An oral supplement containing a proprietary form of resveratrol has been shown to be effective therapy as part of a treatment regime for hock lameness in horses, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medicine Association.

The randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trial used 45 client-owned horses with lameness localized to the distal tarsal joints. All horses received injections of triamcinolone acetonide in the centrodistal and tarsometatarsal joints of both hind limbs.

Each horse then received either a placebo or a supplement called Equithrive Joint, which contains resveratrol. Horses were fed twice daily for 4 months by their owners who did not know whether each animal was receiving the placebo or the supplement.

The percentage of riders who reported that the horse’s performance was better, compared with worse or the same, was significantly higher for the resveratrol group than for the placebo group. After 2 months, 20 out of the 21 owners whose horses received resveratrol reported an improvement compared with 14 out of 20 on the placebo. After 4 months, 18 out of 21 owners whose horses were on resveratrol reported an improvement, compared with 10 out of 20 using the placebo.

The 4-month recheck examinations backed the observations of owners in a measure of what is known as the A1:A2 ratio, with better outcomes for horses in the resveratrol group. However, subjective lameness scores and degree of asymmetry of pelvis movement did not differ between groups.

“Results suggested that in performance horses with lameness localized to the distal tarsal joints, injection of triamcinolone in the centrodistal and tarsometatarsal joints of both hind limbs followed by oral supplementation with resveratrol for 4 months resulted in reduced lameness, compared with triamcinolone injection and supplementation with a placebo,” the resesearchers reported in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

The study was led by Ashlee Watts, a large animal surgeon in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences at Texas A&M University. She is the director of the university’s Comparative Orthopedics and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory.

Watts presented her research findings during the 2016 American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) conference.

Watts A, Dabareiner R, Marsh C, Carter G Kent, Cummings K. “A randomized, controlled trial of the effects of resveratrol administration in performance horses with lameness localized to the distal tarsal joints.” Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 2016 249:6, 650-659