Horse calmers

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Allthingsequine22

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As with most things in the current equine industry there now seems to be hundreds of options of one particular thing 🙈 which in turn has baffled me.

Let's talk Calmers ...

I'm looking for something for a young horse ( 6) who needs something to focus him in a new environment and manage his anxiety towards others ( can react if horses go out of sight or work around him)

Im looking for a supportive measure whilst we continue to educate and expose him to such environments but obviously it would be nice if he could process it all better.

Steady up?
equine America Super Kalm ?
Top spec calmer?

Any other recommendations based of real life experiences?

Many thanks
 
FieldOrnaments said:
Sorry that isn't an actual recommendation
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However it is a useful point to consider.

There are so many factors in which calmer may or may not work, mainly starting with deficiencies in the diet & also things over fed in the diet.
Is the pony generally anxious all the time, or just jumpy?

Is the pony in work? The one single calming thing I have found over many years is activity.
 
I use equine America s magnesium as a general calmer and calming cookies to take the edge off occasional stressful situations. I have tried Magic calmers but they seemed to create more of a problem.
 
I have had success before with neighked buck off and also blue chip kalma, I’ve just ordered another bottle of buck off to see if it’ll take the edge off standie spooking out solo hacking, 🤞
 
Equinutritive No More Nerves - I've noticed a massive change my by boys reactivity and anxiousness - he deals with things so much better. I've tried Buck Off and Even Keel 5 by Trinity Consultants and also pure magnesium - none of which made any difference
 
Equine America Super Kalm has shown the most differences in the horses I've tried it on. But in your case, I'd say regular steady exposure to those things is the way to go, do it with no expectations and stop/remove from the environment before things boil over. It's all about putting miles in the confidence bank.
 
I’ve heard good things about buck off too. I used to give mine blue chip calm whe he was in work as he can be a little bit of a worrier. He will come back into work in the summer and if he needs it I will give the buck off a go
 
Having tried everything for the exact same issue, I decided to try Ashwaghanda. It works. Go straight to the source. Don't spend hundreds on these magnesium based supplements or those with very little of the actual ingredient that needs to be active.
It took about 14 days to see a noticable difference. He's still anxious but it's noticeably improved. IMO - seperation anxiety never fully goes away - I'm 5 years in...
 
To be honest the only one I’ve ever seen have any real effect is Valerian, as has already been pointed out the vast majority are just magnesium which works to an extent if there is an imbalance but if there isn’t you’re just wasting money.
 
I've used Vetrocalm (both the growing which is white with a green label, and the healthy which is white with a blue label) and found both work great to take the edge off, but keep the horse as they are.

I'd deffo get magnesium levels tested first though :)
 
i'm having great results with "Focus and Calm" from i think it's Maximum, helping a pony with some anxiety when doing things without his herd, takes the edge off and stops him screaming every other stride when i'm riding
 
TheChestnutThing said:
Having tried everything for the exact same issue, I decided to try Ashwaghanda. It works. Go straight to the source. Don't spend hundreds on these magnesium based supplements or those with very little of the actual ingredient that needs to be active.
It took about 14 days to see a noticable difference. He's still anxious but it's noticeably improved. IMO - seperation anxiety never fully goes away - I'm 5 years in...
Click to expand...
Where do you get the Ashwaghanda from and how much do you feed please
 
I possibly had some success with Buck Off. It's hard to say as at the time I was struggling with getting to grips with a new horse and a lot of it may have been a placebo effect as I 'believed' the Buck Off was taking the edge off him so I had more confidence to push through and crack on with him. I took him off it about 6 months ago though and haven't really noticed any difference in his sharpness or situations that make him anxious so.... 🤷‍♀️ I did use Valerian with him quite a bit when going out to new places (schooling, farm rides etc. - it's not comp legal) and couldn't really tell you if it worked or not.I think perhaps I have just got used to his quirks these days and so in my head his behaviour is a lot better whereas actually I've just desensitised myself to it 😅

The one thing that did make a massive difference was taking him off TopSpec - it sent him completely loopy! And I was oblivious until I changed him onto a different balancer and he instantly came down off the ceiling.
 
Following as my boy is a total numpty this time of year! We have acrobatics every time we are with more than 1 horse and focus is non existant at the best of times!

Im interested in feeding Ashwaghanda as i know this is very effective with humans. @TheChestnutThing where do you buy in bulk and how much do you feed?
 
Valerian - its banned from comp for a reason cos it works, an alternative is Zylkene or if you want something else the equine products one is fairly good for travelling etc
 
Trinity Consultants do an excellent calmer called Even keel. They do one with Valerian, and one without, if you compete. It's not expensive and works really well. You can chat/ email Simon for a free consultation too.
 
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