@JB oh yes, you meant switching completely to 3lbs of TC complete? I think that was done to save me money. That way I could keep feeding majority what the barn fed and was included in my board (TCS) and just add in 1lbs of something I was paying for separately.
She was very good about working with the constraints of what my barn was willing to do and what was easy.
Ah, gotcha, thanks!
Yeah definitely. My trainer was the one who suggested he needed something more but I donât think itâs 100% out of the ordinary for his personality and the temperature. Either way I think vitamin E would be good to add.
Based on your description of the grazing (slim to none), Iâd think adding Vit E is sensible regardless of his energy levels!
As a practical experiment, it might be interesting to swap him to a straight mag product for a bit prior to adding the Vit E to see if maybe the current mag plus other calming stuff might be responsible for some of his lack of oomph.
Could just be the heat though. Itâs killer to be outside in these high temps.
1lb of TC 30 provides 1000IU Vit E, but half of that is synthetic. I would definitely add another 1000IU of natural E. There are options - microIngredients gel caps are 1200IU/cap, but not all horses will eat that. If he would, easy peasy.
If not, UltraCruz Natural E comes in powder or pellet, and is the next cheapest that I know of, outside other gel cap forms.
I just ordered the Ultra Cruz pellet for convenience. Any recommendations on a magnesium supplement?
I was thinking of getting the Uckele one. Although in the meantime I think tractor supply has Quiessence (sp?) But my hesitation is it has chromium added.
I liked Quiessience so well that I started feeding chromium separately when I switched to a feed program that already had tons of mag. YMMV
Fwiw my TSC stocks the ukele mag and Quiessience
Cheapest one that is usually palatable enough is MVP Magnesium 5000.
Straight MagOx in paper bags, is seriously cheap, but itâs also very mineraly and not all horses willingly eat it, but it is the cheapest option.
And while a lot of people say MagOx is poorly absorbed, theyâre extrapolating that from what happens with people. But in horses, itâs anywhere from 50-70% or so absorbed, depending on which study youâre looking at, and whether itâs a foal (higher absorption) or adult. So, cheap, pretty high absorption combined with a high % of elemental Mg, itâs a good option to start with.
What did you like about it, specifically? Good to know, I saw they had Quiessence in stock but couldnât tell about the Uckele. Thank you!!
Good to know!! He get a few powders and eats them okay but trying to not add too many powders if I can help it.
I liked the Q over other mag supplements bc it seemed to alleviate a lot of my horseâs âcoiled spring of anxietyâ and âuncomfortable in his own skinâfeelings without making him ⊠not himself. Some of the mag supps I tried that had other âcalmingâ agents made him not himself, like withdrawn instead of his regular curious self.
When I swapped to his current RB thatâs slap full of mag and discontinued the Q, I noted a few small differences, like a a smidge of irritability, some distracted type behavior and definitely âhangryâ at meal times. Adding back chromium seems to help those. Iâve stopped and started the chromium a couple times and Iâm quite certain I see a difference. YMMV of course!
As an aside, I use the TC Gold RB. Itâs got a hefty dose of mag included.
I tried a few different magnesium sources for one of mine with meh results until I tried MagRestore. It was great for him, so Iâve stuck with it even though the pellet is expensive (the powder gets too airborne for me). My larger horse (who is very quiet) stays on the 2sc twice a day dose. Lighter new guy (also naturally quiet for a baby) is starting with 1 scoop. Not sure what it is about Colorado, but my anecdotal observation between my horses and friendsâ is a lot of horses here do well with extra mag.
the soil could be naturally low, just like a lot of CO soil has quite high Se. I have no idea (now that I think about it) if thereâs any relationship between the soil content of Se and Mg
If your horse needs selenium supplementation too, I really like the MVP E-Se-Mag pellets. Theyâre easy to feed and relatively inexpensive. Ticks a few boxes in one supplement with 2mg of selenium, 3,000mg magnesium and 1,000IU Vit E. Although if I read the label correctly, the E is synthetic.
Itâs made a noticeable difference for my TB gelding in both energy and overall muscle comfort.
My only hesitation with the E-Se-Mag is that if youâre supplementing Mg, youâre usually (usually!) doing it in terms of at least 5gm, often 10-15, and you just canât increase that product because of the 2mg of Se. Thatâs the only thing people need to be aware of. Certainly you can add Mg separately, just donât double this product without blood work showing the horse needs more Se.
I definitely recommend testing Se before supplementing for it at all. My area is extremely low Se and this specific horse has tested low.
Iâm not following the rest of your post, though? Are you saying you shouldnât feed any more than the recommended dose of the E-Se-Mag product because of the high dose of selenium (which makes sense)?
Yes, youâre following right 
2mg isnât HIGH, but itâs not something I would willy nilly double or even triple, without some good reason for it, especially if youâre already feeding fortified feeds/balancers/vm supps that have 1-3mg of Se already. I HAVE supplemented 6mg of Se to a horse whose blood level I was trying to get to the higher side of normal to see if it would help some muscle issues, but that didnât budge his number more than a small tick after 6 months. I didnât go higher though, we just sort of tossed that out. And going forward, we realized Se wasnât the issue anyway
Just a FYI, Se needs Vit E for proper absorption. So if adding more Vit E, make sure the Se doesnât go too high in the horse
With my low energy, body sore horse (the one with asthma), we sent blood off for E and Se as part of trying to figure out what his deal was, and E was actually high even though he didnât have grass where he was other than occasional hand grazing and I wasnât supplementing over his usual ration. I have known one horse out here with very low Se levels who needed supplementation, but thatâs not common.
Always been told that in my area we are high in selenium and to not really supplement for it. Of course there are always exceptions so I will keep that in mind if we do need a blood test.
For now I just got the Quiessence since it was convenient at my local tractor supply. Although we might switch to something to different in the future. I did use mag restore years ago. I didnât see a difference in my horse but he had a bunch of other things going on at the time.
So I will start him on this magnesium and then in a few days the vitamin E pellets be here.
Any idea on how long I should give this until I get a vet involved? Honestly heâs not so tired that Iâm overly worried or anything. I just want to help him feel his best
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