Supplement Hero or Zero: Cosequin ASU Pellets

I have wanted to try Cosequin’s Joint Supplements for years, but knew my horses wouldn’t be thrilled with a powder sprinkled on their feed. So, when they came out with their “veterinarian recommended” Cosequin ASU in a pellet, I jumped at the chance to try it. Since Dreamer and Shooter are both retired from the show pen I figured it was time to simplify their joint supplements to just the basics. I edited their SmartPaks by removing SmartFlex Ultimate Pellets and adding Cosequin ASU Pellets about 8 months ago.

Cosequin ASU contains the basic building blocks of most joint supplements, Glucosamine, MSM and Chondroitin. It also adds ASU (Avocado/Soybean Unsaponifiables) which has been shown to lower the expression of several components involved in cartilage breakdown (in other words, it helps your horse maintain it’s cartilage) and Boswellia Serrata (an extract from Indian Frankincense) which is effective at reducing inflammation and easing arthritis. On paper that all sounds great but did it work for my horses?

The surprising answer was no! It did not seem to help my horses at all. They both were stiffer and their respected arthritis areas were worse. I found myself reaching for liniment, bute and Back On Track wraps more often. I feel like 8 months was long enough to see results and just recently switched them back to SmartFlex Ultimate. I actually did a blog post about SmartFlex Ultimate which you can read here.

But it seems that SmartFlex Ultimate contains higher amounts of Glucosamine and MSM as well as Hydrolyzed Collagen, Vitamin C, Silica, Sodium Hyaluronate and Resveratrol. For my horses that combination works better than Cosequin’s. The only good things I can report about Cosequin’s ASU Pellets is that my horses ate them without issue and Cosequin ASU Pellets are cheaper ($67.50 for a 28 day supply/$2.41 a day) versus SmartFlex Ultimate ($83.95 for a 28 day supply/$3.00 a day). Long story short, if your horse is still in full-time work/show mode or an older/retired horse with arthritis I would not recommend Cosequin’s ASU Pellets. It was unfortunately a supplement Zero for my horses.