Frequently Asked Questions

Is Sweet Relief safe?

Yes. Sweet Relief contains nothing but B vitamins in a limestone flour base. It is quite difficult to overdose on B vitamins - for example some human supplements contain as much as 70 times the RDA for some B vitamins. The body has to be able to cope with large fluctuations in B vitamin levels as the levels of bacteria that produce these B vitamins in the gut go up and down. The quantities in Sweet Relief are similar to those naturally produced in a horse's gut so are nowhere near high enough to cause an overdose.

Could my horse become allergic to Sweet Relief?

No. The limestone flour base contains no proteins for the immune system to attack and the B vitamin active ingredients are normal parts of the body's biochemistry.

I feed my horse twice per day. Should I split the dose over the two feeds?

Yes. While Sweet Relief will work for most horses when fed once per day, a better result may be obtained by putting half the dose in the morning feed and half in the evening feed. This is because B vitamins aren't stored very effectively in the body.

Can I feed a larger dose that that recommended on the pack?

Within reason, yes. In the initial trials we had some horses on up to 4 times the normal dose without any side effects. There is certainly no theoretical reason why feeding slightly higher doses should cause problems. However, because the normal dose is close to what a horse needs in the first place, feeding a lot more is unlikely to have a significant further effect. Where Sweet Relief is giving some improvement but not enough, we would recommend increasing the dose to a maximum of 3 times the normal dose. If the increased dose does not give any further improvement, reduce the dose back to the initial dose.

Is Sweet Relief safe to use with other supplements?

Yes, so long as those supplements don't contain high dose B vitamins (which is unlikely).

To I still need to use a fly rug?

Sweet Relief isn't necessarily going to cure your horse of sweet itch (although in the early trials it does seem to have done so for some of the milder cases) so we'd recommend continuing to use a fly rug.

If my horse's gut isn't producing enough B vitamins, how can I improve that situation?

Sadly there just isn't enough data yet on how a horse's digestion is affected by domestication. We know that digestive problems such as gastric ulcers are very common in domesticated horses, but we don't even yet know the full details of what the correct balance of bacteria in a horse's gut is. However it seems sensible to make sure your horse is on a healthy diet - see the 'How to use' page for more details.

I already feed brewer's yeast - should I stop feeding that when starting with Sweet Relief?

Brewer's yeast contains a good mix of B vitamins (apart from not containing B12) but not at massively high doses. For example, one analysis of brewer's yeast I looked at suggested that a typical 30g dose would provide around 1mg of vitamin B1 (although there is potentially a big variation between different types of yeast and also depending on how it has been processed and stored). The recommended daily allowance of B1 for a 500kg horse is around 30mg, so the brewer's yeast is unlikely to do much in relation to B1. Some of the other B vitamins are a little higher but still relatively low in real terms. Brewer's yeast does seem to help some horses which suggests that in some cases even these low doses can be beneficial - but if the horse is really struggling to produce B vitamins then brewer's yeast, while helpful, is unlikely to provide enough to maintain optimum nutrition.

That said, where brewer's yeast has helped, I'd suggest continuing with it while trialling Sweet Relief. That's because the brewer's yeast will supply some B vitamins that aren't in the Sweet Relief and, even at low doses, this may be beneficial. There's certainly no risk of brewer's yeast causing problems when fed with Sweet Relief because for those vitamins that are in Sweet Relief, the brewer's yeast only provides a tiny additional contribution.

Is the product legal for competition purposes?

Yes. Sweet Relief does not contain any ingredient that is listed in the FEI prohibited substances list.

What about the magnesium in the new formulation?

Early feedback from the trials has suggested that those horses that are already being fed supplementary magnesium get more benefit from Sweet Relief. So the latest batch has some added magnesium. Each dose of the new batch provides around 2g of magnesium. It is normally very safe to feed at least 6g of extra magnesium per day to a 500kg horse so even if you're feeding 3 times the normal dose this should be fine.

However, if you're already feeding a supplement that contains high doses of magnesium, adding Sweet Relief in (especially at more than the standard dose) might mean your horse is getting too much magnesium. I'd recommend reducing the dose of any such supplement accordingly. For example, if you're feeding 10g per day of magnesium oxide to a 500kg horse - that already provides around 6g of magnesium. So if you're want to feed one dose per day of Sweet Relief, you'd want to reduce the dose of magnesium oxide to around 7g per day. If you were feeding 3 times the normal dose of Sweet Relief, that would provide enough magnesium that you wouldn't need to feed the magnesium oxide separately at all.

Quite a few products on the market now contain added magnesium. Many (for example most balancers) don't contain enough magnesium to be a problem when fed with Sweet Relief. However, some (for example some calmers) may contain high doses of magnesium and hence you may need to reduce the dose of them if using with Sweet Relief.

If you do accidentally feed too much magnesium to your horse, the first sign is that the droppings become loose. If that happens, check how much magnesium you're supplementing in total and reduce as necessary.