A quantitative ICP-MS panel of 42 elements from a single 1.5-inch mane sample. One read gives you 90 days of metabolic and exposure history on every horse — the layer of evidence performance owners, broodmare managers, and multi-horse operations have been working without.
Equine hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) is a quantitative laboratory panel that measures elemental content stored in mane hair using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry — the same instrument class used for human clinical and environmental work.
Mane hair is the right tissue for this question because it is biologically slow. As the hair shaft forms at the follicle, it incorporates elements from circulation and locks them in place. The shaft does not re-equilibrate the way blood does. A 1.5-inch mane sample is, in effect, a 60-to-90-day audit trail of what the horse absorbed, retained, and was exposed to.
That gives the panel three structural advantages over a single blood draw:
The Mane Metrics panel is built on that foundation: ICP-MS quantification, a 42-element scope, and a report that puts the numbers into operating language a trainer or barn manager can actually act on.
This is not a test for the casually curious. It is a diagnostic tool for situations where a guess is more expensive than the panel.
If you own, train, or manage horses in any of the following situations, the panel is doing real work for you the moment the report lands:
When a tenth of a second is the difference, sub-clinical copper, zinc, selenium, or magnesium gaps are the variable nobody is measuring. The panel measures it.
Copper and zinc status in the mare drives foal viability, joint development, and coat condition. Test before breeding. Re-test 60 days after foaling.
Rebuilding requires a baseline. The panel quantifies the deficits left by a long course of treatment so the recovery program targets the real gaps.
One feed program. Different bodies. Run a cohort of horses and find out whether the program is actually serving every animal or quietly underserving half of them.
Old paint, treated fencing, untested well water, pasture downwind of agriculture or industry. Heavy metals leave fingerprints in mane hair months before they show in blood.
Body condition, coat quality, and recovery time start drifting. A panel pinpoints whether the cause is mineral, exposure, or absorption — instead of leaving you guessing.
A consumer-grade hair test sold direct to owners typically returns a printout, a generic chart, and a "thanks for your business." That is not what a working barn needs. A professional equine hair test is built around three operational requirements: methodology that is defensible (ICP-MS, not colorimetric), a panel scope that is complete (essentials + ratios + the heavy metal tier — not just the easy ten), and an interpretive layer that tells you what to do on Monday morning.
The Mane Metrics panel is built to that standard because it was built by a working trainer and a healthcare-diagnostics veteran who needed it for their own barn first.
$49.99 per kit. Cohort pricing available for barns running four or more at a time. Call (972) 284-1878.
Forty-two elements is a number. Here is what they actually represent — and why all three tiers matter on the same report.
| Tier | Elements measured | Operational meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Essential Minerals | Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium, Phosphorus, Sulfur, Copper, Zinc, Iron, Manganese, Selenium, Cobalt, Chromium, Boron, Molybdenum | The structural and metabolic inputs for muscle, bone, hoof horn, coat, hormones, and recovery capacity. |
| Critical Mineral Ratios | Calcium/Phosphorus, Sodium/Potassium, Calcium/Potassium, Zinc/Copper, Sodium/Magnesium, Calcium/Magnesium, Iron/Copper | Single-element numbers can mislead. Ratios show how nutrients actually compete at the absorption and utilization stages. |
| Toxic Heavy Metals | Lead, Mercury, Arsenic, Cadmium, Aluminum, Antimony, Beryllium, Uranium | The hidden burdens — typically below the threshold of routine bloodwork but readable in the stored hair tissue. |
Four steps from kit order to actionable answers. Roughly ten days. No veterinarian visit, no scheduling, no needles.
Order the $49.99 kit. Fill out the horse-profile intake card: age, breed, discipline, primary concern, current feed and supplements.
2 business days to arriveSnip ~1.5 inches of mane near the crest with clean stainless scissors. Place in the sealed bag with the intake card. Drop in any mailbox.
~5 minutes chairsidePartner laboratory runs inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry across the 42-element panel: essentials, ratios, and the heavy metal tier.
5–7 working days at labColor-coded interpretive report by email. Follow-up phone consultation to translate findings into a specific feed, supplementation, and environmental action plan.
Email + voice debriefA panel of numbers is not a plan. Most labs hand over a chart and leave the operating decisions to the owner — which is a reasonable workflow for a chemist and a poor workflow for a barn. The Mane Metrics process closes that gap with a follow-up call so the actual question on the table — "okay, but what should I feed and what should I change?" — gets a direct answer.
