Experiences with Quietex or other natural calming supplement???

Question

Has anyone ever used any thing like this? Positive or negative experiences? We just "bought"/rescued a mare (yesterday) and no one can touch her - she's scared to death. I can rub her neck - but if I reach toward her head/halter she jerks away. I need to get ahold of her and don't want to freak her out more - while usually I would get her in a round pen (feed) and work with her until I can touch her - the halter the people left on her at the auction is twisted and I'm worried it is going to get sore - so that limits the time I have. I'm thinking a dose of this stuff may calm her enough I can get the halter off and then proceed with training as usual. No, don't plan on using it all the time or in place of training - don't want doped up horses - just thinking some in her food may help this time. Thoughts?

Answer 1

I have a retired barrel racer who is running 'hot' 24/7, and in her feed every day I give her a supplement called 'cool and calm'. It comes in feed form and paste, and it has helped her to 'keep her head on'. Although through feed, you have to use it for about a week before it works, and as a paste, it sounds as though it would be difficult to insert into her mouth. Just try rubbing her down- drape a lead around your shoulders, and just rub her all over her neck and slowly creep up to her head- if you can get that lead on her, it would make it more difficult for her to pull out of your hands. Wear leather gloves to avoid rope burn! Slow and steady is best for this kind of horse- Good luck!

Answer 2

try "relaxher" it is made for mares only and works great. it is all natural made of all herbs. i use it lon my mare and with in one or two days i saw a huge difference. it is in powder form. you give her half a scoop in the morning and half a scoop at night. it works great.

Answer 3

Well as mentioned, this sounds more like a trust issue then the horse being hot.  

If you were to do a calming supplement I would reccomend and herbal one first before going to a drug.  Also, going with an herbal is ok since it will not show in a drug test and its less chemicals in their body.

There is Moody Mare which is just raspberry leaves that are dried.  It seems to be the least expensive calmer out there too and horses dont have a problem eating it.  Although just to warn you it does look like something else that you could smoke, but I assure you it is just raspberry leaves.  I have known horses on it that it works well for.

There is also a spray that is called Modipher EQ.  Its the same hormone that mares give off when they are in foal that calms the foals.  Since you mentioned you cant seem to catch her I really wouldnt try it since it is supposed to be applied to the nose.  You might be able to put it on your hands though.  That might help having the scent on you.

There is also a supplement called Relaxform EQ.  It does have some herbal ingreadiants but there is no valerian or tryptophan.  But I think that the passion flower can show on a drug test.  I would have to double check on that.

Wendals herbs makes a calmer that seems to work well that is more herbal but 5 of the 10 ingrediants will show on a drug test.  There are two strenghts, Calmer and super calmer.  The super calmer does have trypophan in it along with more of a "kick" in the ingrediant list.

Then you get into your drug calmers like Calm and Cool (paste or pellets) and Quietex.  

As far as what youre doing it doesnt sound like you will be showing anytime soon so I dont think you have to worry about testing positive at a show.  But I like that you are wanting to stay away from drug calmers.  I would go with the Moody Mare first since it is the most natural and least expensive.

The last option I have for you which is what I would go with is a supplement by Adeptus called Allay.  It is designed for digestion really but it has ingrediants like magnesium and licorice that work as a natural calmer.  Since it sounds like your horse is highly stressed using this is ideal.  It will help her foregut and hind gut and keep the acidity from building up and causing ulcers.  Its very digestable because of the form it is in.  Basically, for the horse to digest and get something from a feed it needs to be in the correct molecular form so that the body digests it rather then filtering it out.  Adeptus has done years and years of research to ensure their products are digested and not filtered out.  Dr. Colleen Wilson is always happy to answer an questions personally and her contact number is 1-866-233-7887.

As far as where you can get any of the products listed, Marys tack and feed carries all of them at very reasonable prices too.

Answer 4

I don't think this will give you the results you want.  Calming supplements take the "edge" off of a broke horse to make them less nervous/anxious.  A horse with severe distrust of humans will not settle down enough to do what you are wanting to do with only an herbal supplement.