Holistic Horse Care Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Lessons from Nelipot Cottage

Today We Turn Left

STOP PRESS UNTIL MAY 2022 ALL DONATIONS raised by this blog will go to the Veloo Foundation, feeding and education the children in Mongolia who would otherwise scratch for survival on the refuse tip in UB Mongolia. The link to donate is to be found here http://www.veloofoundation.com/fran-mcnicol.html

Successfully taking THE turn left in the village at that certain corner felt like a milestone of relief and success in the journey that is Rocky’s rehab, or ongoing training.

What do you mean successfully turning left I hear you cry? It’s a simple street corner, you just go around it. What is the big deal?

Well, yes, we do simply go around the corner. But in horse terms there are many ways to go around it. Sideways, backwards, scared, rushing, one step at a time. All of which have achieved the simple objective of getting around the corner, but none of which, in horse training terms, are necessarily a success in terms of simply going around the corner. And there are some special reasons why this corner is so significant.

When you have a horse with severe separation anxiety, every turning or crossing can become a seemingly insurmountable barrier to independent, forwards progress. I have a picture map in my head of obstacles that Rocky and I have gradually overcome.

The first landmark is the main road that we couldn’t cross alone, at least not with me on board. I ‘solved’ this problem by getting off to lead him across the road. I knew I could do this safely because there is a bench 100m further on down the side street that I can then use as a mounting block to get back on.

It then took us a while to leave the environs of the bench. I would get back on and he would go sideways and backwards and anywhere but forwards and therefore further away from home. He had a very strict sense of the precise diameter of his circle of safety around his home base.

The next stage was that he would cross the road with me on top but refuse to pass the bench. A few more weeks of riding out with friends for company and confidence helped us to get the short route around the village nailed until we were able to navigate it alone.

Our other regular route around the village doesn’t involve crossing the main road. We use this as the early training hack for all the young and new horses, because there is no main road to negotiate. Instead, we turn left, tootle through the estate, left again through the immaculate gardens of groomed suburbia and then arrive at the crucial corner- turning right takes us along to the cul de sac which we then use as a turning circle to reverse the route and come home. This circuit is familiar, safe, easy and non threatening.

Turning right at that corner is also turning towards home, as the crow flies, and the horse knows, even though we don’t use it as a way straight home on most of our normal hacking routes.

Horses always know where they are in relation to home. They always know the quickest way home as the crow flies. What they don’t always know is how the road layout goes, or what fences, bridges or rivers might be in the way.

I learned this years ago with Paddy. When we first used to go for our enormous long adventures around Delamere Forest, it was all too easy to get lost. We were on livery there in the good old days, when being able to walk in a wild and beautiful forest was considered entertainment enough, before the forest had to make a profit, and the Forestry Commission put up glossy information signs everywhere, and laid out children’s activity trails and erected huge Gruffalo carvings, and felled vast tranches of trees to make way for the holiday cabins. In those halcyon days, when we got lost, we knew to look over the treetops for the radio mast on the crest of the big hill. Heading for that mast would take you back to the yard and cups of tea and safety.

The Old Pale radio mast- a beacon in more ways than one

Except there was one part of the forest where you couldn’t see the radio mast. And I didn’t know the forest all that well in those early days. And the trails in that deepest, furthest away part of the forest were laid out in overlapping loops rather than a nice logical grid. Mobile phones were in their infancy, we didn’t have 4G or Google maps with a satellite setting that showed you where you were on the paths cut through the forest. All Paddy and I had was each other, in the often fading light.

One day Paddy and I were hopelessly lost, or should I say I was. I remembered back to the old cowboy stories of horses finding their own way home, and I had nothing to lose so I gave him his head and let him choose the direction of travel at each identical forestry trail intersection. And we did indeed get closer and closer to home with each confidently chosen path. The boy was doing fab, he knew exactly where to go.

Until we arrived chest on to the long side of one very large field, marked out by three stranded barbed wire fences, so close yet so far away from the welcome sight of the familiar track that led back to the yard!

I mentally tossed a coin and turned right. The narrow little path that led through the trees around the edge of the field was obviously well travelled by dog walkers albeit no horses. And it led around the field with no more obstacles except the narrow stile (feet up on to the pommel of the saddle to squeeze through) that let us onto the familiar track home.

That moment of choice turned out to be a gift from the universe – the little travelled track opened up a bit, and, running on perfect undulating leaf mould and sandy soil, it became one of our favourite canter tracks. Its remoteness was the key – for many years this propitious find was the last natural surface available for us to canter on as the forest tracks were gradually hard-cored and widened and rolled and stoned and “improved” to allow parents in unsuitable shoes to pay for parking and walk, pushing their thin wheeled city buggies, and then even take Segway tours all over our previously wild and beautiful place.

