Evolutionarily-speaking, the horse is a prey animal and, as such, is a creature of flight. | Photo: iStock

The new research, conducted by the WALTHAM Equine Studies Group, based in in Leicestershire, England, and Australian collaborators, will be presented at the 2015 Equine Science Society Symposium, taking place May 26-29 in St. Pete’s Beach, Florida.

Evolutionarily-speaking, the horse is a prey animal and, as such, is a creature of flight. Today, if owners deep that flight reaction to be excessive, they might opt to use calming supplements that typically contain magnesium. To date, there has been no published evidence to show that magnesium can have a calmative effect in horses.

The study was conducted at Charles Sturt University in New South Wales, Australia, by PhD candidate Jessica Dodd and supervised by Glenys Noble, BAppSc(Equine Studies), GradCertTeach&Learn, PhD, in collaboration with Pat Harris MA, PhD, VetMB, Dipl. ECVCN, MRCVS, and her WALTHAM Equine Studies Group. The researchers investigated the effects of magnesium aspartate supplementation on the reaction speeds of six Standardbred geldings