Claims linking eventing deaths with high levels of magesium in equine diets

The British Equestrian Trade Association (BETA) has received several complaints about an email and editorial issued by Malcolm Green, of EquiFeast, entitled: “Is magnesium contributing to eventing deaths?” Citing anecdotal evidence and a number of studies, it suggests that high dietary intakes of magnesium might be linked to the impairment of brain function in the horse. To our knowledge, no study has been conducted that links increased levels of magnesium in diets with the impairment of brain function, as claimed.

BETA members are free to express their own views, but the BETA Feed Committee considers it wholly inappropriate to suggest even tentative links between the three recent terrible personal tragedies – details of which are unknown to the trade – and an issue that is firstly linked to a company’s product marketing, secondly might cause additional distress to all connections and thirdly could cause distraction from finding out the issues behind them.