The forest became a business, that had to turn a profit, rather than a national treasure that had to be protected

But nowadays we are on a different livery yard, on the outskirts of town with the motorways humming in the background, and our local hacking now involves tours of the neat and manicured streets of an affluent and immaculate commuter estate. Think of a British version of Stepford Wives and you would have it down to a tee.

Turning left at the special corner takes us further away from home, towards the cycleway and also our longer looping routes around the countryside. So as well as turning away from home, as the crow flies, away from safety, turning left here also means that more work or effort will be required.

This is the view we see as humans turning left.

The horse however sees a different view.

The horse is crossing his own invisible barrier away from the safe circle of home into dragon country.

More challenges will be encountered on this route out into the country. We often meet pods of competitive road cyclists, racing their own wrist-timers in a pure fug of adrenaline and focused aggression. There are whole families out for a stroll, with screaming toddlers either waddling around or hidden in prams and buggies. Or the baby cyclists, wobbling around erratically on their tiny trikes, often with little control over their direction or destiny.

How the horse sees
For the horse, objects that come from behind, from their blind spot into the area of marginal sight, at speed, are the scariest of all. This is the path the big cat would take when hunting them. and the path many CYCLISTS seem to blithely imitate.

Please spread this graphic around- so many cyclists think they are doing right by creeping up on us carefully and quietly, exactly like a lion would.

Other hazards on these longer countryside routes include the poorly socialised city dogs. Dogs who rarely see horses will be leaping around, straining at their leads or even worse, harrying at the horses heels, barking and yapping furiously, completely unlike our farm dogs who have learnt to carefully ignore the bloody great animals in their midst.

So all in all turning left at the crucial corner is a challenge, for horse and for rider.

My stupid human worry about us having difficulty turning left is ridiculous but not quite spurious. The lady who lives on the bungalow on the crucial corner is really obsessive about her precious postage stamp lawn. And Rocky has reversed onto it, bum almost to the bay windows, traversed the green square sideways in perfect full pass and once cut across it at full pelt, on our previous misadventures. She will graciously accept white wine as a peace offering but I can tell the hoof prints might as well have trampled into her heart.

One of the key tenets of mindfulness is that we must stay in the moment and not allow ourselves to worry about that which has not yet occurred.

So yesterday Rocky and I were striding out boldly in the lead as my friend and companion shouted out “do you want to be on the inside or the outside?”

“We’re just going for it” I called back.

Rocky stepped out, relaised we were going left, tried backwards once, sideways once, but his sturdy and trusty companion carried on straight around the corner on the outside of us and the next thing we knew, we had all turned left.

Easily, successfully, with no stress and no argument and only a tiny little shimmy of anxiety. For the first time since September. For the first time since his back surgery.

Today we turned left.

Thank you as always for reading. I truly appreciate each and every precious glance. To those generous influencers who comment, share the site with friends or help to promote in any other way, I remain eternally grateful. To the supporters willing and able to offer funds, whether small or large, karma is finding its way back to you with a rainbow of horses and abundance beyond your dreams. I welcome each of you to join in our lifelong adventure.

If Only my Horse could Talk…

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“If only my horse could talk!”

How many times have we all said those words? In jest, or in despair?

But consider that our horses could be equally frustrated, stamping their feet and tossing their manes and screaming “if only my human could listen”

They don’t actually scream of course. Until it gets really bad and then they need to get really loud.

Amongst themselves horses talk mostly in whispers, a sideways look, a flick of an ear, an imperceptible yield. Horses are naturally very peaceable animals. The equine ethologist Lucy Rees has spent a lifetime observing horses in the wild.

“To understand horses and their difficulties in our hands, we need to watch them as they really are, without anthropomorphic interpretations and expectations”

To this end, she has studied many populations of feral horses in the Americas and Australia, above all in Venezuela, where for years she ran residential ethology courses. These studies led to Horses In Company (2017), a book whose evolutionary perspective revolutionises our view of horse society. She started the Pottoka Project, in which she released a herd of feral Basque ponies in the mountains of north Extremadura, and, with a few volunteers, observes them as they live normal equid lives.

There is a very educational and beautiful series of short films available on her website or via Epona TV

Meet the Pottoka

For me, her most astonishing finding is that, in an environment in which there is no resource shortage, horses exhibit virtually no conflict behaviour. I have written about this before, against the context of that other pervasive myth, the alpha male.

The Myth of the Alpha

This is a lesson that I thought I had learned already. but as the saying goes, until you truly know something, and take that truth to heart and actually act on that truth, you don’t really know that something.

The last year and a half have been really tricky for me and Rocky. I previously told the story of his initial diagnosis of a sore back. His time off and six months of slow and careful rehab,

The Rocky Road to Rehab

coincided with my change in personal circumstances. However, as we got back into consistent work there was no real improvement to his behaviour. His back looked and felt perfect, with improving muscle coverage and no sore spots, but his behaviour remained erratic and I was still getting regular reminders on the inevitability of gravity.

