Project horse started under saddle, going nicely after 90 days on the surface but still has anxiety and panic moments (scoot and buck) about riders on her back. Shuts down then explodes.
Very good on the ground.
Would something like Valerian take the edge off this anxiety and let us put more miles on her more safely?
I wouldn’t want to use a pharmaceutical tranq in this situation but am beginning to think about better living through herbs. Obviously at this stage show legal is irrelevant.
try it.
If you can find horse size doses.
I took some for a while but realized it had some interesting gastro-intestinal sideeffects.
Also there is always Rescue Remedy.
(which I think I need to get for my husband. He dislikes my driving)
I tried it years ago on a mare who tended towards anxiety. She was a sweet mare, just anxious. She had a weird side effect from it where she didn’t seem “all there” and then she lunged at me and bit me. Hard and nasty. This was not her usual nature. Yes she was nervous but she had never been aggressive. So if you use it you might want to do a trail run before really working the horse “just in case” she doesn’t react with the intended “calmness”.
A couple different people I know have used CBD products. I cannot comment, don’t use them, and don’t know what brand they used. They swear they work.
My horse struggled to settle in when he moved between boarding barn 1 and boarding barn 2. I thought he was struggling as it was the first time he had moved without a member of the herd he was born into. COTH thought he had ulcers. Had vet out. Vet didn’t think he had ulcers. Eyes checked out no problems there. Vet recommended a calming supplement. I tried SmartCalm Ultra, Calm n Cool and Quiessience (not all at the same time but 30 + day trials in the order I wrote). I personally think the Quissience was the best result (but that maybe bc by that point he’d built up his mag levels). The first two supps have Valerian; I personally thought I noted “mood swings” on the Valerian supps.
I made some training changes as well but since you asked about supplements I’m not going to go into the training bits.
I have used Valerian root with great success for herd-bound issues on a handful of horses, but it doesn’t do anything for my mare’s anxiety/spookiness. But it’s inexpensive and worth a try.
You could also try Lavender and Chamomile
I’ve had the best luck with supplements that include B vitamins. B1 specifically. My OTTBs go on this when they come off the track for sure. Same with raspberry leaves - the effect is subtle, but it definitely takes the edge off.
I’ve had some luck with two different types of calming supplements: one based on magnesium and the other based on raspberry leaves.
One that I think has done well for my horse is MVP’s Levolor. I’ve also used Smartpack’s Ultra Calm.
I’ve always steered clear of valerian, although it’s in a lot of calming supplements for horses. I personally have never known a horse to respond to valerian, but that’s based on an n of 3. So YMMV.
Horse is on a good vitamin mineral supplement so I doubt she has deficiencies in magnesium or B vitamins.
Interesting about the aggressive or mood swings checked out behavior on Valerian. Was that correlated to dosage timing?
Be careful using calming supplements on a continuing basis. I know of two horses that went through pretty serious withdrawls when they went off their usual doses. One became violently aggressive and the other just batsh_t nuts.
What kind of calming supplements did this? Herbs? Magnesium? Pharma products?
OTC brands - I believe one was Calm and Cool. A horse sitter was attacked by the first horse and she barely made it out of his pen without getting hurt. She then noticed all the tubes of calm and cool in the garbage can; the horse owner didn’t tell her he was on a steady supply of this drug. The other horse was just purchased by my friend and within a few days he started acting out of sorts and was borderline dangerous to ride - bucking, not listening to cues, anxious, etc. Found out later that the horse had been on a daily calming med and once the withdrawl symptoms went away, he turned into the horse she bought, very nice, sweet, and willing.
You’d be surprised, I’ve seen vit/min supplements (good/reputable ones) with little or no magnesium. B vitamins can vary.
My horse is on a good vit/min but the magnesium is quite low, I add some Magnesium to his diet and it works out. He’s more clear in his mind/can process a bit better when his mag levels are correct.
There are also other things that could cause that behavior though.
Yes, I thought I noticed “dopy ness” after dosing and a bit of fractiousness before dosing on some occasions. Nothing major like attacking people.
I thought I heard or read some noise about certain mag forms being better than others
My horse was on a full serving of Triple Crown Senior which should have had “enough” magnesium but evidently it wasn’t 
Horses! Always something!
Hmmm. Calm and cool has valerian. Interesting. Yes, there’s different forms of magnesium, some are absorbed better. Ftom what I’ve read a magnesium deficiency can cause jumpiness but a magnesium overdose just causes diarrhea, isn’t a calming aid if mag levels are ok normally.
Yeah that’s the thing, on paper my horse should have been getting enough mag w out the supps.
The SmartCalmUltra has valerian (and mag if I recall) too but I’m not sure you can get that in Canada. The Calm n Cool is a pellet. No probs with palatability. If you can get it, might be worth a try.
It was quite awhile ago that I used it and I honestly can’t remember the timeline. I do remember the bite though 
!
I have used Magrestore on a nervous mini with very good results. He has a pretty good “scoot” in him and loves to get worked up over phantom butterflies and nonsense.
MagRestore has worked for me as well. I do remember a discussion here about magnesium deficiencies. Someone said horses that are very tense and nervous deplete magnesium quickly. I don’t have any studies to support that theory, though. I can only offer anecdotal evidence based on my GRP’s behavior change when he was given MagRestore. He was much less reactive and spooky.
My vet told me similar when we discussed calming supps. Not that there is anything wrong with the OP wanting to try valerian.
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