CALMTONIC for Horses | Organic Herbal Support for Calm, Nerves & Anxiety 🍂OCTOBER SALE - 20%-OFF - USE CODE RESET20
Short-course calm for moments of overwhelm.
Most horses don’t live in a constant state of stress - but some can tip over in specific situations - the loading ramp, the warm-up ring, clippers, the farrier or dental, separation...
One moment they’re fine - the next, their adrenaline is running the show where we get the planted feet, the trembling, spinning, barging, blowing, shutting down... CalmTonic was formulated for exactly these horses.
" Rosie is doing so well. She is travelling like an absolute pro, not a hint of anxiety now. I’m so pleased with her." Helen B.
A valerian-free blend for short-term, situational calm – designed to support a settled, responsive horse through predictable stressful moments.
NB. If your horse is unsettled much of the time, rather than around particular situations, we'd look at the wider stress picture instead. See our Stress page for more.
*For the latest equine calming insights, see our A-Z Equine Condition/Calming
page
in our Advice Centre above.
Overview - when a normally settled horse suddenly isn't
There's an important difference between a horse living with ongoing stress and one who becomes overwhelmed by a particular situation.
CalmTonic is for the second horse.
They may be perfectly happy hacking at home, then unravel in the competition warm-up. Walk calmly around the yard, but plant at the loading ramp. Stand beautifully for grooming, yet struggle when the clippers come out.
The trigger changes - but the pattern doesn't: s omething happens → tension rises → thinking becomes harder → coping becomes harder too.
The aim isn't to switch the horse off
A horse facing something they find difficult still needs to be aware of what's happening around them.
They need to balance in the lorry, listen to their handler, respond to their rider, move safely around the farrier or vet. So CalmTonic isn't about creating a dull or disconnected horse.
Its combination of traditional calming nervines and supporting herbs – including Lemon Balm, Chamomile and Vervain – is designed to support the nervous system during those short periods when a horse finds it harder to stay settled.
The aim is much simpler - less overwhelmed, more able to cope.
And that's where CalmTonic earns its place. Use it around a known short-term trigger
– travelling, competing, clipping, farrier or veterinary visits, separation or another temporarily stressful event.
Meanwhile... If those moments have started joining together and your horse rarely seems able to properly switch off, we're no longer looking at situational stress.
That's when we'd step back and look at StressTonic instead.
How CalmTonic fits into your horse's support plan
CalmTonic is a good fit when your horse is usually perfectly capable of coping – until something specific tips them over the edge.
✔ Loads reluctantly or becomes anxious once travelling
✔ Finds clipping, farrier, dental or veterinary visits difficult
✔ Becomes tense or overwhelmed at competitions or away from home
✔ Needs short-term support while adjusting to something unfamiliar
✔ Needs a valerian-free option where competition rules matter
In short: if you can point to the thing that's upsetting your horse – and once it's over, they're basically themselves again – CalmTonic is where we'd start.
Supporting the wider picture
Sometimes the answer is as simple as helping them through a difficult few days. But if those stressful moments are starting to join together, we'd look again.
- StressTonic – If those difficult moments are starting to join together, or your horse seems tense, vigilant, tired-but-wired or withdrawn even when nothing obvious is happening, we'd look at the longer-term stress picture instead.
Foundation support
A calmer nervous system still needs the ordinary things underneath it.
Supporting your horse's baseline nutrition with a forage-based mineral blend such as EquiVita or VitaComplete helps provide the nutritional foundations the nervous system, muscles and wider stress response rely upon every day.
In summary
Use CalmTonic when something specific temporarily changes your horse.
The lorry, the clippers, competition day, the vet, a new yard... If the trigger passes and your horse comes back to themselves, that's CalmTonic territory.
Composition & feed guide
*CalmTonic is a nutritional, functional food supplement and not veterinary medicine. For more on this, see Dr Kellon's article - Nutrition is not 'Alternative' Therapy .
What's in CalmTonic?
Seven traditional herbs, each chosen to support a different part of the nervous, physical and digestive response when a horse becomes overwhelmed.
- Matricaria chamomilla – Gentle nervine and calming digestive herb.
- Crataegus oxycanthoides – Traditional cardiovascular herb, helping ground adrenaline spikes and supporting emotional balance.
- Melissa officinalis – Gentle aromatic nervine calming restlessness, nervous tension and digestive comfort.
- Glycyrrhiza glabra radix – Restorative root with an affinity for the adrenals.
- Althaea officinalis radix – Soothing, mucilage-rich herb traditionally valued for supporting delicate digestive tissues.
- Mentha piperita folia – Cooling aromatic herb traditionally valued for digestive comfort and settling gas.
- Verbena officinalis – Traditional nervine where nervous tension and physical tightness are part of the picture.
💧Tincture
Our human-grade, certified organic tinctures capture the plants' naturally occurring constituents in a concentrated, easy-to-feed liquid form.
- Feed 6ml/100kg bodyweight per day, i.e. 30ml for a 500kg horse.
