Magnetic browbands for stressed horses

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luane1

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A couple of weeks ago there was an article in H&H about a magnetic browband and some of the showjumpers were endorsing it in the article as an aid to calming a stressed horse. We were at a sj clinic with one of our top showjumpers as a trainer and were talking to him about stressed horses and he firmly believed that these things worked as he used one. As some of you may remember we have a really stressed boy a Cavalier and we have been taking him slowly he wouldnt go over a pole on the ground and now is able to go over them calmly some days and other days he really freaks.
Well I purchased one of these browbands and we tried it today you put it on in the stable for an hour before working or jumping them and then ride with it on, couldnt believe the difference it has made he was calmly popping jumps at 85cms time and time again on either rein without a care in the world, really round. We will have to see if it continues to do the trick or if it was a fluke - I will let you know.
 
*Bites tounge*

Do NOT get me started!
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Put it this way, I can see absolutely no scientific reason what-so-ever for a weak magnetic having any effect on the body, let alone on behavior, and this "There was a difference therefore I must have worked" argument is, imo, a total load off c**p - there are soo many variables that are not even considered that may also have had a strong effect!!!

Then there is the fact that I believe magnets products are as big a con as putting water in bottles and selling it!

Like I say, do not get me started on this one!

*Ginn retreats very quickly and makes a note to stay quiet!*
 
Well we asked and you let us know your views, that's great.
I know people swear by them for a great many things and I would try most things because I don't disregard anything but I will be interested to see how you carry on ,even if its because you believe and that helps ,that's ok
 
ok so scientifically magnets basically increase blood flow that is their only benefit but if you think about it when you are stressed this is affected and in my opinion he needs to be chilled as there is no logical reason as to why everything in the world is so scary one day and he chills a bit the next. He is a real worrier but one with a superb talent.
As I said I will let you know how this goes on. The trainer we were speaking to who uses them regularly with stressed horses said he totally thought it was alot of nonsense and he was given the browbands by the company selling them and he just cant believe the difference it has made on not just one horse but 3 very difficult horses he rides.
I will try anything that cannot do any harm - I will also eat my words if it all turns out to be a fraud and our boy reverts back to his weird behaviour
 
I used to have exactly the same opinion Ginn, but then used magnetic produts on myself and horses and seen a significant improvement. For us, you can say its the placebo effect, fair enough, for horses, its a different matter, they dont know what is meant to make them better and whats not.....
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Ok, firstly assuming that the magnets do actually increase blood flow (which I cannot currently find any scientific explanation, with experimental and theoretical support for!), when you are stressed your blood pressure goes up, therefore the rate of flow of blood is going to increase - why would you want to increase this effect on a stressed horse and why at the poll?

No, I very much doubt it will do any harm but I will also be very much surprised if science is able to able and prove this theory. If it "appears" to have a positive effect for you, whether it is the magnet or something completely unrelated then I guess it doesn't matter provided you and your horse are happy.

But, I still believe that you are being taken for a ride - for one thing the magnets used could probably be purchased for less then a couple of quid!!
 
Which is why I plan on being a terribly sad individual and doing some research and experiments to see if any effects can be identified over my summer holidays!! My poor pony isn't going to know what has hit her
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The British Medical Association have agreed that magnets have some effect. A psychiatrist I know used a magnetic bracelet for a sore shoulder and it worked. Her husband is an ortheopedic surgeon, who was really cross that it worked and that she then bought one for her daughter who has 'growing pains' and it worked for her too.
 
Yip I agree the magnets could be purchased for less but I am sometimes amazed that things have no scientific explanation for how they work. I am told it is to even his blood flow over his brain without it going totally into overload and as I said lets see I dont usually buy gimicks and maybe I am wrong here but as I said I will come and let you all know if it goes pear shaped not hide away in a corner.
I rarely come out an pronounce on something but another sucess I had was with sarcoids. Our vet had told me to get cream from Liverpool as they were so large and there was not other way, I hated the idea as this treatment is very harsh on the horse and most have to be sedated to apply the cream - it hurts- I read another article about sarcoids being the paloma (spelling) virus and therefore if you boost the imune system the body attacks them so I got a liver tonic and could not believe it when the sarcoids disappeared within a week I sent Liverpool the photos and they could not believe it either but our vet supported me.

