Anyone have thoughts on the most effective magnesium supplement and dosage for a very spooky/reactive OTTB mare? Anything that has worked really well or not well at all? Mare is 11 years old. Thanks.
Seroquine is my go-to for this. Have tried others, keep coming back to Seroquine.
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I’ve had good success with Smartcalm Ultra.
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PerformanceEquineNutrition Magrestore. BUy it on line. Very absorbable. They have a small “try me” size, and it comes with a trial size of their “Focus”… Many folks on the old UDBB recommended it, and I have used it with success. https://performanceequinenutrition.com/
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Quiessence helped my cold-backed mare. Helped with muscle soreness in her back and loins and help calm the nervousness. She’ll be on it for life!
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Performance equine. The exact same formulation on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MZY0ILU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
If she is deficient, it will help some. If not, it won’t. It probably won’t be a miracle cure, but it has helped my one mare.
GramV, how much of the Amazon product is a serving/dose?
I’ve tryed mag restore and other magnesium supplements. All did absolutely nothing for a spooky horse whos overractive.
Hard work and desensitizing did more for getting the spooky and overractive out of him.
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I’ve had success with the Smartcalm Ultra as well. It has basically just allowed her to focus more. She was never spooky but was easily distracted.
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I had very good luck with Mag Restore but this was for a normally calm, unspooky horse, who had a rough winter physically (dropping weight, ulcers, Lyme), then was moved to a new barn. I think the stress of the move put him into deficient territory because he wasn’t just spooky. His muscles were very twitchy and he became very sensitive to touch- grooming was clearly uncomfortable. It was like he wasn’t comfortable in his own skin anymore. Magnesium brought him back to his normal, calm self.
Thanks everyone. This is the toughest horse I’ve ever worked with. I was kind of hoping she would be Lyme positive, but she came back totally negative. I’m considering trying to cut her grain way back now that she’s on pasture full time, but don’t want her to drop weight. Any thoughts on beet pulp, ration balancer, and a mag supplement? She’s not the hardest keeper, but I don’t want her to lose any weight. Thanks again.
I used magnesium citrate. I bought it by the pound from herbal com.com I worked up to one tablespoon.
Sometimes nervousness triggers pain in the muscles when a horse has EPSM or exertional rabtomyalisis (Bad spelling!). Work up to one tablespoon of acetyl L Carnitine with 1/4 to 1/2 cup of oil. Do not feed any corn - look for a low carb feed.
If you still have a very overreactive horse,you might try Low Dose Naltrexone. It triggers the release of endorphins which helps with anxiety. Do a search to find out more about it. You can ask your vet to prescribe it and get it at one of the recommended compounding pharmacies - or you can buy the pills and mix it yourself. You want to slowly work up starting at only 5mg to about 10 mg. The pills come in 50 mg. Don’t ever use that much because it has a completely different effect. There is a book about it that you can buy on amazon.
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Beet pulp works but does require soaking, RB never have fed one so no idea. Magnesium works for some horse’s but not all.
Magnesium did nothing fed it for over 2 months no difference. Horse still was spooky overactive & broncy. Grain feeding him always made this worse ,so he gets no grain. He’s a bit hot by nature so doesn’t need any fuel to fire that tendency.
Alfalfa hay keeps decent weight on him…
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Since it’s the exact same size package and formulation, I use the scoop from MagPro, about a 1/2 tablespoon size.
I just did the same thing. I doubled the dose when starting to load, and then one scoop a day.
I did go off it to see if it really was working. It was helping. She’s back on it and staying there.
This is the best plan for ALL horses. My horses I would put up against anyone for despooking. They do everything as well as being competition horses. They do Man From Snowy River Trails, pack beginner riders around, deal with cows all of the time, we run into wild pig herds, have turkeys fly over us, the local chickens like to hang out in the trees OVER where I tie them and make a ruckus, goats live next door and across the street, and I WISH I could get them to react to dogs, because the run between their legs and into them and they do nothing. This mare even jumped over the dog who wouldn’t get out of her way when she (horse) was running loose on the trail.
Magnesium will not help bad training. It helps horses who are deficient. Besides my mare being weirdly reactive that will not train out, she would also almost collapse when you pushed on one side of her hip muscle. That muscle tenseness is gone now, and the spookiness is better. Not gone, but better. Dealable.
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Hardly bad training horse does all from working cows to to riding trails. Crossing rivers going through knee deep mud. Hes as supple as a rubber band. We ride where 4 wheelers ,dirt bikes and pretty much any motorized vehicle goes by. Logging trucks are a daily occurrence. None of that spooks him.
So don’t tell me its bad training ,you haven’t a clue how my horse is trained or not trained. He could out ride your mare and out run her.
Have deer that jump out in front of us all the time he could careless. Dogs don’t scare him my dogs run with me on the trail. Darting in and out of woods horse is unfazed. His spooky broncy deal is about him being him. Called wet saddle blankets 3 plus hour rides.
Trying magnesium was about seeing if it would help. And it does nothing like I said it just him we go through this every single spring… He loses the bronc spooky deal after being worked for a time. Ride him daily no problem. Spooks are at absolutely nothing just a good reason to bronc . He requires riding not sitting doing nothing for weeks on end.
well obviously my horse must not be deficient in magnesium. So guess I need not waste my money on it.
I think she meant “bad training” in a general sense, not that your horse gets occasionally spooky from bad training. I didn’t see that it was personal.
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What Mara said. Read for understanding.
Your post implied that people were using magnesium as a substitute for training. Training is essential for all horses. Magnesium helps for SOME horses who are deficient. It will not help every horse.
Obviously, your horse is more a seasonal, and needs to stay in work.
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i have great luck with Nupafeed. four pumps loading dose and then to two. Am and pm. you have to put it on the feed just before they eat according to directions so that it doesn’t soak into the feed.
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