To be honest I just can't resist putting these pictures on the web site!

Bonnie, tho pony, is owned by Laura Whittington but riden mostly by little Maddie. Laura contacted us for help with Bonnie's behaviour. She was also concerned about the risk of laminitis. She was already on a magnesium supplement with relatively little impact. She also had a history of digestive upsets. We used Cool, Calm and Collected and Laura was delighted with the outcome as she got lots of extra benefits she was not expecting!

These are some of the email we have exchanged with Laura split into topics:

Laminitis

Digestion

Behaviour

From: Laura

Hi Malcolm,

Thanks very much.

Initial report on CCC is ………..

Wow!!!!!!!!!!! It has had the effect I wanted and more. Amazing stuff, I just hope it continues at the maintenance level. There was a major difference in my pony on the very first ride which was only her 4 ^th day of CCC, and second ride was just as good….!! It has even helped her digestion. It has helped her in all the ways I wanted, and more. I have done so much for this pony, and it seems CCC is going to be the icing on the cake. At the moment I have one happy pony (and so a happy owner!) and I just hope it continues.

Thanks so much

Laura (and Bonnie!)

From: Laura

Hi Malcolm,

Have you heard of CCC helping with digestion? My pony has always had a dodgy digestive system, and has always been silly/fizzy/nervous type. For no bad reason because I had her as a baby. I am not sure which comes first, the rubbish digestive system making her nervous etc because she doesn't digest all the vits and mins etc that she needs, or the stressiness causing her digestive system not to work properly.

I put her on yea-sacc a year ago and her digestive system has been so much better. Almost perfect for about 8 months, and then recently it has gone rubbish again. At the same time she is acting more stressy/nappy etc. Chicken and egg situation, but they are definitely related.

Just wondered if you've had any others like this? If CCC has an effect I am almost sure it would help her digestion too.

Thanks

Laura

From: Malcolm Green

Hi Laura,

When an animal is stressed its body goes into 'fight or flight mode'. This means that blood is pumped into the heart, lungs, muscles etc. To get this blood it is taken from the digestive system. This starves the gut of nutrients and leads to bio-chemical imbalances. This is a downward spiral.

Live yeasts, like Yea-Sacc, will help restore the balance but better is to remove the stressor that is really the primary cause. CC&C may well deal with the primary stressor - only time will tell. Certainly it has helped many apparently similar situations.

Longer term it is better to maintain the gut chemistry with a high fibre diet and prebiotics (support for beneficial microflora rather than artificial bugs). A new product for competition horses we are launching soon will help with that and may be appropriate for your horse.

I am not in the office so can't access the detail of the magnesium content of CC&C. There should be plenty and the form we use is very easy for the horse to absorb. However, in the absence of the detail, continue with some magnesium supplementation. Any excess will simply be exctreted in the urine.

Hope this helps.

Malcolm

From: Laura Whittington

Hi,

I am interested in purchasing some Cool, Calm and Collected for my pony. However, she has had laminitis in the past. She is on a very strict diet and routine, so would she be ok with the normal CCC? How likely is it to cause problems? I can't really afford to buy the double strength (I know I would need to use less but I just don't have that kind of money at the mo) and don't really want to risk it not having an effect when the normal CC might.

Thanks

Laura

From: Malcolm Green

Hi Laura,

In the past all sorts of things have been blamed for causing laminitis. Protein was originally thought to be the problem then sugars and more recently it appears that particular sugars called fructans are the real issue. Fructan levels in pasture increase at certain times of year and even vary at certain times of day.

Some of the ingredients in CC&C break down in the body and release glucose. Now glucose is a perfectly normal sugar to be floating around in the bloodstream so my belief is that it cannot cause any problem. The body regulates the glucose level so any excesses are stored in the liver and muscles (as glycogen). So again there should be no problem.

To me the issues to help prevent laminitis are:

1. A high fibre diet

2. Low fructan diet

3. Low carbohydrate/sugar diet

4. High magnesium levels (to fuel the insulin cycle)

CC&C at the loading level would supply less than 1% of the diet as sugar. This is much less than grass would supply. Even de-sugared beet is still 5% sugar. In other words there are lots of other components of the diet that would be a greater risk than CC&C. CC&C is providing quite a lot of magnesium.

So, if it was my horse, I would use CC&C. The chances of success are certainly higher than with DS CC&C which is not as good on some horses.

I hope this helps.

Malcolm Green