I had him scoped him for ulcers a couple of years ago. The rationale at the time was partly to check out his behaviour, but also based on the fact that at the time he was a full 100kg lighter than his two equally classy sisters

The scope was essentially clear. The vets looked at me wth sceptical cocked eyebrows when I explained my reasons for scoping him; if you don’t actually know his sisters, he is big enough and looks like a strapping lad and he didn’t look unhealthy at the time, but I was the client and it was my money.

He had some very mild traces of inflammation, but no true ulceration. They didn’t push me to treat him formally and were quite happy when I said I would organise an empirical trial of treatment with the well known blue granules that one can buy online from America. He did put some good weight on, so I thought the ulcers must be better, and so we never re-scoped. And his behaviour never changed- he was still occasionally obstreperous but nothing one wouldn’t expect or excuse from a young horse?

Extra bit of information required here- on the ground he is the sweetest, most affectionate horse you could imagine. He loves people and loves a good fuss.

Because he had previously been scoped clear, with no behavioural benefit following on from that half hearted trial of treatment (isn’t the retrospect-oscope a wonderful instrument), the possibility of continuing ulcers just didn’t enter my brain. I am a very literal thinker, and my brain really only works in lists and straight lines, so in my head, ulcers was ticked off, as was back. All that was left was learned behaviour and an athletic and strong minded horse that I had to decide if I was capable of riding.

I bought Rocky as a yearling. He has the most beautiful paces I have ever sat on. Had I not bought him as a youngster, I would never have been able to afford his Olympic standard genetics. For those of you who are into bloodlines, he is by Royaldik.

Heraldik xx is a very well known sire to all eventing fans- Ingrid Klimke’s Butts Abraxas, Andreas Dibowski’s Butts Leon, and Sam Griffith’s Happy Times are all among top flight horses sired by Heraldik.

At WEG in 2010, Heraldik had 3 offspring in the Eventing and 2 in the Show Jumping. Heraldik had a full sister Herka, and Royaldik is out of Herka. And Royaldik’s full brother Rohdiamant is also the WBFSH world number 3 dressage stallion.

So my gorgeous little baby Rocky

is quite simply the most well bred horse I am ever likely to own. Particularly as his famous relatives have proved to be functional as well as flash, with the confirmation to withstand a busy life at top level competition.

I remember vividly teaching Cal to jump. Until he learned to canter, and developed the bulk of muscle required to carry his draught bone along the ground let alone up, jumping an 80cm oxer always felt like a lottery.

By contrast, Rocky can be looking at everything else, going sideways and then just pop the same fence as a minor inconvenience as it appears in his path.

All of which is a very long winded way of saying I wasn’t gong to give up on that feeling without a fight. It’s addictive, sitting on a horse that gives you a feeling of such ease over a fence.

It’s not quite so addictive, hitting the ground on a regular basis.

As I tell this story now it is so fricking obvious that I am cringing as I type these words. I share this story, as brutally and as honestly as I can, to help you avoid similar obstinate mistakes, and to spare your horse having to shout quite so loudly.

Rocky had severe separation anxiety. He was dramatically reactive to all new situations, to horses coming up behind us, to getting a bit too far away from other horses, to a gate closing. He would freeze out on hacks, at invisible obstacles. His reaction to any unexpected stimulus was to dump me and run.

He had been scoped for ulcers. His back was now fine. We had checked the saddle situation and solved it with a gorgeous Stride Free Jump.

So I decided we needed remedial training. My long term local eventing instructor helped me with the riding and the training and we lunged him “thoroughly” before we got on to establish forwards, and we taught him that forwards was required before all else.

And he did become more rideable. I gave it my best shot. I rode him 5 days a week, every week, all winter, through the dark and the cold and the rain. I sent Cal away on loan so I had the time to concentrate on Rocky. We had regular lessons and outings. And he did come on really well. He put on muscle, his back improved, his canter got stronger. But he still bucked.

Then one week in mid January he put me on the floor three times in the same week. And there were no mitigating factors. He had done enough work, there were no scary things out there, I was riding at my usual time, in my normal routine. The same week he booted the part time groom in the chest and shook her up really badly.

And I just knew I couldn’t do it any more. I couldn’t ride him, we couldn’t keep him safely here. I searched my heart and I made arrangements for him to go on sales livery. And was absolutely at peace with that decision. I think a few of my friends were even quite relieved.

I had a couple of weeks to spare before he could go, and Patrice, my long term mentor and classical dressage instructor, suggested I scope him once more. It made sense. I couldn’t conscientiously sell a sick horse, and I would be gutted if I sold my horse of a lifetime because he was too quirky for me and then found out someone else had treated him and he turned out to be a poppet under saddle too.

Of course he had ulcers. Really bad ulcers. Multiple lesions, several grade 3, lots of grade 2 and significant amounts of fibrin deposits and areas of irritation.

OK I thought, I’ll treat him but he’s still going. Once he’s healed, he’s still for sale.