Fussy Eater?
Horses sometimes have their own opinions (and strong tastebuds!), so introduce gradually, building up over several days. See our Fussy Eaters guide for helpful tips if needed.
♻️ Eco Note: Our packaging is recyclable and refillable.
"Energetics" - how CalmTonic works
If you want the science, ' energetic architecture ' explains how a blend is designed to work across the nervous system, body, and emotional response pathways - not just which herbs are included, but how they interact to create a specific effect.
CalmTonic is built around one simple idea: when arousal rises quickly, calm needs more than one route back in.
How the formula works
- Settling nervous-system reactivity - Lemon Balm, Chamomile and Vervain form the calming heart of the blend, traditionally used to support nervous-system balance when tension, over-alertness and emotional reactivity begin to rise.
- Easing the physical side of tension - Stress has a body as well as a brain. Marshmallow and Peppermint support digestive and physical comfort, while Hawthorn brings its traditional affinity with cardiovascular and emotional steadiness – helping support the horse as that whole-body stress response settles.
- Supporting the stress response without switching the horse off - Liquorice rounds out the formula with broader support for normal adrenal and stress-response function.
The aim isn't a horse who notices less - it's a horse who can experience the difficult thing without the response running away with them.
Big picture
CalmTonic supports the nervous system, body and stress response together during those moments when arousal is beginning to outrun coping.
Less overwhelmed, still present, still responsive - still your horse.
Clinical considerations / veterinary reference
Advisories
- For a known stressful event, consider introducing CalmTonic around 5 days beforehand, continuing through the event and, where useful, for 2–3 days afterwards.
Contraindications
- Not suitable for pregnant or nursing mares (mild hormonal modulation).
- Avoid concurrent use with steroid or anticoagulant medications unless under veterinary guidance.
- Do not combine with other calming or sedative supplements unless professionally advised.
Veterinary reference / formulary extract
A concise, vet-friendly reference is available for sharing with your vet.
CalmTonic FAQs
How do I know if CalmTonic is right for my horse?
The biggest clue is usually that you can name the thing that upsets them.
They're perfectly happy at home, but the moment the lorry ramp comes down, everything changes. Or they're beautifully behaved for grooming until someone produces the clippers, when suddenly they've grown another six legs.
That's CalmTonic territory - designed for horses who generally cope well with everyday life but become overwhelmed by particular situations.
If the difficult moment passes and your usual horse comes back, CalmTonic is where we'd start.
Will CalmTonic make my horse sleepy or less responsive?
No - that's not the aim. CalmTonic brings together traditional calming herbs to support nervous-system balance during those difficult moments, without being formulated as a sedative.
A horse who's travelling, competing or having their feet trimmed still needs to be aware of what's happening around them.
We don't want a horse who's switched off - we want one who's less overwhelmed and better able to think.
When should I start feeding CalmTonic before travelling, clipping or competing?
Ideally, don't wait until your horse is already halfway up the walls.
If you know a trigger might be coming, we'd suggest introducing CalmTonic around 5-d ays beforehand, continuing through the event and, where useful, for a couple of days afterwards.
That gives you an opportunity to see how your horse responds, rather than introducing something unfamiliar on the morning of a competition or veterinary visit.
What's the difference between CalmTonic and StressTonic?
This is one of the most useful distinctions we make.
- CalmTonic is for the horse who becomes stressed by something specific. The lorry, the vet, a competition - there's a recognisable trigger, and once it's over, the horse generally settles again.
- StressTonic is for the horse who doesn't seem able to properly switch off, even when nothing particularly stressful is happening. They may be constantly vigilant, reactive, tense, tired-but-wired, or sometimes surprisingly quiet and withdrawn.
One is about helping a horse through a difficult moment, the other is about supporting a nervous system that's struggling to recover between those moments.
My horse freezes or shuts down rather than getting spooky. Could CalmTonic still help?
Absolutely worth considering. We tend to picture a stressed horse as the one spinning, barging, snorting or trying to leave the county. But some horses respond very differently.
They plant their feet, become unusually still, stop responding to familiar cues or appear to withdraw from what's happening around them.
That doesn't necessarily mean they're calm - sometimes it means the situation has become too much.
If that response happens around a particular trigger, CalmTonic may be an appropriate part of helping them cope, alongside careful, confidence-building handling.
But reminder - quiet and comfortable aren't always the same thing.
Can I use CalmTonic for a horse who struggles with loading or travelling?
Yes — this is exactly the sort of situation CalmTonic was designed around.
CalmTonic can provide additional nervous-system support around those predictable stressful moments.
Can I use CalmTonic for competitions?
CalmTonic was formulated as a valerian-free option for owners who need situational calming support without using that particular competition-restricted herb.
But competition rules can change, so we'd always recommend checking the current regulations for your discipline and the complete ingredient list before competing. And... we'd certainly try CalmTonic at home first.
Competition morning is quite exciting enough without introducing something new to the feed bucket!
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