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Kat's order of diagnosing problem horses is analagous to how adults try to figure out 
what's wrong with them.  Physical/physiological first, mental/behavioral second.  But 
as Jim pointed out, horses are more like 2 year olds, not adults.  Your 2 year old 
toddler suddenly starts throwing things at you, you don't say, "Hmmm could this be a 
magnesium deficiency?" No, you figure immediately that he's testing his environment 
and you had damn well better set some boundaries fast!

A point to consider in trying to determine whether or not YOUR horse is magnesium 
deficient is hinted at in the study Kat quoted.  This study, "Determined that 
marginal magnesium deprivation... of healthy postmenopausal women results in... 
increased CNS irritability observed in individuals with clinical hypomagnesmia."  The 
magic word is "irritability".  Second magical word is "clinical" so let's forget 
subclinical, at least as far as this study is concerned.

If your horse is magnesium deficient, the symptoms will be 24/7 and should be most 
apparent when your horse is NOT in a training/schooling situation.  As both Kat and 
Jim pointed out, horses are compliant so under saddle they might act as trained, not 
as how they feel.  But at liberty?  Wouldn't such a horse be IRRITABLE? Grouchy, 
"off", unhappy?  If your horse gets along with his buddies, doesn't spook at 
invisible ghosts in his pasture/paddock/stall, is reasonable about being tacked up, 
mounted, ridden down the driveway, not flat, not ears "irked", mouth relaxed not 
scrunchy (I had a horse that positively scrunched up his whole face when pissed) and 
then ...  BLAM! he spooks...  well duh...

And of course the good news is that IF your horse is magnesium deficient, all you 
need to do is add a VERY TEENSY WEENSY bit of magnesium to his diet and PRESTO 
CHANGO!!! Your horse will stop spooking!  I am NOT holding MY breath on this one :) 
Oh.. BTW, remember that awful Tom Ivers and his warning about the chelating potential 
of beet pulp?  Well, IF your horse's blood work comes back deficient in magnesium and 
 you are feeding beet pulp, you might need to add a teensy weensy bit more to cover 
that.


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