Then lockdown happened, about two weeks into his ulcer treatment.

And he’s not a horse you could leave out of work altogether, his brain is quite active and he does find mischief.

So I had to ride him…..just light hacking, in company., to keep him ticking over and his brain occupied….nothing challenging….

He got better, and better. The bucking objections turned into leg flicks and stalls, then just to ear flicks. He hacked out on his own, with no trouble at previously nappy corners. We could cross the main road ( a major barrier previously) and go around the whole village. We had to stop occasionally and check out things like a scarf left on a street sign but he looked and worked it out whereas before he would have dumped me and run away. We even did the long circuit under the railways bridges and went past the scary white log on the bridle path on our own, after a few looks and a couple of reverses. But they were only reverses, not gymnastics. And I could feel his brain working it all out rather than his body reacting.

I’m still an idiot. And we were still in lockdown. As we couldn’t do the second check scope at the time I let his meds run down to see what would happen. About a week after the PPI ran out and the day after the Misoprostol finished, I swung my leg into the saddle and instantly felt like I was sitting on a different horse.

I had to prove it of course. I am still an idiot. He dropped me in the school so I got back on and we went around the block. It was tense but manageable. Until we got back inside the gate and then he tried to drop me on the concrete.

Se we started the meds again. It took a few weeks to get back to lovely horse again. But he had been very clear- and yes the lesson obviously needed re-iterating.

My horse doesn’t have behaviour problems. He has pain problems.

And I am genuinely ashamed that he had to get to a point of shouting out his pain so loudly at me that I put both of us in danger.

“If only my human could listen.”

sic ‘nothing one wouldn’t expect or excuse from a young horse.’

Question- how much of bad horse behaviour is actually pain?

He has just been re-scoped. The ulcers look much better. We are still only on light work but he is putting on huge amounts of muscle. He is currently off the transfer list!

Part 2 to follow in a few months.

Thank you as always for reading. I truly appreciate each and every one of you. To those influencers who comment, share the site with friends or help to promote in any other way, I remain eternally grateful. To those supporters generous and able to offer funds, whether small or large, karma is finding its way back to you with a rainbow of horses and abundance beyond dreams. Thank you all for joining in the adventure.

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Sitting Pretty…when the saddle fits

And in order for us to achieve immaculate equitation, sitting pretty is much easier when the saddle fits, both the horse and the rider.

I used to really hate saddle shopping. I reckon every ridden horse in the UK must have at least 3 saddles to their name, gathering dust in tack rooms or circulating endlessly through the second hand tack forums. Paddy was a nightmare to fit, with his razor-like withers and a wither pocket that never filled out, even once I understood the difference between constructive saddle fitting and more conventional saddle fitting.

You need to find a saddler who not only checks on the difference between fitting the standing horse and the horse in motion, but also understands the importance of allowing room for the horse that you are building up with correct work, not the horse you currently have.

Essentially, constructive saddle fitting is fitting a saddle to the dynamic shape of a horse’s back in a way that allows the muscles to inflate and therefore develop i.e. get bigger as the good gymnastic work progresses. Horse should develop fabulous top-line all the way from tail to poll, and young horses will get both taller and quite a lot wider with good work. The constructively fitted saddle will allow this incremental change, and ideally be adjustable as the tiny increments build into multiple inches.

Conventional saddle fitting is based on a template of the horse’s back in a static position; a saddle fitted snugly to this static shape will not necessarily allow lift through the shoulder sling or expansion of the trapezius and splenius muscles.

Then the saddle has to fit the rider. I have a very long thigh bone. I also have very stiff hip flexors. This combination puts me at a disadvantage in most dressage saddles; the blocks force my legs back beyond the flexibility my hip sockets will allow and I compensate by arching my back. Once my back is arched, the horse mirrors this and hollows himself too. I could lengthen my stirrups, to get my knees behind the blocks, but then I lose the elasticity in my knee and ankle joints which are part of the spring mechanism required to absorb the horse’s movement, and even more importantly, the proprioception that helps me find my balance to the ground.

Then I bought a baby warmblood, with huge movement and enormous mobile shoulders, who seemed to change shape every week.

Rocky in a relatively good phase of growth

So we needed a saddle that fitted me i.e. allowed me to sit in a classically correct equitation position, whilst allowing the enormous shoulders to float freely…and ideally was fully adjustable for a growing horse.

I initially backed rode Rocky in a WOW saddle, which I loved but he didn’t seem to love the way it sat.

Then we tried an Ava Pro-Jump for Rocky’s first ‘own’ saddle. The stirrup bar placement is correct enough that even though it is a “jumping” saddle I am able to get my legs underneath me with postural integrity. It allows free movement of his enormous shoulders, and sits stable enough on his back to cope with baby horse shenanigans. It has velcro knee blocks for added adjustability. But the rails were quite narrow.

