08/03/2023
Amino Acids 101
Building blocks of protein
Only 22 Amino acids function in the horse’s body. They account or make up 90% of your horse’s tendon, hoof, hair and skin, 30% bone and 73% of your horse’s muscle.
Amino acids are really good at linking or joining together and making chains. This is because they all have interchangeable ends in their biochemical make up. They all have a carboxyl group on one end and an amino group on the other so they can all link together, and this linking can be repeated over and over.
Peptides are chains of 2 or more amino acids linked together. Poly peptides are long chains of amino acids, typically 50 or more linked together. Proteins are formed by linking one or more poly peptides together. So, all that to say that proteins are just long chains of amino acids.
Think of the alphabet as amino acids. Take the letters S- E- S-O-N-I-T- R- I -D. Alone these do not seem like much, think of them as individual amino acids. If you link a few of them together they start to become words, now we have See Sonita Ride. Think of this as being a peptide. If we add a bit more to it, for example 50 amino acids together you would have a polypeptide and the story becomes more interesting. So now we have See Sonita Ride along the beach and through the tide pools with the warm sun glistening off her horses wet black coat making it gleam and sparkle like the night sky full of stars.
Linking multiple poly peptides together is going to make a protein. This is akin to the story of riding my horse on the beach. In short, this is how amino acids join together to make peptides, which join together to make poly peptides and when poly peptides are joined together you have a protein.
Going forward think of the game scrabble, if we look at the alphabet in this game, some letters such as A, are more important as it is much easier to make a word with A than it is with say “Q” or “W’. The reason A is more important is because it is a vowel, and you have to have vowels to link letters together to create words. In scrabble if you don’t have any vowels and you can’t access any on the board to use, you are pretty much done for. So now think of vowels in the alphabet like essential amino acids in the diet. Essential amino acids are the amino acids that your body cannot make itself. It needs to have them provided in the diet in order for their body to function properly. If you miss out on even one amino acid in your horse’s diet, it can have an impact on your horse’s ability to reach peak performance or has the chance to express their genetic capability.
So, as we said at the beginning there are 22 amino acids and only 10 are essential for your horse. Again, that means they can make 12 on their own (non-essential) but need to have the other 10 available in their diets.
The 10 amino acids needed by the horse are arginine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine (involved in growth and development) methionine (for hoof and hair quality,) phenylalanine, threonine, (involved in tissue repair) tryptophan, and valine.
They need to get all 10 of these through Hay, Grain and supplements. They cannot make them on their own.
The Most important of these 10 is LYSINE. Lysine is known as the first limiting amino acid. IT would be like playing scrabble and not having access to any vowels. It would just not be possible.
Lets now talk about digestion and absorption of protein in the diet. When a horse eats grain, hay or supplements containing proteins, these proteins or chains of amino acids, are exposed to enzymes in the digestive system which cleave or break apart the bonds holding these chains together. These amino acids are then free floating where they are now accessible to the villi and microvilli of the small intestine that act like little fingers that hold and move these nutrients where they are squeezed and pushed through peristalsis into the body through the portal vein or in other words absorbed through the gut lining. If you have ever done any beading, you know that beads come all on a strand of nylon in a long string of beads. In order to separate those beads to use them in your project, you need to cut the wire holding them and separate each bead from the strand before getting to work on your necklace or bracelet. These enzymes are somewhat like your scissors, cutting the bonds between each bead to free them for use.
So what happens if your horse doesn’t get the amino acids its requires, in the right ratios?
Deficiency can result in a host of issues that can cause problems. Here are a few…
1. Decreased Immunity- Have you noticed that your horse seems to catch fungal infections, scratches, or dermal issues frequently? Or is your horse the one always lagging the second day of the show? Perhaps your horse always comes home from a show with a cold? OR does it take extra-long for your horse to heal from a cut or recover from their vaccines? All these things and more are tied to a strong immune system which is tied to adequate essential amino acids. Amino Acids activate lymphocytes, natural Killer T-cells, as well as critical in the production of antibodies. Scientific studies have shown that supplementation of amino acids can enhance the immune response.
2. Poor Gut Health- Is your horse the one to always come home from a show or clinic with a sore tummy? Gets “shards” easily? Does your horse go through bouts of ulcer issues seasonally or yearly? Amino acids help support and maintain proper gut functions. L-Glutamine is the main amino acid for repairing smooth muscle tissue, which is the entire lining of the gut, stomach, and entire digestive system. L-glutamine is found in some grains and in grass and hay! Amino Acids help to maintain the mucosal mass and the integrity of the intestinal lining, helping to prevent leaky gut, (hives, histamine responses, build-up of toxins etc.) Amino acids also play a role in helping the beneficial bacteria thrive in the microbiome of the gut.
3. Mental Disorders- Science has shown that helping to provide amino acids improves mental health. The body can convert amino acids into neurotransmitters. This is where my opening comments come in where I mentioned that when your horse acts up the first thing some people think to do is reduce grain. BUT it may be that your grain does not have adequate essential amino acids to support mental health. If your horse is having a hard time focusing, relaxing, or paying attention, you might consider looking at the amino acid profile of the feed you are providing. Training can definitely go a long way, but why not help them with a solid diet if you can.
NOTE: It is important to consider that when you are looking at a feed tag you are looking at crude protein, it is not necessarily relatable to the amino acid profile of that protein.
You can add urea to any feed, urea being 46% nitrogen, which would push the crude protein amount on the tag way up, but it won’t change the amino acid profile of the feed. Therefore it is important to not only rely on the tag’s crude protein amount of a feed. You need to know the amino acids that are listed and guaranteed on the feed tag.
4. Less Stamina and reduced Muscle Mass – Research has shown that skeletal muscle syntheses can be stimulated by amino acid supplementation especially after exercise increasing muscle mass. This replenishment after exercise of amino acids is known as providing a “protein pulse meal’. Think of the people you see at the gym pumping iron, as they are walking from the gym they are chugging down protein, amino acid supplements or heading home for a roast beef (or vegan) protein meal. We always must remember even if we are not providing protein pulse meals, that muscle will not build without exercise. Exercise + Nutrition = Muscle Mass! If I just chug protein shakes every day, and I don’t exercise, I will most likely just get flabby and have expensive p*e!. One will not work without the other. There must be a tear down and rebuild process to maximize muscle growth.
In regards stamina, it is that teardown and rebuild of the cells of the cardiovascular system that help to increase stamina and their delivery of glycogen and oxygen to the cells and the creation of adenosine triphosphate (energy)
5. Fertility- Supplementing the diet with additional amino acids increased s***m concentration and the total number of s***m cells and their motility as well as increasing the amount of normal s***m cells in swine trials. On the mare’s side, increased amino acids as we spoke about not only increase the lining of the mucosal layer of the gut and the gut lining but also of the uterus, as well increase placenta and umbilical cord weight. Recall that we also mentioned the role of Amino acids in gut microbes? Studies also show that mares supplemented with probiotics and amino acids had more Vit E and good fats ( DPA- the brain building Omega 3) In their colostrum and milk, and birthed foals 8-10% larger. Depletion of amino acids can prevent mares from “taking” as well hold their foals longer than the normal gestation of 330 days. It is important to note that some mares do hold their foals for up to 380 days with no nutritional deficiencies.
So as we see, there are a lot of reasons to ensure you have enough amino acids in the horses diet. How can I do that? Well, I can certainly help you with that. Perhaps you just need a check-up of your horses’ program? Or maybe you need a full program or guided 3- or 6-month program. With my background in foundational and functional nutrition I can help with building a program and supplementation. Shoot me a message if you have questions about this post, or would like to book an appointment!
