Allison Springer and Business Ben. Photo by Abby Powell.
You’re running late. You were supposed to be tacked up and warming up for your dressage test 10 minutes ago, and you’re just now getting to the show after a messy morning trying to get the kids to school and the dog corralled in the car. Your stress levels are high — your coach hates it when you’re late, your horse is filthy from using manure as a pillow, and you can’t find your stock tie. You take a few deep breaths, attempting to calm yourself, but your nerves and adrenaline are already so high that it seems impossible to slow your racing heart and operate like a normal, functioning human. It’s just 10 minutes, you scream at yourself, it’s not the end of the world! Calm down!
But it doesn’t work. No matter how much you berate yourself for being late and attempt that deep breathing trick your yoga-instructor Facebook friend suggested, nothing seems to work. Your test isn’t a great one, marred by little mistakes and tension. Surely we’ve all been in a similar situation at one point or another — and so have our horses.
Think of the last time you were stressed or nervous beyond belief. Now think of how your horse feels when they experience a similar feeling. As we all know, once a horse is nervous and excited, there isn’t a lot that can be done to bring them back down short of lunging them for an hour and hoping not to die. But there could be another explanation for tension or nerves from your horse: magnesium deficiency. And a horse that has a magnesium deficiency may find it difficult to focus, calm down, or not spook at the trailer they’ve walked by a hundred times. What’s the answer?
Enter Nupafeed.
There are many schools of thought on the efficacy of using supplements as a part of an event horse’s routine. Personally, I’ve always been a bit on the cautious side with a preference to feed horses as naturally as possible to allow their bodies to function as they’re designed to. However, just as a human athlete may supplement their program with shrewdly chosen supplements, it’s much the same with horses. Sometimes, we just need that little extra “something” to help us reach that next level and set our horses up for success.
The more we as horse owners and advocates can understand about what we’re putting in our horses’ bodies, the better off we will all be. It’s our responsibility to conduct our due diligence before making a decision, and having a strong understanding of what each individual horse needs is imperative. I wanted to understand more about how Nupafeed works and what makes these supplements different from their counterparts offered by other brands. Here’s what I learned.
Nupafeed is competition and FEI legal. This is one of the first questions a horse owner needs to ask when deciding whether or not to incorporate a new supplement or dietary aid. You need not worry about the use of Nupafeed’s supplements, as the ingredients are not a part of any
banned substances list.
Nupafeed’s Magnesium supplement is comprised of a compound called MAH (magnesium – aspartate – hydrochloride), which is a more refined, pharmaceutical grade that is absorbed at a much higher rate than other forms of magnesium commonly found in other supplements. The supplements are also in liquid form for easy dressing on top of grain, which also aids in higher absorption rates.
Screenshot via NupafeedUSA.com.
Magnesium deficiency in horses can manifest as physical signs such as muscle soreness, spooky or erratic behavior, and nervousness. Correcting this imbalance helps prevent adrenaline rushes and muscle tension, allowing the horse to focus more on the task at hand. Horses burn magnesium when stressed, so in theory the more tense and stressed a horse is, the more magnesium their bodies are burning through.
If your horse needs an energy or performance boost, Nupafeed has an answer for that, too. Most riders have likely heard of Nupafeed’s Magnesium supplement, but they may not know that the brand also carries an “equine energy supplement” in the form of an L-carnitine liquid. This supplement is unique in that it assists with the metabolism of fat (therefore contributing to an increase in energy) and the reduction of lactic acid (which is great for event horses), but it also contains the aforementioned MAH that acts as a balancer so that the horses do not also become “hot.”
Using Nupafeed smartly can help prime your horse for optimal performance. No one likes to go to work stressed, and this applies to your horse as well. Results from the initial loading dose of Nupafeed’s daily Magnesium liquid can typically be seen in just a few days. Need a shorter term option? Both the Magnesium and the L-carnitine are also available in concentrate oral tubes designed to be given before their effects are needed, such as at a show.
Nerves and tension are a normal part of competition, but some horses may need an extra boost to defy their biological response to certain stressors. By honing in specifically on their products without offering too many choices, Nupafeed has built a reputation for having simply made products whose effects are widely known and trusted for providing a bit of extra help without sacrificing integrity.