The Ava saddles are fully adjustable, with foam and air panels, and the option to adjust the tree if required. The gullets are wide, and the panels have a large load bearing surface area, for maximum horse comfort. Their fitting approach is more constructive than conventional, and she will always fit and balance the saddle to the moving horse.

We’ve had great fun fitting Rocky. We have had to laugh and shrug a lot. He was very slowly started as a big gangly youngster, and his behaviour could be a bit feral. Horses never stick to a human timetable. At the time of the first fitting, just 4 years old, he wasn’t yet cantering willingly on the lunge or under saddle.

Rocky at his first saddle fitting. Claire’s photos are not good for sales adverts LOL

By the time the saddle I had ordered was made and ready he was trotting under saddle and cantering on the lunge, so we did get a bit of a better idea. But then by the time his 2 month check was due he had become a little cold backed and was occasionally bucking when asked to go forward. It was a worrying time, but a huge bonus to be able to exclude the saddle from the list of possible causes- because we knew that it had been checked and adjusted and that it fitted beautifully.

A few months later Rocky was diagnosed with mild kissing spine disease

blog post about Rocky’s diagnosis

I treated him, on veterinary and physio advice, with injection, muscle relaxants, a few months rest and then in hand rehab. When the time came for Rocky to go off to be re-started (by Stuart Ross who specialises in pre race training of young thoroughbreds) Claire kindly stopped by and we checked the fit and balance, ready for him to go off to boarding school.

STOP PRESS- Rocky has now worked solo in the big spooky arena, and walked, trotted and cantered over a cross pole without misdemeanour. Those friends who know Rocky and have been following our journey will understand how truly momentous this news is. And how it suggests that his back is feeling fabulous, and that work is much more fun when the saddle fits.

Another saddler who fits beautifully is another Claire of Plateau Holistic Equine. She is the Northern UK fitter for Peter Horobin’s fabulous Stride Free saddles. When I first rode Cal in the SF his shoulders opened up and floated down the long side – he was definitely buying.

The SF tree is uniquely flexible to allow the horse shoulder freedom, the rails expand and the gullet is super wide and super soft .

The saddles are fully adjustable on site – as befits their Australian origin. Everything can de done in one visit Ruth no need to take the saddle away. Cleverly, the headplate jacks in or out and the flocking points are open to allow easy re- flocking or re balancing.

The SF Classique is a beautifully open headed dressage saddle with a flat seat and minimal blocks to allow horse and rider to move naturally. It’s beautiful to sit in and gorgeous to look at.

We liked it so much we bought a jump version too

Turn out versus living out

Or show us your mud rugs!

Another phrase that should have made me a millionaire;

“my horse could never live out, he loves his stable. He’s always begging to come in at night.”

Apart from the fact that this begging is a learned behaviour, because horses live for routine, we also need to understand the difference between providing ‘turn out’ versus providing adequate facilities for them to live out full time in a suitable environment.

Now don’t get me wrong: I would much rather horses spent a measly hour turned out than no time out at all. But we have to acknowledge that horses are movement, and the more they can move the happier and healthier they are. And that all our husbandry practises are a compromise chosen by humans between cost, practicality and ease of use of the animal. Turn out versus living out is a good example of a human chosen compromise.

I tolerate thick mud on my horses from November through to March, and many other days in between.

Other than competition days, I only groom to ride. I only wash a tail or pull a mane to compete. And I am comfortable with those choices. You won’t shame me into bathing my horse in winter- he needs his greasy coat for waterproofing. Likewise his feathers stay full all winter. And I very rarely brush his legs- layers of super dry mud wellies are the best protection against mud fever.

Mud wellies and ice baubles in fetlocks- natural insulation

Many people mistakenly believe that how a horse behaves in a turn out situation will determine how prepared that horse is to live out full time.

But there is a huge difference between turn out versus living out.

To understand why, we need to know more about the behaviour of the wild horse.

Horses much prefer to be too cold than too hot. They can warm themselves up, by increasing their activity, or by eating plenty of forage that then gets fermented in the caecum a.k.a. hindgut, producing heat. Effectively horses have their very own central heating system, and as long as they have adequate access to forage, will keep fermenting that forage and keep warm.

Horses left in their natural state will grow a fabulous winter coat. This has at least two layers, an underneath fluffy insulating layer and a longer coarser protective layer on top. If you have ever turned your horse out naked in the rain you may have noticed the herringbone pattern that the dried in rain has left?

Gorgeous herringbone courtesy of Sarah Oliver

This is no accident. The herringbone acts like a guttering system, allowing the water to run off the top of the coat while keeping the fluff underneath dry.

Mud herringbones for a cold night- Rocky's mum Willow in Weymouth

As long as the fluff has enough air in between the hairs it acts as an amazing insulation layer.

It used to amaze me, coming home after work to ride and pulling a naked horse in from the field, how dry the horses’ backs actually were most of the time.

