Equine Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis

19/02/2026

ALUMINIUM AND THE RISKS TO YOUR HORSE.

Most horse owners have no idea that their horse has been exposed or is exposed to high levels of aluminium and in worse cases aluminium toxicity.

Aluminium is abundant in most Australian soil profiles. It is a toxic metal. It is the level of aluminium that can pose problems for your soil and for your horse. When the level of aluminium is high soil acidity increases and your soil suffers. So when soil pH is below 5 you have poor, acidic soil and high iron. High iron occurs when soil pH drops below 5.5 Many horse owners/agistment properties do not lime their paddocks which increases the risk of aluminium toxicity.

How does this affect my horse you ask? Horses ingest soil due to grazing habits. They pull up roots with soil attached. A horse can ingest approx 1 to 1.5 kgs soil per day which means your horse is getting an unhealthy dose of iron and aluminium. The grass and weeds that grow on this type of soil will also contain aluminium and iron as they uptake whatever nutrients and toxic metals are in the soil.

How common is it for a horse to have high levels of aluminium? Every second horse I test has a level of aluminium. 1 in 5 horses has aluminium toxicity in Australia. In New Zealand 1 in 10 horses has aluminium toxicity.

The usual source of exposure is from grazing on poor, acidic soils and often some bore water contains high levels of aluminium. Some prepacked, premixed feeds contain aluminium as an anticaking agent. Some beet products contain naturally occurring aluminium and of course hay often has a level also which is not shown on a hay test unless you request it.

The symptoms of chronic aluminium exposure not aluminium poisoning which is quite different are usually: kidney and liver stress, dull, rough coat, lowers the uptake of other minerals, affects bone density, interferes with normal immune function, colics and gastrointestinal upset. In humans excess aluminium has been implicated in the onset of Alzheimers disease. As usual, more studies need to be done on the effects of alumniium toxicity in horses.

Aluminium is a toxic metal which means it crosses the placental barrier. So if a pregnant mare has a level of aluminium the foal will absorb it and be born with an aluminium level. It stays in the body until an antagonist removes it and minerals that the alumnium depleted are supplemented.

The only effective solution to aluminium toxicity in your soil is to HTMA your horse first then soil test to confirm that the aluminium is from your place and not the previous property where the horse lived. Then lime your paddocks. The ONLY test available to accurately detect aluminium in your horse is hair mineral analysis the test of choice for toxic metals provided you test in a govt licencsed and accedited laboratory and you use a scientist to interpret the results.

Kerry Marsh BAgrSc

kerrymarsh@htma.com.au

References: Lars Friberg at al. Handbook on the Toxicology of Metals. Elsevier 1986
Jachimowicz-Rogowska K et al. Seasonal Changes in Trace Element Content in the Coat of Hucal horses. Animals 12 (20) 2022
Ramesh C Gupta. Veterinary Toxicology Basic and Clinical Principles 2007
Roger Hall. Soil Essentials: Managing your Farm's Primary Asset CSIRO 2008

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.

29/01/2026

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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18/12/2025

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY SUPPORTIVE LOYAL , LOVELY CUSTOMERS AND FOLLOWERS.

May you and your horses stay safe over the festive season and hot weather.

27/11/2025

Anthelmintic resistance is a real concern in Australia with increasing horse worms becoming resistant to chemicals. Resistance occurs because a very small percentage of worms always had a genetic ability to survive chemical treatment. A strategic approach to worming horses is necessary to manage and...

25/11/2025

HORSE OWNERS STILL NOT UP TO DATE ABOUT WORM RESISTANCE.

Last year many of the horses I tested had iron overload. This year many horses tested have a degree of anaemia. When investigating the source of anaemia as a cause is required to treat it effectively, worm/parasite burden has been the culprit. There is no point adding an iron supplement if you do not know the cause of low iron stores.

Far too many horse owners are not aware of worm resistance and or are using worming products that are now ineffective. Many horse owners worm their horse without considering what they need to worm for or use a couple of different classes of wormers on rotation, the same ones they have always used.

Checking the manure with the naked eye can detect some worms but only some can be seen with a microscope. If you are using this method and do not see any worms in the manure it does not mean the horse was worm free. Do an FEC to be sure. You cannot detect whether a horse has worms/parasites or not by just looking at the horse.

FEC is a tool that is very useful but it will not identify neck, pin, bot, tape and encysted strongyles as THEY DO NOT LAY EGGS. FEC in the old days we were advised not to worm horse unless horse had 500 EPG or more. Now some guidelines state to worm when 100EPG or more.

NOW is the time to worm - end of Spring then again end of Autumn. FEC after using a wormer to check for efficacy. Most horses should only require worming twice per year. Younger horses require more often than this. If in doubt consult a professional and do your research to keep abreast of worm resistance. Encysted strongyles can cause colic and we all know what colic can potentially do!

Acquaint yourself with the symptoms of all worms and parasites. A bit off in performance or reduced energy/stamina is a common one as is pale mucous membranes. Research which common worming products are now ineffective. Ivermectin, Abamectin, Benzimidazoles, - wormers ending with ectins and zoles. Panacur active ingredient ends zole so it is now also ineffective. Read the labels for the active ingredients.

We now have different classes of wormers being mixed together which at this stage are effective.

05/11/2025

EQUINE MINERAL ANALYSIS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR HORSE OWNERS WANTING A QUICK FIX AND AN ANSWER IN A PACKET OR TUB.

It is quite amazing when someone's horse has been unwell for months - not quite right, crappy coat, poor hooves, general stiffness, nut job etc. Lab report showed severe deficiencies and or excesses of essential minerals. Owner or owners expect mineral analysis is going to cure the condition in a few weeks. If said condition or conditions not cured in a few weeks I am told mineral analysis does not work.

Owner of horse; I Don't have time to mix 6 powders, chaffs, grains, seeds and protein. Can't you just tell me what will be quick to feed but will fix my horse? Me; I told you that I only recommend as unprocessed feeds as possible and that you need to mix them yourself as all horses require different dosages of minerals and different feeds. Owner follows recommended diet for a few months, sees improvements in horse but then decides its all too hard when the initial purchase of minerals run out. Horse goes back on premixed feeds from unregulated feed industry supposed to suit all horses. Owner; I can't be bothered to follow your program as results take too long to see and I want a quick fix that's easy to deliver. Me; why own a horse as owning a horse requires great patience and perseverance!

Minerals are the spark plugs of life. When one mineral is in excess another will suffer. When some minerals are deficient health problems begin. So when horses, humans or any animal for that matter has an imbalance in mineral levels diseases, illness and metabolic changes occur.

Correcting mineral imbalances corrects, health and behavioural problems. It takes time to change the entire metabolism at a cellular level. Full metabolic cellular changes can take up to 12 months provided you feed your horse the correct dosage of minerals it requires, the diet that is suitable and you mix the feeds yourself. You are in charge of your horse's nutrition and accountable for your horse's health and well being.