WHY AMINOS?
Tricia Aldridge & Adios Pantalones, Reserve World Champions 2025Why Red Hot Equine Aminos
I train my horses the same way I train myself—workload and intensity are built around competition days. Hard workouts are planned, recovery matters, and timing is everything. I follow a three-day rule: if a hard, demanding workout is needed, it happens at least three days before a competitive run to allow for proper recovery and performance.
When I started researching amino acid supplementation for horses, I was largely disappointed. On the surface, many products looked good—but once I began learning how to read labels and understand ingredient terminology, it became clear that unless you were buying an extremely expensive supplement, much of what was advertised wasn’t actually doing much at all.
Many products list amino acids in the guaranteed analysis, but not as actual ingredients. For example, you might see “lysine” on a feed tag—but if it’s not listed as an ingredient, it’s often just the naturally occurring lysine already present in alfalfa or other plant sources. Here’s the problem: plants have thick cell walls, and protein often isn’t fully broken down until it reaches the hindgut. The enzymes responsible for breaking protein into usable amino acids are located in the foregut. By the time the horse can access those amino acids, it may already be too late.
That’s where free-form amino acids matter. Free-form aminos are much easier for the horse to digest and absorb where it actually counts. I recently read an article on targeted equine feeding—“doing a better job of meeting requirements, instead of throwing the kitchen sink at them” (Dr. Spooner)—and that philosophy stuck with me.
So where do we start? The science in horses is still behind the times—but there is a tremendous amount of well-documented research in humans. I’m naturally skeptical. If something isn’t backed by science, I don’t believe it. I don’t want to buy a supplement where there is no guaranteed analysis.
I challenge you to do your own research on amino acids and their benefits. I’m not reinventing the wheel. My goal with Red Hot Equine Aminos was simple: remove unnecessary ingredients, eliminate fillers that don’t benefit the horse, and create formulas with ingredient lists I could actually understand.
I want to know exactly what my horses are consuming.
These products were built for my own horses and my own program—daily support, performance demands, recovery, hydration, and focus—because that’s what I expect from them, and what they deserve from me. My hope is that they help your program too. After all, I’m only as tough as my competition.
-Tricia