Mud herringbones- dry underneath- Willow again

And all horses can grow a good coat if left to adapt. Paddy is 7/8 thoroughbred, thin skinned with a very fine coat, so I thought. The first year, we moved to Delamere from livery in March so all the horses were rugged. The second year we just didn’t rug.

I trace clipped Cal to allow me to work him, but with a shallow trace clip, he still didn’t need a rug. He’s half Irish Draught so grows the most beautiful fluffy winter coat, and thrives on fresh air.

Incidentally I also never dried him off after riding- I had to walk him back to the field from the house so he cooled off a bit; then the first thing he would do when turned out was roll in the cool sandy mud, good for his coat and his body temperature.

When it did snow, the horses loved rolling in the snow- it was like a spa day.

Insulation properties of snow- Sarah Oliver

Snow is also strangely insulating- the horses all wore snow rugs when they could, and their backs were toasty warm underneath!

Snow rugged pony in North Wales- Jo Ellis’ Rockstar

Snow pony in the Cumbrian fells- Sarah Oliver

Rolling is also a bonding activity I discovered. I took a book down to the field one summer day to sunbathe. I was flat on my back reading and enjoying the damp grass on my sweaty back when all 3 horses came over to join me for a rolling session. That was a pretty cool moment.

Rolling is a bonding activity – my 3 in Delamere

Paddy grew a good enough coat year 2, although he still looked a bit poorer than I would have liked coming into spring. Year 3, a really cold, wet year , he grew the most amazing triple layered pelt and wintered really well.

Environment is key though. Our horses had a field shelter, which they rarely used, but also had really good hawthorn hedges all around the field perimeter, good tree cover in the bottom corner, and most importantly the field had dips and hollows that offered varying natural windbreaks.

Their favourite spot was down in the dip in the bottom corner of the field. Eddisbury Hill formed a high level wind break, the hollow has quite deep sides and is south facing. I used to think they had all escaped as you literally couldn’t see them until you were on top of them, sun bathing down out of the wind.

Each part of the field served a different purpose. The sandy area near the field shelter was the sand rolling area. The steeper side of the slope below the field shelter was the mud rolling area.

The horses were very particular in their personal grooming routine. They would do a very thorough sand roll every morning after breakfast. The mud roll occurred in the afternoon generally, coating themselves up with extra insulation for the night.

Fluff and mud- super high tech thermal protection – Lyddy Putt’s ponies in North Wales

The Pzrewalski horses in Mongolia coated themselves in mud in the morning to keep the midges away but our field didn’t have good mud in summer. I could always tell when a cold night was due though- they would be coated in mud from eyelash to fetlock.

And the undisputed winner is- Lyddy’s Tawela

They never got rain scald- the twice daily self grooming regime works much better than the human version.

When it rained, they might occasionally hide in the field shelter for a half an hour break if it was really relentless. More often, they would be found grazing down in the dip, or browsing huddled under the hedge. Once there was a lull in the weather, they would charge around a bit to warm themselves up, then get back to the serious business of grazing.

They would graze for a couple of hours, then nap, then have some haylage, roll or groom, then go for a wander around the perimeter and stop for a drink. I used to love to spend the hours watching them just being horses.

So if your horse is “begging” to come in at night, ask yourself

1) have you trained that behaviour (yes obviously) and

2) what is missing from that turnout environment that would make your horse less keen to come in?

Does he have #friendsforagefreedom

Tearing themselves away from the hedgerow for a fuss

Is there enough forage? Enough stimulation?

A place to hide from the sun? A place to shelter? A place to roll? Room to get up some speed and play?

A place to look out over the surrounding area?

Now we are back at livery my 3 wait by the gate at 3pm, expecting to come in.

Before we moved back to livery, they used to wait by the gate of the big field at 6pm for evening feeds. But they weren’t asking to come in. They would eat their dinner, say thank you and then wander off down the field to the water trough and the haylage feeders.

Now they know their new routine – they are coming into a stable for dinner, and the turnout, although lovely, isn’t an environment good enough to support happily living out. They have adapted back to overnight confinement, for now.

But when we find our next dream Nelipot, I’m determined that I’m going to need a school dinner bell to call them down off the big wooded hill 😎😎

Because even happy healthy filthy horses should work occasionally 😜

buy the book- “Bare Hooves and Open Hearts”

If you have enjoyed this blog then please consider buying an author signed paperback copy of my recent book. It contains more of my philosophy on husbandry and training, based on my experience, research and learning. Price includes 2nd class postage to anywhere in Europe. Other regions may cost more- email me and we can always arrange.

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The Rocky Road to Rehab

It’s taken me a few weeks to be able to write about our glorious youngster’s diagnosis and the Rocky road to rehab.

I know all about the road to rehab- it’s almost 7 years since Cal fractured his carpal bone. And I completely believe a good outcome is possible – Cal’s fracture taught me to trust the process and detach from the outcome. He has become the most fabulous horse you could wish for. And the fracture, although well healed, made sure he was another horse I could never sell. (How does anyone manage to sell a horse?)

