All over the United States, show season is starting after a long, cold winter. Horses and riders are working on fitness and gearing back up after a few months break. While for many partnerships this can be a fun and exciting time of year, others have a different experience. Horses that are naturally reactive get even more excitable with the first warm spring days. Other horses who may not have been ridden as much over the winter are spooky and nervous. Calming supplements for horses can ease the transition into show season for many horse and rider pairs.
Horse calmers regulate your horse’s stress level and help them keep a cool, level head in stressful situations, like riding in the trailer or competing at horse shows. With a wide selection of calming supplements on the market, all claiming to do the same thing, it can be hard to select the right one for your horse. Many equestrians have found that it takes a little bit of trial and error to settle on the perfect supplement regimen.
We’ve separated our selection of horse calmers into seven different categories to help you choose where to start your search for the perfect supplement.
Feed-Through Calming Supplement for Horses
If you have a horse who is notoriously difficult when it comes to pastes or powders, you may want to try Life Data Labs Compose 2x Pelleted Calming Horse Supplement. The palatable pelleted formula is easy to administer– just add it to your horse’s daily grain regimen.
Compose 2x contains three key ingredients: tryptophan, thiamine, and magnesium that help to calm nervous and reactive horses, without sedative effects. After all, you want your horse to be alert and responsive at a horse show or when riding in a trailer.
These ingredients take three separate approaches to calming your horse. Tryptophan encourages serotonin production in the brain, which acts as a mood stabilizer. Thiamine relaxes your horse and plays an important role in controlling hyperactivity. Last but not least, magnesium supports nerve transmission and muscle function. Combined, these ingredients make Compose 2x a powerful calming supplement for horses.
Natural Horse Calmer
Not a fan of putting chemicals into your horse? If that’s the case, you may want to try Winners Equine Products X-Treme Calm Response. This all-natural and drug-free horse calmer will not test, so you can compete worry-free.
While it takes a full 21 days to see the full impact of this supplement, it is designed to provide stress relief to anxious horses, thereby improving trainability and reducing the likelihood of stall walking. X-Treme Calm Response contains a unique proprietary blend of herbs, including silk tree albizia bark, ziziphus jujuba mill, and radix polygalae.
Albizia bark is an herb grown in southeast Asia that is said to improve mood and have calming and sleep-inducing effects. Jujuba (ziziphus jujuba mill) has been used in traditional Chinese medicine since 220 AD, in formulas known to promote sleep. According to a scientific review of radix polygalae, this dried root is said to improve cognitive function, have antidepressant effects, and act as a hypnotic-sedative.
Simply Calm
Do you own a horse that feels like a bomb waiting to go off when you first get on, but works out of it throughout your ride? Quiessence Magnesium and Chromium Pellets are ideal for horses that take a while to warm up and have sore or tense backs. This simple mix of magnesium and chromium is legal for competition and will make your warm-up in the show ring a lot more relaxing, for both you and your horse.
Magnesium is said to promote healthy muscle and nerve function, which will support a horse that is usually tight and stiff. Chromium has been shown to minimize the stress hormone cortisol, which is triggered in high-anxiety situations.
Quiessence can also help horses that have had glucose issues in the past. It may help prevent founder by regulating glucose and increasing peripheral circulation.
Vitamins & Stress Relief
How’s your horse’s Vitamin E level? Vitamin E deficiency can lead to several different neuromuscular diseases, including equine motor neuron disease. While many horses won’t show any sign of neuromuscular disease, it can impact their comfort and behavior under saddle.
Now, thanks to Spectra Mega- Calm Equine Vitamin Supplement, you have a horse calmer that both supports your horse’s mood and Vitamin E levels. Mega-Calm contains 3,400 mg/oz L-Tryptophan, with magnesium, Vitamins E, and B1. These key ingredients make it an ideal calming supplement for horses that are nervous prior to competition or getting on the trailer, without drowsiness.
Ulcer-Related Stress Relief
Have you considered that ulcers may be the cause of your horse’s nervous and anxious behavior? Stomach pain can cause your horse to act out and appear anxious, when really they’re trying to tell you they’re in pain.
The Redmond Daily Gold Hydrated Clay Syringe gets right to the cause of your horse’s behavioral issues. Made of bentonite clay paste, this syringe is said to buffer stomach acid which helps to relieve acute pain from equine ulcers and soothe digestive upset.
The simple formula of hydrated bentonite clay, organic peppermint oil, and water contains over 60 different minerals and three percent sodium chloride. Combined, this unique collection of ingredients can alleviate your horse’s stomach pain, as well as eliminate diarrhea and colic. Give your horse the syringe orally, following the dosage instructions, 30 to 60 minutes before a stressful event.
Competition-Safe Horse Calmer
Few things ruin a horse show faster than a positive drug test result. Almost every reputable horse show organization, like USEF and FEI, have rules and regulations on what calming supplements for horses are allowed. It’s important to check these rules well before you go to a horse show so that any illegal supplements have enough time to fully work out of your horse’s system before entering the show grounds.
Avoid the hassle with Ramard Total Calm & Focus Show Safe Syringe. This orally-administered paste reduces cortisol during stressful situations, such as intense exercise or in situations with lots of stimuli– like all the activity on show grounds. According to their website, “Ramisol is the cutting-edge ingredient in Total Calm & Focus that has offered proven results in the previous 2 Olympic Games, World Equestrian Games, and World and National Championships across all breed groups and disciplines over the last several years.”
Best of all, the Total Calm & Focus Show Safe Syringe contains NO banned substances or herbs so you can rest easy and enjoy your show day on a calm and happy horse.
Natural Hormonal Support
If you’re the owner of a moody mare, you’re probably familiar with all the struggles that come with trying to regulate her hormones while she is in season. Even out of season, some mares are naturally moodier than non-cycling equines, like geldings, stallions, and spayed mares. Natural hormonal support can calm your mare and help her with hormone regulation.
Cavalor Venus is the only liquid supplement on this list. Designed specifically for mares who are struggling with their hormones, it contains chasteberry, Vitamin B6, marjoram, magnesium, and dandelion. Chasteberry supports balanced hormones, while Vitamin B6, marjoram and magnesium work together to calm an overactive nervous system. Dandelion is added to support the liver in breaking down waste during the hormone cycle.
If your mare isn’t a fan of oral medications, liquid or pelleted, it may be time to try a unique calming cream. Serene by Nature’s Mare Calming Cream is veterinarian tested, approved, and recommended. Its one-of-a-kind formula supports a healthy endocrine system for calmer mares, who are better able to focus. Don’t be afraid to bring this cream along to a horse show, as it is USEF and FEI compliant.
A Calming Supplement for Every Horse
No matter what your horse’s specific situation and needs are, there’s a horse calmer out there that will help them. At Breeches.com, we stock a wide variety of calming supplements for horses to try to meet all of our customers' needs. Have questions about a specific supplement? Reach out to our chat box.
Click here to shop our collection of calming supplements.