What is Cool, Calm & Collected (CCC) and which products do we put it in?
The active ingredient in CCC is patented Chelated Calcium technology, we believe this has an influence on cellular signalling.
This is a process used all across the body for many reasons including; initiating the release of neurotransmitters and ensuring ‘messages’ are passed on correctly from one nerve cell to another.
So effectively, the CCC is optimising brain function; a properly working brain means horses are less distracted, concentrate better, make better decisions and analyse risk - calming is the inevitable result for most horses.
Why do you carry out a free diet analysis for every new horse?
This allows us to calculate the amount of added magnesium that may or not already be present in the diet.
We look at the amount of added magnesium in the diet for two main reasons:
1. When there's too much magnesium in the diet, it can actually prevent our Cool, Calm & Collected technology from working. When too much magnesium is provided, it floods the intra cellular fluids and sits on and blocks the calcium receptors this means that when calcium ions are pumped in to switch the cells on, they cannot do their job.
2. When there is too much magnesium in the diet, it can actually impair nerve cell function therefore having a sedating/impairing effect. Horses appear to respond to this in a number of different ways; some will sedate nicely and be fairly biddable. Others will appear rather docile when in their comfort zone but can then become unpredictable and explosive under pressure. Others will simply become unmanageably spooky straight away!
The below flow chart explains our approach to new horses, diet analysis’ and whether or not your horse may even need a behavioural supplement.
We do recognise that some horses do benefit from a small amount of added magnesium - just not to the extent that many magnesium calmers supply and supplemented feeds supply.
Not sure what your horse needs? We can help!
Which EquiFeast products contain Cool, Calm & Collected?
Powdered Supplements
The Cool, Calm & Collected Range (CCC, CCC Bombproofing and CCC Ultimate)
Hoof Essentials (as the release of the keratin to make the hoof horn is controlled by calcium signalling)
Feed Range
Why do the products containing Cool, Calm & Collected require a Starter Pack?
A Starter Pack contains more product allowing you to feed it at a higher rate, this is to ‘load’ every new horse on the chelated calcium for the first 5 weeks. It is only the chelated calcium we load not the other ingredients.
After that, horses drop down onto our Follow-On packs, which are fed at a lower rate due to completion of the loading period. These are still designed to last 5 weeks, but are cheaper!
Why do you start all horses on the MagFREE version of your supplements?
Many horse feeds already contain added magnesium, to us it makes little sense to be adding magnesium to feeds when there is an abundance of magnesium naturally occurring in the forage, which is why we start all horses on the MagFREE formulation of our supplements.
Extensive analysis of our customer feedback and data suggests a better success rate with MagFREE supplements and low magnesium diets, however some horses do benefit from a very small amount of added magnesium to the diet. In fact 97% of our CORE&MORE customers are Mag FREE!
Our free fine-tuning service helps to identify what exactly your horse would benefit from.
Why is CCC only fed 5 days out of 7?
Without getting too science-y(!), it allows for the horse’s natural reserves of chelated calcium to be moved in and out of storage, this then enables the horse to keep a consistent amount where it matters.
We’ve actually found the CCC to be more effective when fed in such a manner, more importantly – we generally see more consistent results when the two days off are split, this then prevents the horse from going 48hrs without receiving any CCC.
What is the reasoning for feeding the CCC around 1 hour before working the horse?
This is something that only applies to the loading period (when you’re feeding a Starter Pack) – we’re not suggesting CCC works like an instant calmer (generally week 3 is a good indication as to how things are going) however working the horse in such a timeframe after having the CCC just means it is freshly available in the blood stream.
If this feeding regime needs to be maintained when using the Follow-On packs, there is a suggestion the horse has not loaded properly.
What is your free fine-tuning process?
At week 4 (when you should have around a week left of your Starter Pack), we ask you to contact us to simply have a chat and see how things are going. Depending on the feedback we receive and what supplementary magnesium levels your horse started on, will then determine what steps we then take to ensure you’re getting the most out of our product!
Want to talk to us about your horse?
Call 01453 836974
Email advice@equifeast.com