I clearly remember the early uncertainty, the agony of box rest, the hundreds of miles we walked in hand, and then finally the relief when he jumped his first course and stayed sound.

I just never expected to be on the road to rehab with Rocky.

We bought him as a yearling.

Well bred, well handled, but completely unspoilt, from a trusted source. He came home with us from the South Coast, after Paddy dumped me in the ditch at Longleat. Paddy did share some wise words with him on the trip home though- he travelled like a pro and learned to eat out of a haynet on the way.

We turned him out with another colt at a friend’s place and let them be boys, living out and razzing around together. We brought him in to the livery yard aged 3, a couple of months before we moved into our own place. Once our land was sorted the three horses went out together full time, and gelled as a little herd straightaway.

Paddy was hiding – Ernie thinks they are his brothers anyway

The pity party

The reason it’s taken me a few weeks to share a bit more is that I have been having a proper pity party. Everything we have learned about over the last few years, the entire focus of our horsey learning, has been about correct classical training, that is meant to preserve the health of the horse and prevent this type of injury.

The stages of balance, from Egon Von Nendirf’s beautiful book. Rider is Melissa Simms, who passed away only recently.

Good work is meant to be therapeutic. Rehab is really just about going back to absolute basics, working on the ground for now, opening up those intervertebral spaces and building the muscle in between. It’s basically what we should be doing all along.

Rocky had the joint space medicated, and this was followed up with some ultrasound to the muscles of his lumbar region, as these also were in spasm.

The ODGs knew all about kissing spine- correct classical training focuses on opening the back, elongating the top line, thereby preventing them occurring. Piaffe, the test of collection, also shows maximal length from tail to poll, when done correctly, along the arch of the top line.

Nuno showing an exemplary piaffe- all on the seat

Levade requires even more topline

Einsr Smit-Jensen archive — The lumbar back is curved, the loins coiled, the hind legs and hocks flexed.

We’ve taken it really slowly

We did 6 weeks of in hand work and sat on him briefly at 3, did about 3 months in hand work and rode him away for 6 weeks at 4, and then did a bit more with him in his 5th summer, a few fun rides, a bit of light schooling and hacking, a bit of polework.

This year, his 6th year, was meant to be when the work got a bit more consistent. As often happens, our working lives have been the limiting factor, as well as Rocky’s ‘tricky nature’.

Do we even believe horses can have tricky natures?

https://sophieshorsetales.com/done-with-well-behaved-horses/

This is not a young horse that has been over-worked…

Or was he?

I was starting to use judgmental words about him though- ‘backward’, the ‘work ethic of a flea’, because he would stop dead when tired and have a little buck when asked to go forwards.

I’ve written about this before

https://www.nelipotcottage.com/use-your-words-carefully/

I should have known better.

So the pity party has been all about where did we go wrong?

Have we done too much ridden work with him?

http://www.equinestudies.org/ranger_2008/ranger_piece_2008_pdf1.pdf

Have we ridden him too much, when we should have been building a stronger horse with good in hand work and just riding a little?

Is the injury the result of an unfortunate conformational glitch?

Did the injury occur when he got stuck under the partition in the truck a couple of years ago? He didn’t thrash around or panic but still…

And then after a couple of days madness, I gave myself a slap and a talking to. It doesn’t matter how it happened- we just need to focus on the rocky road to rehab.

Rehab is a rollercoaster of emotions, hopes and dreams, where actually we just have to knuckle down, do the work and trust the process. All the previous learning, all the work on posture, timing, training, helping horses find biomechanically correct movement, will surely get put to extra good use now.

The value of good in hand work

The value of good in hand work can not be overstated. I never manage to do as much as I should. Only last week, Cal, my supposedly advanced horse, was the demo pony for a Patrice clinic, which meant I was the demo human (gulp). We found a few holes in the simple work- for example the SI left has too much neck bend, and so doesn’t weight the inside hind or stretch along the outside, and leg yield left, he doesn’t actually choose to step past his barrel with his hind leg-the mistakes are much easier to feel and correct from the ground if we are observant and honest enough with ourselves.

It’s also important not to pussy foot around with the rehab horse. We mustn’t look at them as if they are broken- they find this really disconcerting. Instead we should look at them with soft eyes, taking in the details of the movement, the stretch needed here, the balance needed there. We should do all the best work, asking nothing less than enough, yet noticing and rewarding every try that gets us towards better. We should remind them of their magnificence, encourage them to use themselves fully and correctly, and welcome the moment when the whole fabulous horse turns up.

In hand work also teaches us about our horses’ training brain. Rocky has always thrown his whole genetically gifted body at any task. When I ask him to slow down and actually work within himself, paying attention to the details of which leg goes where, he then needs to work really slowly, with lots of breathing and thinking breaks. This is timing and observation I will need to take forward to the ridden work once we get back on.

