United States Eventing Association

Pill Carriers for Easy Medication Administration

This educational article is brought to you by Standlee Hay Company, the Official Forage of the USEA.

Giving oral medications to horses can be an arduous task! Pastes are a little easier than other oral medications, often with a long syringe that can be placed towards the rear of the horse’s mouth. Pills, however, can be very difficult to administer to our horses. Owners often grind the pills and try to mix them into the feed. A picky eater will repeatedly sift through the feed making sure not to consume any of the ground pills. Yet, you can't stop trying. Your horse must get the total dose of medicine at the correct time for the prescribed number of days. If you search the internet for “giving horses oral medications” a slew of warnings and articles about how difficult your horse can be come up – my favorite was entitled “Prepare for Battle: Medicating Horses” published by TheHorse.com in 2014 giving tips and tricks to making medicating easier.

Standlee Premium Western Forage® has been very busy developing an easier solution for giving medication to your favorite horse! Standlee® Horse Pill Carriers® assist with providing oral medications or supplements to your horse, pony, or donkey. These pill carriers are a much-needed answer to medication delivery, through a nutritious forage-based treat.

Features and Benefits:

• Premium Quality Alfalfa-Based – natural, low-sugar option for dispensing medication in pill or paste form
• Hollow Cylinder Design with “Pill Holding” Technology – prevents pill from falling out of cylinder
• Safe to Feed – Horse pill carriers can be fed empty as a treat to eliminate potential horse refusal
• Stay Fresh Packaging – re-sealable package to keep horse pill carriers fresh and palatable

Standlee Premium Western Forage Pill Carriers are naturally flavored with fenugreek seed. Researchers in England studied the top flavors selected by horses and fenugreek, banana and cherry topped the list. Analysis of the final data showed that the top eight flavors were, in order of preference, fenugreek, banana, cherry, rosemary, cumin, carrot, peppermint, and oregano.[i]

Standlee Premium Western Forage has very consistent products which is also extremely important when trying to administer a medication. We want to make sure the horse is readily consuming the pill carrier’s void of any medications so that they view them as a treat. The alfalfa base and fenugreek flavoring then continue to mask the flavor of the medication you are providing. Additionally, the forage in Standlee’s Horse Pill Carriers is not super finely chopped; the fiber length offers a normal texture to the horse and also covers the texture of any medication you may be providing.

If you have questions, please contact the nutritionists at Standlee Premium Western Forage or consult your veterinarian.

[i] Goodwin, D., Selection and acceptance of flavors in concentrate diets for stabled horses, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Volume 95, Issue 3, Pages 223-232, December 2005