each horse and darker coloured horses require a slightly larger dose. Best to HTMA for accurate dosing and to check current copper levels.

Please evaluate your worming programs and your paddock management. Worm resistance requires horse owners to be more savvy about what wormers to use and when and what wormers are now ineffective.

Kerry Marsh BAgrSC
kerrymasrhs@htma.com.au

11/02/2026

Owning a horse especially an OTTB is not an inexpensive hobby. They are often so stuffed from being flogged and treated like commodities to dispose of. All those individuals who own a syndicate share in a racehorse or the never ending list of breeders, when that horse has run it's guts out or not to recompense your investment where the f**k do you think that horse ends up? Shame on every single racing board/authority in Australia. You have let down the VERY heart of the industry and continue to do so. I have never denigrated the racing industry BUT nothing has changed .....it's worse. Time for all horse lovers to say ENOUGH

04/02/2026

FOR HORSE OWNERS WANTING A HAIR MINERAL ANALYSIS.

There was a recent post on one of the socials horse pages asking who does horse hair testing. Some of my fantastic customers recommended me which I thank you for. However, I was bombarded with calls, messages and texts about price of so called hair test. When I explained $350.00 per horse I got silence or I will not pay that much money, I will go with the $30 test. We all know that saying.... you get what you pay for! As far as I know and happy to be corrected, I have been testing horse's mineral and toxic metal levels using laboratory protocols for longer than anyone else in Australia.

So, I did a deep dive into who is actually doing hair mineral analysis or hair testing in Australia. Firstly hair testing is very different to hair minerals analysis.
HTMA - hair tissue mineral analysis. The hair sample is sent to a Govt Licensed and Accredited laboratory that tests the most samples in the WORLD. The results are interpreted by a SCIENTIST who specialises in MINERAL ANALYSES. You do not have to buy supplements to get the results. You get free follow up consults.

HAIR TEST - the hair sample is NOT sent to a laboratory and is NOT interpreted by a minerals analyst or similar. Radionics, clairvoyence and crystals are often used to find out what nutritional support your horse needs or what your horse's mineral levels are. Often pay for followup consults of $90 upwards

1) What I found was a herbalist charging $300 to $900.
2) The lab but not a lab. Cost $55.00 You have to buy their products to get the results cost anything from $200 up to $1000 for the products that the test stated your horse needs.
3) The $30 test using not stated how they arrive at results but suspect radionics. This is where every horse has gastric ulcers and you buy the ulcer treatement.
4) A naturopath using same lab as me but charging $350 just for the test but no analysis or diet. For a consult add another $90. Just computer generated results which states nothing useful.
4) Vets charging $600.00 - $900 using same lab as me but absolutely have found they cannot interpret ratios. Thats like me trying to do a procedure on a horse! Many recommend human supplements which are ridiculously expensive and don't all work on horses.

Most companies spruiking hair tests make their money on supplements. I do not sell on supplements as I do not have the time. I only sell on organic selenium.

I did a simple quality assurance test on one of the above companies spruiking hair tests. I sent two samples from the same horse and got two different results!!. I did the same 20 odd years ago with the lab I currently use and they emailed me to let me know that they knew I was testing their quality controls.

If you want accurate, workable answers and results that explain your horse's health problems and behavioural issues, get a genuine equine hair tissue mineral analysis which is tested under laboratory conditions in a govt licenced and accedited lab and have the results interpreted by a scientist.

22/01/2026

DO NOT ADD TO THE HTMA DIET.

You have paid to have the mineral levels tested in your horse and find out why your horse has lost it or just plain unwell. You get the answers that tally up with the symptoms your horse has been having. You buy individual minerals and feeds as unprocessed as possible as per the recommendations. You stick on this diet for a few weeks but then decide beacuse your bestie and experts said you need to ADD:

*DCP INSTEAD OF CALCIUM. This WILL cause bighead disease. DCP is phosphorous. NEVER EVER HAVE a diet with more phosphprous than calcium
*GARLIC. Garlic is not natural for horses. It affects hemoglobin levels damaging red blood cells
*INCREASE SELENIUM DOSE. Adding more selenium or using a selenium I have not recommended can cause your horse's hooves to shed off and mane and tail hair to fall out. Selenium toxicity is serious.
*STOPPING A PARTICULAR MINERAL. HTMA diet balances the minerals and the ratios. Leaving out 1 mineral will affect other minerals
*ADDING PELLETS, COPRA, BEETS TO SWEETEN THE HTMA DIET these contain minerals, sweeteners, fillers binders and preseravtives. This will create an excess of some minerals and keep your horse addicted to highly processsed feeds.
* MINERAL SUPPLIER wants a copy of your HTMA diet so they can flog you an expensive joint supplement or similar. Or suggest changes to the HTMA diet. No point in spending more money when the HTMA diet will cover the mineral deficiencies. PLUS as a minerals analyst, I only guarantee what I recommend.
*PUTTING ALL THE MINERALS INTO ONE FEED AS YOU HAVE NO TIME TO FEED TWICE PER DAY. This is dangerous as you put pressure on kidneys and liver to process an excess of minerals in one hit. Most of the minerals will pass through the system without being absorbed waste of money and you will not get the results you paid for.
*SYRINGE THE MINERALS INTO MOUTH. Initially some horses will reject some minerals as HTMA diet contains no sugars or sweeteners. Minerals need to be attached to food particles to absorb. Waste of effort and the minerals. Work out the offending mineral then add it grain by grain over a couple of weeks.