So lets see about the browbands!!!!
 
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The British Medical Association have agreed that magnets have some effect.

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No! The BMA cannot disprove that they donnot have an effect, therefore it is left open.... read any advert for the products and you will find nowhere saying that they have actually been proven to work, just that people have found an improvement following use - 2 very, very differnt things!

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A psychiatrist I know used a magnetic bracelet for a sore shoulder and it worked. Her husband is an ortheopedic surgeon, who was really cross that it worked and that she then bought one for her daughter who has 'growing pains' and it worked for her too.

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See, this is what really ****** me off! "So and so used it for this and it worked" - no! Not necessarily! Yes the product was used and yes there was an effect but the two are not necessarily linked, the fact that a medical professional purchased one for his daughter does not change that either!!! Sorry, but that is an incredibly unobjective and ignorant comment imo!
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Like I say, I plan to do some experiments this summer to see if any actual affects that would suggest a magnetic effect are actually occuring....
 
The placebo effect still works for animals because it is humans that make the judgement that they are feeling or performing better. So the placebo effect acts through human perception of the animal's condition.
 
By all means go for it - I'll be really interested to see the results!!! Perhaps ask someone to occasionally swop the browband/headpiece (sorry, I forget which bit it is
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) for an identical but unmagnetised one occasionally but without you being in anyway aware of it and see if you can tell once onboard? Just a thought...
 
The liver tonic is called 'restore' but I believe Global herbs sell the same thing but under a different name.
It is wider than a brow band and attaches either to your existing brow band or head collar with velcro and bends itself to fit, it is made of a leather or synthetic leather look material and the slim magnets are stiched in very close all across the length of it so it fits snugly across the poll.
 
Yes Ginn The BMA does say they have an effect not that they can't prove they don't. I do not have the paper at home but will find it on Monday and hopefully post a link.
 
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Pain from osteoarthritis of the hip and knee decreases when wearing magnetic bracelets. It is uncertain whether this response is due to specific or non-specific (placebo) effects.

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Randomised controlled trial of magnetic bracelets for relieving pain in osteoarthritis of the hip and knee, BMJ journals

My understanding of the article (which I think is the same one you are referring to) is that there is still no evidence that it is the magnets having an effect, merely a possibility that cannot be ignored. Please correct me if I am wrong here? You will also notice when reading the article that the "magnet" industry is a multimillion dollar industry... "Worldwide sales were estimated at $5bn (£2.6bn, 3.8bn) in 1999"
 
We are going to use this every day for the next week and then not use it for a week and see what the different effects are. You will understand that we have been really working with this horse every day for 8 months and we know him so well by now he has built up a real trust bond but when he is freaked you cant get through to him on any level and it is so sad.
I feel that he was just used as a jumping machine and nobody really cared for him on a personal level. The guy who owned him saw him as a great money making machine but when it started to go sour he just wanted him sold, he didnt ride him but paid a professional to compete him and he did so well adn we will see if we can get him competing and enjoying himself not jumping out of fear.
I will keep you in the loop and as I said I will hold my hands up and cry fraud if it doesnt give us the results over a long term.
I also should say that I have been wearing a magnetic bracelet for the last year as I broke my ankle 4 years ago and due to complications I needed 3 operations to eventually get it to heal with a bone graft and plate but the ligaments were stretched so badly that thye have no support and I was in constant pain, I now have no pain on a daily basis - now I cant say that it is my bracelet but I left it off for a while recently and realised that my pain was back- no I dont have a definite explanation for what it does but it just does!!!
 
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IMO the comment about ignorant and that you are ******off a my post is rude and unncessary

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Aplogies but that is how I found your statement, did not mean to cause offence.
 
