24/01/2025
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BZt57kano/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Great information and there are also some excellent additions in the comments
Gosh this has been a month for tough learning experiences with the horses!
I’ve been dealing with blind bolters, horses threatening to flip themselves, a yearling who put his owner in hospital, a pony refusing to jump, and a foal not making progress in its handling milestones. On top of this, I’ve been struggling with several of my young horses who have been showing very reactive and sometimes terrifying behaviors – not a great energy to be working with especially when your horses are big and green and you're still on the mend from an injury.
But, after a few very challenging weeks I can finally take a massive breath after making it out the other side of these tough learning experiences, and I am stoked to say that the improvements of ALL these horses have been unbelievable!
The case study I want to share today centers around chemical stress caused by magnesium deficiencies. My lovely 6-year-old gelding Smolder is an excellent example. As a 5-year-old he was pretty mellow, though he certainly had a few hairy moments at home, but coming in as a 6-year-old he’s shown some pretty diabolical behaviors, especially out competing.
At the Young Horse show he was extremely tense, constantly screaming out for his friend, couldn’t stand still and more than once tried to do gap it back to the truck with me still on him. I figured the issue had arisen due to dealing with two horses that had gotten over-attached (last season he was the only horse on the truck and was an angel), so I made a point to work through it, thinking that he just needed to do some character building.
But at Dannevirke show he was even worse, and on top of that had become horse shy in the warmup arena and highly spooky; refusing to go near a shadowed corner in the ring, resulting in elimination on the final day of competition. Normally this horse is insanely brave and in the past wouldn’t look twice at fill, let alone a normal pole fence.
At this stage, I was starting to feel pretty nervous around him. I had already switched to a stronger bit because I was on the verge of losing control, but even that wasn’t enough. At the show, I wondered if his magnesium levels might be off, so I gave him a stress paste with magnesium in it. When it didn’t seem to make any difference, I figured that it can't have been the issue—until I did more research on magnesium deficiencies.
Here's what I learnt.
▪️Magnesium deficiencies are EXTREMELY common in New Zealand due to poor levels in our soils (particularly areas with volcanic or sandy soils which we have) and environmental factors, or areas with high rain fall (which we have) as minerals get leached more easily from the soil.
▪️In spring and autumn, deficiencies are more common due to higher levels of potassium and nitrogen in the grass which can interfere with magnesium absorption.
▪️Horses under a workload or higher levels of stress will burn through magnesium stores faster than those who are turned out to pasture.
▪️Horse’s with equine metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance or laminitis are also prone to deficiencies.
▪️Warmbloods, thoroughbreds, high-performance breeds, draft horses (who have higher nutritional needs due to their size) and Arabs are more prone to deficiencies due to their metabolic makeup, physical demands and ability to absorb magnesium.
▪️Plants like red clover and other legumes have higher levels of magnesium than other forages. Last season we killed out a lot of our red clover (as it was taking over), hence why I think we have had more issues this season with deficiencies.
▪️When blood tested, horses will often come back with ‘normal’ levels because there must always be a certain amount of magnesium in the bloodstream – when levels get low, the body will rob the bones, muscles and soft tissues of its stores to replenish the bloodstream stores, masking a deficiency. Better ways to assess a horse’s levels are to do a Red Blood Cell Magnesium test or a magnesium loading test.
▪️It can take 2-6 weeks to rebalance a horses magnesium levels (if they are low or chronic) and see a difference in their behaviour.
▪️In order to correct a deficiency, a horse needs 10-20gm of magnesium per day (1 to 2 tablespoons) which can be given in dry form in their hard feeds, or in liquid form (which is absorbed better and sees quicker results). I feed magnesium oxide or dolomite (a magnesium/ calcium mix) in dry form and Oral-Mag in liquid form (this is a magnesium Pidolate solution).
Magnesium is essential to the nervous system function of the horse – when levels get low, they can present with ‘brain on fire’ symptoms; major spookiness, horse attachment issues, anxiety, inability to regulate emotions, constantly on alert and unable to switch off the survival response and a complete change in personality.
In Smolder’s case, he could present with two versions of himself; Smolder the sweetheart who loves to please and is the biggest softy in the world, and Smolder the terrorist. Some days he could be incredible (though he was often on the verge of shifting if something upset him), other days he could be a nightmare – hence why I didn’t consider magnesium issues earlier because my theory was that surely he’d be bad every day if he was deficient. I also figured if there were issues, all my horses would be difficult – but many of my other horses have been very relaxed and straight forward to deal with.
But in actuality, they can be both calm and stressed, all in a day’s work, dependent on what stressors they encounter. Some days, Smolder could work like an RDA pony – so quiet I could put a beginner on him – then something would startle him like a horse cantering around in the distance or a cow a mile away on the horizon – and he would grow a meter and turn into a fire breathing dragon. The shift was enough to put me into a state of induced terror. There’s nothing quite like sitting on a 600 kilo animal that is in full survival and juiced up like a kid on crack.
When I learnt all of this, I immediately gave all my horses 100ml of liquid mag (this is the allowed weekly requirement and was given as a loading dose) as well as 2 tablespoons a day in dry form in a small feed. Now, after two weeks of being supplemented, a sense of calm has descended on my property. In the last few days, a light has switched on in the eyes of my previously reactive and spooky horses and they have become highly enjoyable to work with again.
This morning, Smolder loped around the farm on the buckle in a snaffle (something I haven’t been confident enough to do for eons) and is a completely different animal to work with. My younger horses who have been going through the restarting process have gone from scary beasts, to relaxed and thoughtful animals. And it’s even travelled down to a young foal of mine who was highly reactive, couldn't deal with the tiniest of questions and was struggling to reach handling milestones – within a week on magnesium she is a completely different horse and is so friendly and relaxed to handle.
I highly recommend having tests done on your own horses to assess their particular needs, and then supplementing to rebalance any deficiencies they may have! You may find that you still enjoy working with your horses after all 🤭
Now that my horses have found their equilibrium they will now go back to 1 tablespoon a day of magnesium.
