Angnus castus & Magnesium

[EJ87]

Hi all as you know from my previous posts im sending my very nappy mare on a weeks training to try and solve her problem but Iv been getting lots of response that the napping is normally associated with anxiety and stress so was thinking of putting her on a cocktail of angnus castus and magnesium in her food daily to see if this helps mellow her out a bit and in hindsight help decrease her napping. Does anyone think this would help and if anyone has any ideas of the best way to feed the two together and how much of each would be great. P.S she 14.2 of medium build in light work.

 

[MerrySherryRider]

I tried Angus Castus on a couple of horses, along with magnesium which they always get. The mare did not alter her behaviour at all while having it, although it was only a month. I made an infusion from the herb but have seen this product which might be of interest to you -http://www.equilife.co.uk/Vitex.htm

 

[Shanny_mare]

I had my mare on Agnus Castus for about 2 years for possible Cushings but took her off last year after finally getting a blood test sorted. However, I have not noticed any real difference in her behaviour. She is on magnesium as well as she's barefoot so this may be the cause of her very laid back attitude However, Metabolic Horse sell both magnesium and Agnus Castus tincture at reasonable prices if you are interested.

 

[Spyda]

I too have a nightmare mare (LOL) and started feeding dried raspberry leaves (40g per day), Agnus castus (15g per day) and magnesium oxide (14g per day) to her back in January. She's 16.2 and weighs 630kg.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VITEX-AGN...t=UK_Horse_Wear_Equipment&hash=item415a09d80b

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAGNESIUM...t=UK_Horse_Wear_Equipment&hash=item3f15984d6b

(NOTE They also sell a cheaper 85% purity version of the Mag Ox but I wouldn't recommend it. It's much courser, less easy to combine into a feed and from what I've read, isn't as easily assimilated by the horse as the 99% finely powdered version is.)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raspberry...t=UK_Horse_Wear_Equipment&hash=item230e62c538

I feed these by adding them dry to my mare's ration and just mixing them in along with the little bit of water I use to wet her feed. I find they mix in best with a chaff base; It helps combine the extra ingredients into the feed, especially if you only feed nuts/pellets/nuggets.

Results:

It's always hard to tell if something is actively working, but my mare has always suffered bad seasons, particularly the first ones at the start of the year, and has done so since her seasons started when she was a long yearling. She used to become almost unhandlable (sp?) and very VERY stressy. I have to say, so far this year, [touch wood] we've not had the same reaction. She's a lot better. I can even ride her out when she's in season which was a complete no-no previously.

I feel that the added supplements, plus cutting her hard feed right back to nothing but a light balancer fed with chaff, has worked wonders for mine.

Good luck with yours