Most riders buy a vitamin and mineral supplement because someone at the barn recommended it, or because the label looked thorough, or because it was what their last barn fed. Almost nobody does it because they read a hay analysis first. That is exactly backwards — and it is the single biggest reason horses end up either under-supported or stacked on minerals they do not need. Mad Barn’s two flagship balancers, Omneity Premix and AminoTrace+, exist to solve different problems. Getting that distinction right before you order saves you money and, more importantly, keeps your horse’s program honest.
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Why the hay analysis comes first — every time
A vitamin and mineral supplement is only as logical as the forage underneath it. Hay is the foundation of most horses’ diets, and it varies enormously by region, cutting, and season. Grass hay from the mid-Atlantic is nutritionally a different animal than orchard hay from the Pacific Northwest or drought-stressed coastal bermuda. High iron is almost universal in well-irrigated ground hay. Selenium is notoriously low in large swaths of the US interior. Copper and zinc are consistently low in plain grass hay, almost regardless of geography. Magnesium availability swings wildly.
None of that is visible from the bale. A forage analysis — sent to a qualified lab, not a quick at-home test — is the only way to know what gaps actually exist in your horse’s diet. Your county extension office can usually point you to a certified forage testing laboratory. The cost is typically under $40 for a basic profile. That is a fraction of a month’s supplement bill, and it makes every feeding decision that follows more defensible.
Once you have those numbers, you can compare them against your horse’s estimated requirements (your vet or an equine nutritionist can walk you through that math) and look for patterns: low copper and zinc, excess iron, inadequate vitamin E on a hay-only diet. Those patterns tell you which product category to reach for. Mad Barn publishes a genuinely thorough nutrition library — linking through Mad Barn’s site is a good place to start reading before you call your vet.
Mad Barn Omneity Premix — the broad-spectrum baseline
Starting from $54.99 | Browse at Mad Barn
Omneity Premix is the product Mad Barn positions as the default choice for an average horse on reasonable forage. It is a loose powder — no fillers, no added sugar — with organic (chelated) trace minerals, essential amino acids, B-vitamins, digestive enzymes, yeast, and biotin. The chelated mineral forms are meaningfully different from the cheaper sulfate forms used in most commodity feeds: chelation improves absorption in the digestive tract, particularly relevant when iron levels in forage or water are high (iron and zinc compete for the same absorption pathways).
Who is a good candidate:
- A horse on moderate-quality grass or mixed hay with no confirmed metabolic issues
- A horse whose hay analysis shows the predictable gaps — low copper, zinc, and vitamin E — without red-flag numbers on nonstructural carbohydrates (NSC) or insulin
- A horse the owner wants covered by one product without a lot of complexity
- Any horse whose owner prefers a powder carrier over pellets (the Omneity Pellets version carries the same formula on a low-NSC oat-hull base for horses that will not accept powder)
Who it is not designed for:
A horse with confirmed insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, PPID (Cushing’s disease), a history of laminitis, or forage testing high in NSC or iron. Those horses typically need targeted, elevated-strength mineral support with tighter carbohydrate management — which is the lane AminoTrace+ was built for. Do not stack Omneity with AminoTrace+ or any other mineral balancer. They are formulated as standalone programs, and doubling up on trace minerals is not more is better territory.
Honest tradeoff: Powder is economical and mixes well into a wet mash, but if your horse picks around it or gets minimal grain, the pellet version is worth the slight price difference.
AminoTrace+ — the metabolic and high-demand horse’s balancer
Starting from $64.99 | Browse at Mad Barn
AminoTrace+ is a pelleted vitamin and mineral balancer with meaningfully elevated concentrations of organic zinc, copper, manganese, selenium, and chromium compared to a standard balancer. It also carries higher magnesium, the amino acids lysine, methionine, and threonine, natural-source vitamin E, and a yeast and prebiotic blend. The chromium inclusion is the clearest signal of what this product is designed for: chromium is commonly discussed in the context of insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism in horses, though as always, any horse with diagnosed metabolic conditions should be managed under veterinary guidance.
