Have tried several calming supplements over the years and still not found anything that really worked. My suspicion that the worrying was nutritional started several years ago when we had a tying up incident. Since then we’ve tried: Smart Calm, Smart Calm Ultra, Quiessence, E-Se-Mg. None have made a noticeable difference. I still have the horse on E-Se-Mg just for muscle health. Not a big grain eater so not overloaded on calories there.
My trainer suggested trying Perfect Prep Training Day and looking in to Cavalor Pianissimo, Cavalor Calm, and the others that they have. Before I went chasing more rabbits down holes though I thought I would pose the question to my expert friends.
Which supplements work on the nutritional imbalances vs which ones work on calming receptors. I know that the nutritional imbalance can cause the symptoms so treat the imbalance and the result is a calmer horse. But it seems some supplements are herbal calming agents such as Smart Tranquility (active ingredients: valerian, etc.) while others are full of magnesium. Can someone cause hypermagnesemia by over feeding magnesium or will you just make expensive urine?
So what is it that makes these calming supplements different? Cavalor makes 2-3 calming supplements. How do you know the differences and what are the look-a-like brands that we’re all more familiar with. Curious what the rationales are behind all the fancy labels.
And can we possibly keep this about the topic and not about who was suspended from USEF for what, morality, intent of rules, etc.