My saddle fitter was out recently and thought my horse looked a little tight. She is also a certified human and horse massage therapist. She recommended magnesium. I have use MagRestore in the past but it is expensive and I haven’t used it in a few years. Is MagRestore really the best? Or would something else work equally as well and not break the bank?
I had a small unopened bag of MagRestore that I started him on but need to buy more. What have you used and been happy with?
I’ve used the Magnesium 5000 from Smartpak for years. I switched to Mag Restore and my horse would not touch it. I syringe some supplements down his mouth but didn’t want to w this one as he will eat Mag 5000 so went back to Smartpak. I did use the rest of the MagRestore on another horse in the barn. He will eat anything…it did not make a difference in him in any way. Hope this helps.
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I’ve been perfectly happy with the Su-Per stuff from Gateway, and it’s cheap.
https://www.su-perstore.com/m7/sfemagpro--su-per-mag-pro-powder.html
Free shipping if you hit a certain $$ amount. I also like their chaste tree berry liquid 
I just did a cost comparison for this and Uckele was the cheapest per gram of elemental magnesium of the ones I looked at. Horsetech 60% was the next.
I bought the Uckele on Amazon and it’s chalky as expected but my picky horse is eating it so far. I decided to try it for the same reasons as you but it’s too soon to tell if it’s working.
If your horse doesn’t like powders, the cheapest pelleted form I found was Quiessence.
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I’ve tried a few (Uckele, HorseTech, and some others that had probably lower than therapeutic quantities), and I saw the best results from MagRestore. I put the new guy on it too since I have a lot on hand, and I think he’s doing well. Whether he’d do just as well on another kind, I don’t know. I do feed the pelleted version because you need to wear a mask to scoop the powdered MagRestore unless you want to inhale it.
I also tend to feed a higher dose…maybe has something to do with the diet here or that I feed alfalfa and beet pulp (higher calcium). I feed the loading dose (which the directions say are also ok for horses in heavier work). I haven’t had issues with digestive tolerance with it but I have trying to feed more of other forms.
Do you know off hand how much cheaper the Uckele stuff is? I feed the Horsetech 60% right now, but horse is not a picky eater so open to change if it saves enough money!
Go to a feed mill if you have one in your area and buy a 50 lb bag of plain magnesium oxide…will last you 3-4 years and cost around $20. It’s a mineral, if kept dry, does not go bad.
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I’d like to point out Mag5000 is a Med Vet Pharmaceuticals product, not a Smartpak product, and is available from many online retailers. I get mine from Valley vet, and it seems to work well. I add a half scoop of Mag5000 on top of the E-Se-Mag dose from MVP.
Uckele is about half the cost, assuming you have Amazon Prime. If you order from Uckele there’s shipping to factor in.
Here is cost per gram of elemental magnesium for the ones I looked at:
Uckele Mag Oxide 58% (powder): 1 cent/gram (10 lb bag on Amazon)
Horsetech Mag Oxide 60% (powder): 2 cents/gram (10 lb bag on Horsetech)
Quiessence (pellets): 9 cents/gram (14 lb bucket on SmartPak with USEF discount)
Magnesium 5000 (pellets): 9 cents/gram (10 lb bag from SmartPak with USEF discount)
SU-PER Mag Pro (powder): 24 cents/gram (4 lb bucket, plus shipping)
MagRestore (powder): 28 cents/gram (135 servings on PEN, plus shipping)
MagRestore (pellets): 35 cents/gram (135 servings on PEN, plus shipping)
There could be cheaper sellers for each out there. I prefer to buy from known sellers like Amazon, SmartPak, Riding Warehouse, Valley Vet, etc so those are the prices I used.
I found that you really have to look at cost/gram because the different brands use different forms of mag and recommend a really wide range of doses. Quissence supplies 4 grams of elemental magnesium in one oz and recommends 1/2 oz per 250 lb of body weight as the maintenance dose, so 8 g/day for a 1,000 lb horse. SU-PER Mag only supplies 2.1 grams per ounce so you would have to feed a high volume of powder to get the same amount of elemental mag. Uckele is a similar amount per scoop/serving (2.3 grams) but the scoop is much smaller than an ounce (only 4 grams) so you can feed a much smaller volume, which is important for powders I think.
Hope that helps!
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Thank you, Endlessclimb, for clarifying that. I just use Smartpak as the source due to the simplicity for me😉.
Thank you! I did calculations when picking the Horsetech stuff—horse was on the Mag5000 and it was costing me the same every month as the Horsetech did for 7 months. But, I never thought of looking on Amazon!
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You’re welcome! Kind of funny that I just happened to do the comparison shopping a few days ago.
Amazon is hit or miss for these things, like right now Mag5000 is way, way more expensive on Amazon than through SmartPak but you can get Quiessence for cheaper if you buy the large bag. Go figure.
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There is another catch – the bioavailability per gram. Mag oxide, while cheaper, is not as bioavailable to horses as mag malate (Mag Restore) or mag chloride (Ancient Minerals). Caveat, I am not a nutritionist.
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Snowdenfarm, your point is excellent. For me, because I couldn’t get the MagRestore down my pony’s throat, I went with a lesser product as he would eat it. I’m going to say it’s not bioavailable at all if they won’t eat it, and I hope everyone else who reads this thinks it’s as funny as I do:lol::winkgrin:
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I started with MVP’s Mag 5000, got great results, switched to Gateway Super Stores product (btw, the magnesium is bound to soy protein–I called and asked), and now just maintain with the cheap mag ox from the feed store which is working fine, so once you get results with the pricier products, you may want to consider dropping down to the inexpensive feed store stuff for the $ savings. Mag ox, though not absorbed as well is also very safe–any excess is eliminated via poop/pee.
I looked into this and for whatever it’s worth here’s some info I found:
https://feedxl.com/36-which-form-of-magnesium-is-best/ (bioavailability comparisons based on testing in rats)
[B]
[/B]Dr. Kellon: You are referring to bioavailability estimates for humans, commonly based on solubility in water. These can list an availability of magnesium oxide as low as 40%. However, the horse is a constant stomach acid secretor. Magnesium oxide has been determined to have a bioavailability of over 60% in the horse - higher that the magnesium in food. All the metabolic horses under my nutritional management are on inorganic magnesium (oxide or carbonate). If you still wish to use an organic magnesium salt Uckele does offer magnesium proteinate, Bioplex Magnesium.
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Thank you that is very informative. A friend and fellow COTH member has given me some Magnesium Oxide. We did a loading dose of the MagRestore since I had that on hand and will switch to the MagOxide once the MagRestore runs out.
That makes sense chemically. And once the Mg salt dissolves, the anion does not matter, except with regard to percent composition.
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This post has been really helpful. I have not looked into this for a few years and was going on the old info. I am going to just buy the bulk oxide from now on!!
I feed Quiessence because I have picky eaters and they all eat it.
If bioavailability is largest concern, NupaFeed is the way to go.