Who is a good candidate:
- Easy keepers and horses on restricted diets, where the forage is intentionally low-calorie and the supplement needs to cover gaps without adding calories
- Horses whose hay analysis or water test shows elevated iron (high iron depresses zinc and copper absorption, so those minerals need to come in at higher levels to compete effectively)
- Horses with poor hoof quality that has not responded to a basic balancer — though hoof concerns have many causes and warrant a conversation with your vet and farrier before attributing them to mineral status alone
- Horses in heavy work whose owners want elevated trace mineral and amino acid support in a single product
- Horses with a history of laminitis, confirmed EMS, or insulin resistance — with the clear understanding that laminitis is a veterinary emergency and any supplement is an adjunct to a vet-directed management plan, never a substitute for it
Honest tradeoff: AminoTrace+ costs more than Omneity Premix, and it is calibrated for a specific profile. If your horse does not fall into a metabolic or high-iron category, the elevated mineral concentrations are not necessarily advantageous — more is not always better when it comes to trace minerals, and testing is the only way to know where your horse’s forage already lands.
Ready to try AminoTrace+? Use my link for reader benefits at Mad Barn → https://madbarn.com?ref=18219
Head-to-head comparison
| Omneity Premix | AminoTrace+ | |
|---|---|---|
| Form | Loose powder | Pellets |
| Starting price | From $54.99 | From $64.99 |
| Trace mineral level | Standard chelated | Elevated chelated |
| Chromium included | No | Yes |
| Natural vitamin E | Included | Higher concentration |
| Amino acids | Essential AAs | Lysine, methionine, threonine at higher levels |
| Best fit | Average horse on decent hay | Metabolic, easy keeper, high-iron forage, high-demand |
| NSC concern | Low | Very low — designed for restricted horses |
| Stack with other balancer? | No | No |
How to use your hay analysis to make the call
Pull your hay analysis report and look at a few key numbers before you decide:
Iron: If your hay is running above roughly 200–250 ppm, or if your water has notable iron, look at a product like AminoTrace+ that compensates with higher zinc and copper. Your vet or equine nutritionist can confirm target ratios.
NSC (ethanol-soluble carbohydrates + starch): If your horse is on restricted pasture or tested hay specifically for a metabolic horse, you want a supplement formulated for that population. AminoTrace+ fits; standard balancers are generally fine for normal horses, but check the label.
Selenium: If your forage is genuinely selenium-deficient, both products include selenium, but selenium has a genuinely narrow margin between adequate and excessive — this is one mineral where testing first and working with a vet or nutritionist is not optional advice, it is the correct protocol.
Vitamin E: Horses without fresh pasture access are almost universally low in vitamin E. Both products include it, but horses with confirmed deficiencies or specific neurological concerns (which should be evaluated by a vet) often benefit from a dedicated natural vitamin E supplement layered alongside a balancer. Mad Barn’s Natural Vitamin E is the product I’d point you toward for that conversation.
If you are unsure how to read the numbers, Mad Barn’s free nutrition analysis tool — accessible through their site — can walk you through your forage report and suggest a starting point. Running that before you order is worth ten minutes of your time.
The bottom line
Omneity Premix is the right starting point for most horses on average hay with no confirmed metabolic complication. It is comprehensive, economical in the powder form, and built on chelated minerals that genuinely differ from commodity feed minerals in bioavailability.
AminoTrace+ is the right call if your horse’s forage is high in iron, if you are managing an easy keeper or a horse with a history of metabolic issues, or if your vet or nutritionist has identified a need for elevated trace mineral support. It is not a step up from Omneity — it is a different product for a different horse profile. Do not run both at once.
Neither product should be chosen without a forage analysis if you want the program to be honest. The analysis costs less than one bag of supplement. Do it first, then pick the product that fits what you actually find. That is the approach Mad Barn’s own research library is built around, and it is the approach that separates a real nutrition program from a guess.
For more on building a thoughtful program for your horse — including conversations with equine nutritionists — the Elevated Equestrian Podcast is where I go deep on topics like this with people who actually know the science.
Ready to shop Omneity Premix or AminoTrace+? Use my link for reader benefits at Mad Barn → https://madbarn.com?ref=18219
