Every show family knows this animal: leads like a dog at home, sets up like a pro in the practice pen — and then the fairgrounds happens. Strange sheep, a PA system, sawdust blowing, and suddenly your finished show lamb is a kite on a string. That's the moment people reach for a calming supplement. The ShowRx catalog lists eight distinct products (Composure comes in two sizes), and they are not interchangeable. Here's how to sort liquids from pastes, single doses from loading doses, and pick the one that actually fits your program.
First, the honest part
A calming supplement is the last five percent, not the first ninety-five. No paste replaces weeks of tying, leading, and working an animal at home — the exhibitors who get results from these products are dosing trained animals that simply need the edge taken off. Even then, response is individual: the maker of one multi-active option on this list openly notes that calming products with only one or two actives can be hit-or-miss, and recommends testing at home to find the right dose. That advice applies to all eight. And before anything goes in the tack box, read your premium book — rules on what may be administered at a show vary, and "drug-free" on a label doesn't override a show's own rulebook.
A calming product can take the edge off a broke animal. It cannot break one.
Composure, Focus, and Chill Out
Essential Liquid Composure combines magnesium, thiamine, and tryptophan. The label calls for dosing about two hours before the show or as needed: cattle 15–30 ml, pigs 10–15 ml, sheep and goats 5–10 ml. If you're dosing a string rather than one lamb, the 32 oz bottle can reduce re-ordering through the season.
Sullivan's Focus Oral Calming Liquid is given one to two hours before activity and, among the verified label data on file, is the only one that puts a duration on the label — roughly twelve hours, enough to cover an entire show day on a single application. Rates run the same 5–10 ml for sheep and goats. No guaranteed analysis is published, so you're buying on label directions and reputation.
Chill Out is a paste that takes a different philosophy entirely: seven active ingredients and a loading dose. The maker recommends giving multiple doses over time so it builds in the animal's system — for one that hauls badly, start the night before the trailer leaves — and testing at home first. It's the planner's option, not the last-minute one.
The other pastes: Slow Your Roll, Attitude Adjustment, and Composed
Slow Your Roll Calming Paste is a drug-free, thiamine-based gel — sheep and goats 10–20 cc, pigs and cattle 20–40 cc, 30–60 minutes prior to showing. At roughly a $20 list price, it's the cheapest of the options we have pricing for.
Attitude Adjustment Paste leans on a sodium-bicarbonate rumen buffer plus a sugar-and-oil energy base; the label lists no quantified calming actives. Think of it as the settle-the-gut, settle-the-animal approach — a fresh animal with a comfortable rumen keeps its head. Sheep and goats 10–20 cc; cattle and pigs 20–40 cc.
Rule Composed Paste is the only one on this list with a verified weight-tiered label for pigs, sheep, and goats: under 100 lb gets 10 cc, around 150 lb gets 20 cc, 200 lb and up gets 40 cc (cattle run 80–160 cc by weight). If you're dosing a 90-pound market lamb and don't want to guess, this label does the math for you.
Two more on the list
DED HED and Show Biotics Unwind round out the eight. We don't have verified label rates on file for these two, so they're absent from the chart below — do what you'd do with any new product: read the package, confirm your species is on the label, and confirm the rate before it goes in the tack box. We'd rather tell you we don't have the data than guess at it.
Match the format to your program
| Product | Format | When to give | Sheep & goat label rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essential Liquid Composure | Liquid | ~2 hours before | 5–10 ml |
| Sullivan's Focus | Liquid | 1–2 hours before; lasts ~12 hrs | 5–10 ml |
| Chill Out | Paste | Loading doses, start night before | See label |
| Slow Your Roll | Paste | 30–60 min before | 10–20 cc |
| Attitude Adjustment | Paste | Per label | 10–20 cc |
| Rule Composed | Paste | Per label; weight-tiered | 10 cc under 100 lb |
Every rate above is the published label rate — and a ml and a cc are the same measure. The right dose for your animal depends on its weight and the package in your hand, so read the label.
A few quick decision rules:
- One lamb, one ring: a paste tube may be simplest — no mixing, but follow that product's label timing.
- A string or a week-long show: a larger liquid bottle can reduce re-ordering, and Focus's twelve-hour window covers a long show day.
- A bad hauler: Chill Out's loading approach, started the night before, targets the trip itself.
- Who's dosing: a tube a kid can give calmly beats a drench-gun wrestling match in the make-ready area. The best product is the one you can administer without adding stress.
- Broke and worked at home comes first — supplements take the edge off, they don't train.
- Test any calming product at home before show day; response varies animal to animal.
- Choose format and timing from each product's label; a loading approach may fit a bad hauler.
- Every rate here is a label rate — dose by species and weight off the package in your hand.
