Supplement for joints?

I have a 10 yr old Paint mare who was used as a brood mare until I got her at age 7. Since then she has gotten into Eventing with me at the low levels. She's on omega 3 and multi vitamin supplements from smartpak but I'm wondering in general at what age do you think it might be a good idea for me to start her on some sort of joint supplement and what do you guys recommend?

I just want to make sure especially because she jumps that I'm taking good care of her joints!
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In general, any type of glucosamine fed orally is not getting absorbed by the horse's digestive system... you would be just as well off top dressing the feed with sugar.

I start joint maintenance as soon as the horse is in a "program", and how I go about doing it is making an appointment with my vet to come and examine the horse. Usually just a flexion test and palpation of the joints is enough, and a discussion about the goals with the horse. From there the vet would recommend a course of action. Currently my horse is on nothing monthly, but about 2-3 times a year, right before periods of stressful showing or training, he gets a "round" of adequan (7 shots, one every 4 days), and then once a year or less will get legend, as his joint palpation would suggest he requires.
Other vets like to do monthly or bi monthly shots, and some use glucosamine as opposed to adequan for some horses.

So good luck! And talk to your vet :)
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I see no problem in starting her on a joint supplement just as a precautionary measure.
My parents are a little older and I remember when they started taking glucosamine, they were always talking about how they hadn't realized just how sore their joints had been until they got on the supplement. Maybe that's true for horses too, I don't know.

If you want recommendations, this is my+my hoof trimmers favorite of the supplements Lacey has been on. Lacey has a tendency to drag one of her back toes on the ground while she walks due to some issues in her hock/stifle/fetlock/somewhere in there. Anyway, my trimmer is always commenting to me about it but this last trim (the first one since she's been on this specific supplement, 2 months after Lacey started this supp.) she commented to me that there was no evidence that Lacey had been dragging her toe since the last trim! Since this is the only supplement that has happened for, this is my favorite for now:
Corta-FLX Flex-Force Pellets with HA - Horse.com

Talk to your vet as well, maybe he/she will have some even better options for you.

Thanks to both of you!! I'll talk to my vet for sure Part of my challenge will be that Sandie has quite a few allergies including alfalfa, molasses and soy products!
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I switched to Animed Aniflex... seeing good results!

Personally, I think joint suppliments are a waste of money. My vets say that they only help some horses with severe arthritis because not much will get absorbed in the disgestive tract. Like anebel said, I would go with some kind of IM injections.

Never hurts to buy a cheap bucket of pure msm, but I am in love with all of grand meadows supplements. I used Grand Meadows Complete supplement and it worked wounders for my 20 plus year old horse that was still running 16s in cloverleaf and 21-22s in poles.

That's always been my understanding too about oral. It wasn't until I started seeing some serious results with a friend of mine's horses on Aniflex that my mind was changed. I'm now seeing serious results with it on my own. Not to say it all doesn't get absorbed, but evidently enough is to where I see a big difference

The reason most people never see the results is because they are not feeding what is recommended. Most supplements you have to feed twice the daily dose for x amount of days and some you even have to feed on an empty stomach for the first time. So unless uoi feed it how the directions tell you then you will not see results.

Too many studdies show that orals really are a c.r.a.p shoot. They may, and they may not work - too much and too long of a process for them to go through to do their "job".

Oral Supplements fall under the Equine Nutrition Category, where rules, testings and regulations are quite lax. Companies can say that their product has "this ingredient" in it, to find out that there really isn't anything of the sort in it. And they can say that they have "this much" of "this ingredient" in it, when in reality the product might have just a very small # of that dosage they claim.

Also, studies show that the process the oral has to go through, is quite long and has to go through many steps before it even reaches the area it is supposed to target - and by the time it gets there, the dose originally given, has broken down so much.

My Vets too, say that orals are a waste of money. They are not proven to do the jobs that companies state that they do.

Injections - like Adequan, fall under the Equine Medical Category. Where rules, testings, regulations are very strict and closely followed. So when the company states their product is what it is - it is. And when they state that "this ingredient" is in it, it is in it - etc, etc.

My Vets - from my Farm Vet, Equine Vet to my Lameness Specialist - all say that Adequan is the best of the best. It does what they company says it does. Studies show that when the dosage is given, it goes directly to the area's needed.

Orals can take up to 6 months before it gets into the horses system, where Intramuscular Injections like Adequan, take 48 hours.

In my opinion, Intramuscular Injections, like Adequan are the sure thing.

Just to add - lets not confuse IM's like Adequan, with actual joint injections. They are not the same thing. IM's go into the muscle, the neck is where I give my horse is dosage - where Joint Injections, you haul your horse to the vet and they give them directly into the joint itself. Two completely separate things.