Be patient, follow the plan, avoid listening to the horse feeding experts especially on the socials and ask for guidance/advice if required.

14/01/2026

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT TO FEED YOUR HORSE?

Just before Christmas I was confronted with some of the worse diets for horses that I have seen in a long time. Two horse owners requested mineral analysis on their horses as the horses had developed a range of health and behavioural problems since using equine nutritionists and forage analysis.

Diets for both horses contained pelleted feeds that contained iron and mixed mineral supplements that also contained iron and one horse on many herbal supplements plus garlic. Both horse owners had forage analysis tests done by two different nutritionists. Both horses had access to hay and pasture. One on bore water, one on river water.

The BIG problem here is that both nutritionists were GUESSING what each horse's mineral requirements should be. The only testing that was done was on hay. Hay or feed analysis ONLY reveals the mineral content of the feed or the hay not the horse's mineral levels or not what the horse can or cannot absorb.

What was also missing and why the diets were such a failure was that the ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS of the horses water and soil were not even considered which is common and usual. Both horses had toxic levels of iron. Which was from poor, acidic soils and water to some extent so feeding additional iron was disasterous for both horses.

The horses new diets were pelleted. Horses with gut issues which is what both horses suffered from do not benefit from highly processed feeds. Horses have very large back molars which are for grinding feeds and for chewing to produce saliva to enable the normal digestive processes to occur. Chewing patterns in horses are altered when fed pellets as most horses tend to eat faster. "Chewing activity is important for particle comminution, sufficient saliva, taste perception and dental and digestive health as well as for the satisfaction of the horse's feeding behaviour and welfare"(1)

If you want to know exactly what to feed your horse instead of paying someone to guess and waste your hard earned not to mention your horse going backwards, consider hair mineral analysis. Hair mineral analysis if tested in a Govt approved and licensed laboratory and if analysed by a qualified scientist is extremely accurate in determining what your horse's state of health is and what minerals your horse has in excess or is lacking. " FINDINGS FROM OUR STUDY CONFIRMED THE SUITABILITY OF HORSE HAIR ANALYSIS FOR MONITORING OF ANIMAL EXPOSURE AND HEALTH"(2)

A diet as UNPROCESSED AS POSSIBLE is formulated on lab results, soil and water of horse's home and workload. Do not waste your money on guessed recommendations.

kerrymarsh@htma.com.au

Bib:
1.Viktoria Petzel et al. Changes in eating tim chewing activity and dust concentration in horses fed either alfalfa cubes or long stem hay. Veterinary Medicine & Science 1-9 2023
2. Dorota Cygan-Szczwgielniak and Karolina Stasiak. Concentration of selected and essential and toxic trace elements in horse hair as an important tool for the monitoring of animal exposure and health. Animals 12, 2665. 2022

Ref: S.P. Daniels. Sttraight from the horse's mouth: The effect of different feedstuffs on oral pH in horses and ponies. JEVS. Vol 142. Nov 2024

11/01/2026

FOR SMOKE AFFECTED HORSES.

My thoughts are with all of you still fighting fires or that have been through this disasterous event. I personally have experience of this but nothing like this scale. It is extremely stressful when you have animals to move and keep safe let alone trying to save your property.

For horses that have been impacted by smoke, there are a lot of studies that state using Vitamin C either ascorbic acid or sodium ascorbate will help with inflammation of airways and respiratory function. Vitamin E is also useful as it too is a powerful anitoxidant.

Smoke can contain toxic particulates that settle on pasture and water so supplementing with the above will help minimise the impacts of harmful toxins.

For my customers please contact me for the most inexpensive Vitamin C (straight from a wholesaler) as all sellers of this command large markups. Vitamin E can be purchased as KER Nano E dose per instructions or human grade 1000iu from a chemist warehouse or similar. Dose depending on size of horse can be 2-4 capsules into food ration morning and night.

Monitor horse carefully, provide clean water if possible and available and avoid irritants like dust etc as best you can. Limit workload depending on horse's symptoms. If horse is struggling best to contact your local vet to check and symptoms.

Please reach out if you need additional advice on supplementing minerals or concerned about toxic metal exposures.
Big shout out to ALL THE CFA CREWS WHO ARE JUST AMAZING.

01/01/2026

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