Approximately 9 to 12 calendar days from order to written report. Faster than most veterinary follow-up appointments can be scheduled.
| When | What's happening | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Day 0 | Order placed on manemetrics.io | Confirm horse profile at checkout: name, age, breed, discipline, primary concern. |
| Day 1–2 | Kit ships to your address | Watch the mailbox. Kit arrives in approximately 2 business days. |
| Day 2–3 | Sample collected at the barn | Snip ~1.5 inches of mane near the crest. Seal in the bag. Drop in any mailbox. |
| Day 4–5 | Sample arrives at the lab | Nothing. Your work is done. |
| Day 9–12 | ICP-MS run complete (5–7 working days after lab receipt) | Watch the inbox. The interpretive report lands first. |
| Shortly after | Phone debrief with the Mane Metrics team | Bring questions: feed program, supplements, environment, retest schedule. |
Operational summary: kit in two days, sample in five minutes, lab in a week, report and debrief inside two weeks. For a multi-horse barn, that means an entire string can be panelled and reviewed in a single month.
Order the kit. We handle the lab, the report, and the debrief. Questions? Call (972) 284-1878.
Equine hair tissue mineral analysis is supported by a published, growing literature — strongest for heavy-metal exposure detection and longitudinal mineral tracking. The studies below are the current reference set.
The questions owners, trainers, and barn managers ask before ordering their first kit — and before standardizing the panel across a string.
An equine hair test is a quantitative laboratory panel that uses inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to measure 42 elements in a horse's mane hair. The panel reports essential minerals, critical mineral ratios, and toxic heavy metals. Because mane hair grows slowly and incorporates elements as it forms, a single sample functions as a 90-day metabolic record — a window that bloodwork, which is a real-time snapshot, cannot provide.
The professional equine hair test is built for owners, trainers, and barn managers who already know they need data: performance horses on a training schedule, broodmares pre-breeding or post-foaling, horses recovering from illness, geriatric horses with shifting body condition, and multi-horse operations standardizing nutrition across an entire string. It is the diagnostic tool for people whose decisions are bigger than "should I add a scoop of something."
The Mane Metrics panel uses inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), the same gold-standard quantitative methodology used in human clinical and environmental laboratories. ICP-MS provides parts-per-billion sensitivity, which is what allows the panel to detect low-level heavy metal exposure — lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic — that routine equine bloodwork is not designed to flag.
Bloodwork measures what is circulating at the moment the sample is drawn — useful for acute clinical questions and real-time chemistry. Hair tissue mineral analysis measures what has been deposited into a slow-growing tissue over the prior 60 to 90 days, making it the right tool for chronic exposure, long-term mineral patterns, and environmental burden. The two are complementary, not interchangeable.
The highest-yield use cases are:
The Mane Metrics Equine Hair & Mineral Analysis Test Kit is $49.99. That price includes the collection kit, the pre-labeled return mailer, ICP-MS analysis of all 42 elements, the color-coded interpretive report, and a follow-up phone consultation with the Mane Metrics team to translate findings into action.
Total elapsed time from order to written report is approximately 9 to 12 calendar days. The kit ships in roughly 2 business days. Sample collection at the barn takes under 5 minutes. Mailed sample arrives at the lab in 2 to 3 days. The lab runs the ICP-MS panel in 5 to 7 working days. The phone debrief is scheduled shortly after the report is delivered.
No. Hair tissue mineral analysis is a wellness, nutrition, and exposure assessment tool. It is designed to inform feeding, supplementation, and environmental decisions. The report uses language such as "suggests," "indicates," or "may correlate with." Diagnosis and treatment of disease remain the responsibility of your attending veterinarian, who should always be the lead on clinical decisions.
For performance horses on a corrective program, retest every 4 to 6 months to confirm the protocol is closing the gap. For broodmares, retest before breeding and again 60 days post-foaling. For maintenance and seasonal baseline tracking, annual testing is the standard. Multi-horse operations often run a "cohort retest" once a year to see how well the shared feed program is serving every animal in the string.
Yes. Multi-horse testing is one of the most efficient uses of the panel. Run two to four horses on the same forage and feed program and you can see whether the diet is actually serving every animal — or whether you are leaning on a few hardy individuals while quietly underserving others. For barns running more than four horses at a time, contact Mane Metrics directly to discuss cohort pricing.
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