10 reasons we say "Excess Magnesium Sedates"

If you want your horse to be responsive to the aids, focused on you and work and not distracted or anxious, you need its brain to be working as nature intended. 

So why do we advise to avoid magnesium? Because it sedates! 

This is why we say that:

1.Let’s start with the FEI listing it as a sedative on their Prohibited Substances List. (injectable magnesium)

2.Jess Dodd's research showing it having the same effect as ACP (Sedalin, ACE, veterinary sedative) on "reaction speed" (2015).

3.Wendy Pearson also showed the same effect as ACP on physiology (heart rate and hormone release) and that neither ACP nor the magnesium calmer improved the target behaviours (loading onto a trailer and a weighbridge) (2016).

4.The fact that it is used in calcium channel blocker drugs as a support ingredient (anaesthetics and heart management). In the good old days it was used to put horses to sleep.

5.The knowledge that it blocks NMDA channels (calcium channels in the brain). (Any good neuroscience textbook).

6.Any good biochemistry textbook will describe it as a calcium antagonist (ie it blocks calcium receptors which are the way we switch our cells on and off (Calcium Signalling)).

7."Customer Feedback". We have stopped now, but for a long time we monitored the horses going through our programme and have over 30,000 records.

8. We also carried out "blood trials" in 2011 and 2012 and demonstrated clearly that unless we had total blood magnesium under control it was impossible to have sensible behaviour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JKe4Bvh4E4

9.Look at any calmer question on Facebook and these days you will see people posting that magnesium “didn’t work” or “made my horse worse”. This is a big change over the past few years.

10. Excess magnesium isn't all excreted - A significant proportion of it builds up in the body. (Hintz & Schryver 1973)

Perhaps those heavily promoting magnesium for horses could answer the reverse question. What is the evidence that it doesn't impair brain function?

In order to offer horse riders and owners a "no added magnesium" option for their horses EquiFeast has developed its CORE&MORE range.

Contact us for a FREE Diet Review so we can recommend the best feeds for your horse to optimise behaviour, concentration, stamina, muscle, mobility and health. We tailor our offering to your individual horse.

Email: advice@EquiFeast.com

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