Riding a spooky horse can be difficult for both the horse and the rider. Anxiety can easily get the best of each of you. Thankfully, there are calming supplements for spooky horses, sometimes called horse calmers, that have been found to help significantly in calming spooky horses. You can help your horse to manage stress with a few fast-acting key ingredients.
However, it’s important to note that supplements might not help every horse with their spooking problems. It all depends on the underlying reason why the horse is spooking. We also have a blog on more ways that you can help your spooky horse.
Which Horses Would Benefit From Horse Calmers?
Horses that are overly anxious, spooky, nervous, or have muscle tremors may benefit from natural calming supplements. If your horse is has inappropriate levels of vitamins, such as high levels of potassium and low levels of magnesium, aka a deficiency in magnesium, this can be one underlying cause of a spooky horse. Overly energetic horses can also benefit from calming supplements.
What Ingredients Are Typical For Calming Supplements For Horses?
One of the most popular ingredients in calming supplements is magnesium. If you’re looking for magnesium-only supplements, take a look at our blog on the best magnesium supplements for horses.
Other ingredients commonly found in calming supplements are B vitamins, minerals, and amino acids to aide proper nervous system function as well as adaptogens. Adaptogens are all-natural substances meant to help your horse’s body adapt to stress. These key ingredients are typically free of any side effects whatsoever; of course, it is possible that a horse could have some kind of sensitivity to an ingredient in any given supplement.
Magnesium For Spooky Horses
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Magnesium is an important element in your horse’s health that is easily overlooked. Magnesium plays an important part in nerve and muscle function. Horses lacking in this important element can show signs of nervousness, wariness, excitability, and muscle tremors. Sufficient magnesium can calm your horse when it experiences acute stress.
Magnesium affects horses much as it affects humans. Calcium works with magnesium to control muscle contractions in the horse’s body. This happens very rapidly.
When there is not enough magnesium in a cell, calcium can leak back in and cause a stimulatory effect, which will not allow the muscle to relax completely. This can cause chronic stress on the body and issues with nerve regulation. Magnesium is required for proper nerve and muscle function. Help your horse relax with some magnesium.
B Vitamins For Horses
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The microbes in your horse’s hindgut are responsible for producing enough B vitamins for your horse, but when they become compromised due to antibiotics, illness, or stress, your horse may not be receiving enough B vitamins.
B vitamins contribute to the health of the nervous system, and when your horse is lacking the vitamins it needs, the nervous system can become compromised. A vitamin B1 (Thiamin) supplement can help your horse bounce back from anxiety or depression. You can also assist your horse in producing B vitamins by adding prebiotics and probiotics to their diet.
Ashwagandha: an Antidepressant Adaptogen
Ashwagandha is an all-natural herb that is also an adaptogen. Adaptogens assist your horse in adapting to stressful situations and balances their mood. Ashwagandha has been used as an antidepressant in humans as well as animals. Since we aren’t focusing on antidepressant supplements, it’s also worth mentioning that it has potent calming abilities that can ease tension from intense activity.
Ashwagandha may be able to ease your horse’s anxiety, stress, as well as improve recovery time from injury. 1000mg to 1500mg for a full-sized horse is an appropriate dosage.
L-Theanine
L-Theanine is an amino acid derivative found in green tea. It increases release of serotonin and dopamine that causes a mood boost as well as a calming and relaxing effect. For these reasons, it is becoming more and more common to find L-Theanine in calming supplements.
Our Favorite Calming Supplements For Horses
Below, you will find our favorite supplements that should help keep your horse calm and reduce spookiness. Horse owners everywhere are using these supplements to reduce anxiety in their nervous horses.
Via-Calm 5 lb Pail
Type: Powder
Administration: Feed directly or add to grain
Size: 5.5lbs
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Via-Calm is easily one of the most popular choices on Amazon, with over 350 reviews. Another huge perk for first-time horse magnesium users is that it comes in a small pail for a reasonable price. This way, you don’t have to commit to a lot of magnesium if it doesn’t work out in the long run for you and your horse.
On top of magnesium, this horse calmer also includes l-tryptophan (an amino acid), thiamin, and calcium to help maintain your horse’s optimal emotional balance.
Formula 707 Calming Pellets and Paste Daily Syringes
Type: Pre-measured syringes and pellet packs
Administration: Feed directly
Size: 28 pellet packs plus 2 syringes with calming paste
Check price for Formula 707 Calming Pellets on Amazon
The formula 707 calming paste for horses is easy to dose as they come in simple and easy-to-use daily syringes. Besides calcium, this calming supplement contains all of the same active ingredients as Via-Calm. This Amazon listing comes with two different products. It comes with two syringes that come filled with a calming paste as well as 28 packets of a calming pellet supplement. Both of these can be fed directly to your horse.
T.H.E. Equine Edge Calming Cookies
Type: Cookies
Administration: Feed directly when needed
Size: 30 calming cookies
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These cookies can help to calm your horse when it’s needed as a little treat. They contain a blend of natural vitamins, minerals and amino acids to improve general health and well-being. This product also features L-Tyrosine, which is used to help your horse produce serotonin, which helps an anxious horse to focus and feel confident without affecting their ability to compete. These will not make your horse lethargic or sleepy by any means. Rather than being in a powder form, these cookies can be fed as a fun snack for nervous horses.
Uckele Rlx-All Horse Supplement
Type: Powder
Administration: Direct or add to feed
Size: 2lbs
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This horse calmer is one of our favorites just based off the reviews alone. It contains Taurine, Valerian Extract, Thiamine, and Magnesium Silicate. These natural ingredients can keep your horse from being spooky or anxious throughout the day. This supplement can be given daily. Reviewers suggest that you experiment a bit with the dosage as each horse can have different requirements.
The Best Calming Supplements For Horses Aren’t Hard to Find
Feel free to browse all of the above recommended horse calmers for your spooky or anxious horse. None of the above supplements include any banned or prohibited substances and are all rather fast-acting. It may be difficult to get your horse to a point where it is 100% stress-free, but these supplements will help any highly strung horse to manage stressful situations. If you find something that works better for you and your horse, please let us know!