Who We Are
Our Mission: Helping Your Horse Thrive, Not Just Survive
Equine Challenge Supplements was founded by Dr. Mackie K. Hartwig, a respected Equine Nutritional Speaker and Osteopathic Manual Therapy (OMT) Practitioner. After 19 years in practice, Dr. Hartwig retired in 2005 to dedicate his life to one passion — improving the health, performance, and longevity of horses through balanced, science-based nutrition.
From its inception, Equine Challenge Supplements quickly became a trusted name in equine nutrition, offering a complete line of forage-specific, doctor-formulated supplements designed to meet the individual needs of horses across the United States.
Dr. Hartwig made his home in Clovis, California, with his wife Kathy and their beloved Morgan horses. Together, they provided nutritional counseling, equine supplements, rehabilitation, barefoot hoof trimming, and horse training — always guided by their deep commitment to the well-being of every horse they helped.
Before beginning his career in equine health, Dr. Hartwig proudly served four years in the U.S. Military as an Airborne Army Ranger.
Kathy spent many years working at Conejo Valley Veterinary Clinic in Thousand Oaks, California before moving to the Central Valley.
Following Mackie’s passing in 2013, Kathy has carried forward their shared dream and mission — continuing to provide horse owners and trainers across the United States and Canada with the highest quality, bioavailable equine nutritional supplements available.
At Equine Challenge, our purpose remains unchanged: to help every horse not just live, but truly thrive.
The Morgan Horses That Inspired Us
With Mackie’s extensive background in science, he had years of experience in nutrition, focusing on the synergy of ingredients to achieve optimal results. When he and his wife Kathy started their Morgan farm in 2005, Mackie discovered a lack of available quality nutritional options, and that is when he went to work in creating Equine Challenge Supplements.
All Life Stages | All Performance Levels | All Forage Diets
At Equine Challenge™ Supplements we believe in pro-active nutrition for your horses. That means building your horse’s immune system and becoming metabolically sound. From supporting sick, injured, rescued horses to maintaining wellness to supporting your equine athlete. We will provide the highest quality horse supplements so that your horse not just lives, but actually thrives. We believe forage specificity is paramount before horses get sick, not after.
Equine Challenge™ is doctor formulated, pro-active nutrition which provides the basic building blocks for day to day life and allows the flexibility to meet the nutritional needs of horses, regardless of how little or how much is physically demanded.
Our forage specific vitamin & mineral supplements are synergistically balanced to compliment whatever forage you feed your horse, be it alfalfa, grass or oat hay. All of our vitamin & mineral supplements come in a milled, food grade stabilized flaxseed base using highly bio-available vitamins, minerals, trace minerals and a 7 strain digestive probiotic package. Our horse supplements can be mixed with your horse’s grain, hay pellets or simply fed by itself right out of the bucket. Equine Challenge Supplements will get your horse metabolically sound while supporting the immune system, digestive system, optimal hoof growth and healthy skin and coats.
During milling we use a high speed micronizing technique which slices the flaxseed instead of crushing, avoiding rupturing the fat cells at a lower temperature. This yields a very stable product that has a shelf life of 6 months or more with reasonable storage.
Equine Challenge™ offers a complete line of supplements for horses to support hoof, joint, tendon, ligament, digestion, topline improvement, muscle mass improvement, fly control, calming/blood builders, herbal support and more. Please visit our complete line of products by visiting our horse supplements shopping page.
Benefits Of Equine Challenge Supplements
High palatability
High Bioavailability(Chelated)
Easy to administer
Food grade Flax rich in Omega 3’s
7 Strain viable Probiotic package
ZinPro Amino Acid Complexes
No byproduct fillers
No Added Iron
No Soy
Guaranteed freshness
Cost effective
Easy to feed
Easy to use, easy to open bags, pails and drums
Shipping is always included in our pricing, anywhere in the 48 contiguous states + Alaska & Hawaii (call for shipping costs to Canada)
Equine Challenge Supplements™ contain no byproducts or fillers such as Distiller’s Dried Grain solutes, ground alfalfa, wheat millrun, wheat middlings, soymeal, beet pulp, rice bran, soybean or oat hulls. Equine Challenge Supplement™ products contain no corn, no wheat, no alfalfa, no soy beans, no molasses, no soy oil, no mineral oil, no vegetable oil and no corn oil. The oil in Equine Challenge Supplements™ is the oil naturally found in Flaxseed, primarily Omega 3’s and Omega 6’s.
Equine Challenge Supplements™ are synergistically proportioned to provide the nutritional building blocks and maintain the metabolic balance of your horse, regardless of whether you feed alfalfa, grass or oat hay.
