Do concentrated syringes of calmer work for shows?

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Taking my ex-racer to his first ever show this weekend. He finished racing last year due to being too stressed to continue and I’m aware that on arrival at the show he will be stressy, due to all the similarities with the races (lots of people, horses,etc). Was wondering if getting a concentrated syringe of calmer could help to use on the day of the show, he is already on the Nupafeed magnesium calmer daily but has only just started that so not seen any dramatic results. Also any advice for taking a stressy horse to his first show would be greatly appreciated.
 
It is unlikely to make any difference to a highly strung horse that was so stressed he couldn't cope with racing, nothing legal will have much effect and the best way forward with a horse of this type is to take things slowly, step by step until he relaxes, it could take numerous trips out until he learns to settle or you may get lucky and find now he is not racing fit he accepts the atmosphere of a show.
My ex racehorse livery was great to take racing apart from the normal being on his toes, he went to local shows, did SJ/ Dress/ODE's but failed to cope with a busier show where the loudspeakers were going all the time and there were much bigger crowds, he had been fairly well prepared but until you try you really don't know how they will react.

I would always go to the first show with a view to walking about inhand to see if they are ok before any thought of getting in the ring, try to set them up to succeed with no pressure especially if they are known to be stressy.
 
Magnesium based calmers only work if the diet is deficient in magnesium. Otherwise they are just excreted. As BP says nothing competition legal is going to have any effect on the horse. But thinking it might can calm the human who, being calmer, calms the horse,
 
I’ve used a single calmer when taking my old pony BE to get her to calm down for the dressage!

Nowadays I use the equifeast daily calmer (non mag), they also have a boost you give for a few days before a comp. I would highly recommend I nearly stopped competing my horse as it was pretty scary, now he’s just on the basic - could probably take him off that too. It’s done the job in changing his mindset
 
I did look into these after a previous poster - it may well have been little grey mare too - mentioned it. What worries me is that nowhere in all that extensive marketing material is either a list of ingredients; a NOPS certification or confirmation that any of the formulations are permitted in competition. They do make reference to a couple of top riders - but actually stop short of saying that the product as currently sold was in use at that time - or indeed used at all. None of the riders cited appear to be sponsored by Equifeast now. They do make reference to being on the EU register of approved nutrition and health claims; but I have searched the register and can't find any such reference - although there may well have been in 2014 which seems to be the last date that the website bears.

I accept at BE90 and local / unaffiliated the likelihood of being tested is zero. But there is quite a drive - and fairly so - to ensure that all riders at all levels are complying with the relevant clean sport rules.

I'm not saying Equifeast is not safe for use in competition. Only that they do not say it is nor do they provide any of the industry recognized gaurentees. They make a lot of snazzy sounding claims - but when you scratch the surface nothing seems to hold up. For that reason I would not personally use it. (That and it is very expensive!) Reputable firms have no reason not to state clearly what is in their products or complying with NOPS certification.
 
Shay said:
I did look into these after a previous poster - it may well have been little grey mare too - mentioned it. What worries me is that nowhere in all that extensive marketing material is either a list of ingredients; a NOPS certification or confirmation that any of the formulations are permitted in competition. They do make reference to a couple of top riders - but actually stop short of saying that the product as currently sold was in use at that time - or indeed used at all. None of the riders cited appear to be sponsored by Equifeast now. They do make reference to being on the EU register of approved nutrition and health claims; but I have searched the register and can't find any such reference - although there may well have been in 2014 which seems to be the last date that the website bears.

I accept at BE90 and local / unaffiliated the likelihood of being tested is zero. But there is quite a drive - and fairly so - to ensure that all riders at all levels are complying with the relevant clean sport rules.

I'm not saying Equifeast is not safe for use in competition. Only that they do not say it is nor do they provide any of the industry recognized gaurentees. They make a lot of snazzy sounding claims - but when you scratch the surface nothing seems to hold up. For that reason I would not personally use it. (That and it is very expensive!) Reputable firms have no reason not to state clearly what is in their products or complying with NOPS certification.
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When I get around to it I will email Equifeast and check that out! They know exactly what I am using it for, so I hope it’s comp legal. For me it’s slighkty irrelevant as my horse is currently lame and not going anywhere! I will say it’s not expensive when you’ve done the initial loading and is significantly cheaper than what I was using before - that made no difference!

OP I used the naf magic syringe calmer before with my pony. We improved our dressage score by over 10% in one week! We went from being a disgrace to not looking too far out of place!

Edited to say - it’s only two horses I’ve ever considered a calmer before for 🙈 in over twenty years - the rest have been pretty sane!
 
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The one I have used when needed is the equine products cool it paste, seems to chill my exracer out but we don't lose any forward and its comp legal, its not magnesium based. I don't use it all the time just if he feels like he is starting to get very tense
 
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