Sounds like you have been doing a fantastic job with him and I really hope that, whatever the reason, you are now able to put the problems you have had behind you and move on! Sounds like he has a very promising career ahead of him
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I would be very grateful if you could drop me a pm in a few weeks time and let me know how things have gone as I will be very interested to hear about it and will be keeping everything tightly crossed for you that whatever it is that has changed, be it the effects of magnets or otherwise, bring you the rewards you so clearly deserve
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Good luck with it!

And while Im on a good and not debating note I think I will leave this thread - like I said at the start it was something I should have kept out of but I couldn't keep my big mouth shut *slap on the wrist!*
 
The British Medical Association have agreed that magnets have some effect

Not that I'm aware, can you refer me to where you obtained this information please? The most recent review of magnet therapy was in the BMJ in Jan 2006 and it concluded there was no convincing evidence that they had a beneficial effect.

It is very difficult to control experiements so that they would show a theraputic effect of magnets but on the occasions it has been done, no effect can be found. That is the same as saying, what people perceive as the beneficial effects of magnets can be explained perfectly rationally and when you remove the possibility of other explanations from a experiment using magnets, there is no effect.

As a punter, probably all that matters is that you think they work and you're happy.

The increasing blood flow to the brain argument is nonsense on many levels, I've briefly explained why in previous threads on the subject. For this particular application of magnets I would ask anybody who gave that explanation to sketch for me a cross section of a horses head labelling the brain, the blood supply to the brain and the position of the brow-band. Hopefully that should be sufficient to illustrate the point, although of course anyone believing the explanation in the first place isn't going to know enough anatomy to be ble to draw the diagram!
 
I have no axe to grind on behalf of magnetic stuff and no connection with the industry. The drug companies are also multi-million pound organisations and I have no axe to grind for or against them either!
We did use magnetic boots on our late mare, they appeared to work for her, after appearing to have a very odd effect on her initially. It is often difficult to explain and validate the effect of non invasive/non ingested therapies. A prime example is the use of drug therapy V psychotherapy for psychotic symptoms, often the best treatment is the conjunction of the two, perhaps this is also the case with animals (not psychotherapy!) , but using conventional treatments with non invasive alternatives.
 
I wouldnt have posted on here if I wasnt prepared for a debate. I just dont like closed minds and I do think there are two sides to most things in life. Of course I will pm you with any change in my results. We have 3 horses all show jumpers and hopefully this year will be good as last year was horrrendous. I had to retire my youngster to the blood bank in Scotland at 6 and No1 horse went lame with spavin so no horse to ride. We bought the stressball in July not thinking we had a problem and then bought our girl in November last and touch wood she is super and jumps 110 and 120 all day (if you let her).
I will post on here too with our findings - non scientific or otherwise if I come up with any explanation
 
COLT and Carthorse - I would love to be proved wrong in my opinion and current understanding of magnetic therapy, assuming the effects claimed actually work then it would benefit a lot of people!!! But I am very bad at asking "why?" and perhaps overquestioning things, I like to have answers and my pet hate is where (possible?) false assumptions are made and marketed.

I have no gripes against the placebo effect - it has been shown that it can be as powerful as any drug with many conditions and that is more than fine with me. However, I donnot pretend that it is anything other than a placebo effect (and Im talking generally here - did anyone see the study where x patients with equally rated knee arthritis were divided into 2 groups, 1 were given a genuine knee transplant, the others lead to beleive they had one (I'll pm anyone wanting further info) and no patients knew which group they were in - patients without the transplant were convinced they had had it as their symptons were eliviated!!) Do Not underestimate the power of the mind!
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ok - do not underestimate the power of the mind - mine or the horse? He doesn't know that he has a magnetic brow band on or that it is supposed to react with him in a specific way I am just amazed at the sudden change in him as I said we work with him every day and this is the most dramatic change we have seen yet. By the way others in our yard commented on his behaviour today without being told that we had changed anything. So lets wait and see!!!
 
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