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RE: [RC] Magnesium supplementing...etc. - katswig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxJim Holland said: My point was that looking for an "easy fix" like a diet deficiency would not be my first assumption when trying to solve a spook problem. However, there are many OTHER indicators which would tell me what the "personality" of that horse is and how to deal with it. It's not a "one fix" problem, but no matter WHAT you do with diet, you MUST provide the training or live with the spook. The point is, simply adding magnesium to a magnesium deficient diet, IMHO, is not going to result in a "magical" change in behavior. It might. If the cause of the horse's spookiness is hyperexcitability of the CNS due to a magnesium deficiency, then if you get rid of the magnesium deficiency, then you get rid of the hyperexcitability of the CNS and you get rid of the spookiness, all without having done any training at all. And since hyperexcitability of the CNS is a classic symptom of magnesium deficiency, a wise horseman might want to look there first. Not because it is an "easy fix" but because what it might be is an early warning sign of a dietary deficiency in your horse that will manifest itself in much worse ways if you just train it out of the horse without addressing the deficiency and then take the horse out on an endurance ride where the hyperexcitability of the CNS becomes a problem with the neuromuscular system and the horse has a seizure, collapses and dies all because you DIDN'T consider the possibility that your horse's spookiness wasn't a training problem at all, but a nutritional problem. All because you didn't want to be accused of taking the easy way out. Please note that I am not saying that all spooky horses are magnesium deficient, just that if you have an unusually spooky horse, it is more than worthwhile to consider that it might be. Don't just try to mask one of the symptoms of magnesium deficiency by schooling your horse not to exhibit his physiological problems. We aren't talking about a sedative here. We are talking about a mineral that is essential to keep the horses nervous system functioning properly. And hypomagnesmia is a common complaint in cattle who eat too much fresh green grass, which is why there exist salt blocks in feed stores in cattle country that also contain magnesium oxide (not just because eating too much green grass causes grass tetany, aka the staggers, but also because chloride apparently helps with the assimilation of magnesium). Truman once told me that Ken Marcella once told him that he thinks we endurance riders aren't paying enough attention to magnesium. And all my investigations into it so far suggest that this is definitely the case. If general spookiness can be identified as a good early indicator of magnesium dificiency, then we would be fools to not consider it first, rather than dismissing the spookiness as just a schooling problem. kat Orange County, Calif. -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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