Some vets recommend a Pessoa or similar training aid when rehabbing a horse with kissing spines. The advantages are that it stretches the horse ‘over the back’- that horrid modern phrase. The disadvantages are that any training aid attached to the mouth only serves to teach the horse to avoid the bit- imagine jagging yourself in the teeth every time you move a leg?

In classical training, the bit belongs to the horse.

The horse has to learn to trust the bit, to take it forwards, to use it as a point of reference to reach towards and work around. The bit should never be used against the horse, neither as a means of control nor as a tool to ’round the neck’. Even the subtlest of left/right actions backwards on the bars of the north or downwards on the tongue teach the horse to avoid the aversive pressure and duck behind the bit to relieve the pain. Working them in a training aid that attaches to the mouth isn’t subtle, and there is no way the bit can act in the corners of the mouth, as it should, when the head is strapped down.

I have been using the equi-bands, to encourage Rocky to lift his tummy and round his back – this specific training aid has no front part so all influence on the head is from the human hand to the front of the cavesson, teaching the horse to stretch forward over the topline. The connection to the cavesson should be like the connection to the rein- and the line held like a rein- it only acts forward and up, and continually places the contact in front of the horse so that he learns to take the contact forwards.

Manolo- the photo shows beautifully how asking for a forward long neck extends the spinous processes. His contact is a bit vague in this moment but you get a good sense of elbow bent, line held correctly, lower arm opening forwards encouraging the topline to reach.

And perhaps most of all we should never underestimate the healing power of love, positive energy, and sunshine.

Rocky chilling out after a work session with his Arc gizmo on in the sun

Naming your horse

Naming your horse can be a real challenge. Choosing passport names can be great fun, but I’m starting to wonder if naming a horse is a prophetic process or even if they help you find the perfect name?

Paddy arrived with a stable name but no passport. He needed a good name for Eventing so after much deliberation I called him Wise Words.

This name did turn out to be prophetic- Paddy taught me lots, over the years. His most important lesson was to teach me to listen to horses.

I’ll never forget the relief in his whole demeanour when we took his shoes off for the last time. Suddenly the trimmer was his favourite person, whereas the Farriers had always been the enemy.

And his jumping improved no end once he could feel his feet and adjust himself.

He always had an opinion though, especially about ditches. Classic quote from the commentary box- Fran McNicol getting some wise words from her horse at the ditch.

His last event was the unaffiliated 3 day at Longleat- some clown had put decorative little wooden lizards and alligators in the ditch. I’ll never forget him back-paddling in mid air over the part A skinny like a cartoon character when he spotted those.

He was the greatest on his good days though – I have some wonderful memories when our wise words were in tune 😀

Cal arrived with a green passport, a microchip and no name. He was bought to be the fabulous cross county horse so I named him Cloud Warrior.

Surprisingly he’s turned out to be a bit of a dressage diva, who offered Pesade very early on. I wonder if I might have a secret Airs horse in the making- I need another few years for that Naming to come true.

He also loves posing

In the meantime at Shelford this year we had an average dressage, a surprise stop in the show jumping but he was storming around the cross country, with speeding penalties, when the commentator struck again. “Cloud Warrior- this horse is very well named, not had the best day in the other phases but he’s storming across the country. Good name for a good cross country horse!”

Rocky’s real name is Royal Magic.

I have no idea yet how that name will come to be true!!

Do you have any funny stories to tell about naming your horse?

How much grass do horses need?

As some of you may know, I have just come back from Mongolia, the original land of the horse. I was fortunate to be part of a scientific expedition to a mountainous region in the West of Outer Mongolia.

You can read the official trip report here

https://www.nelipotcottage.com/the-mongolian-baatar-expedition-2018/

Horses were our main form of transport, and our expedition team included a zoologist, a botanist, and an archeologist as well as the herdsman and grooms who looked after us and our trusty steeds. Amongst other lessons, this was a unique opportunity to learn about the incredibly bio-diverse plants of Mongolia, in the context of fodder for the sturdy little mountain horses.

How much grass do horses need?

When you look out across the steppes, mountains and plains of Western Mongolia, it all looks really green.

However, when you get closer to the green, it’s actually sandy, rocky, shaley soil, with a patchy smattering of plants; mostly succulents. This part of the country is really arid, with very little ground moisture, so succulents and hardy herbs and weeds do best. The plants were often tiny, yet with really complex, swollen, almost tuber-like root systems.

Trees were a rarity, growing only by oases or rivers. Winter had been late this year, so the flowers weren’t really out when we arrived, but did start to appear later in the trip when there had been some rain. We flew into and out of Khovd, the small domestic airport that serves Western Mongolia, and we could see a definite difference in the green cover between arriving and leaving, 2 weeks apart.

There are over 3,000 plant species described in Mongolia, with over 975 having a use in traditional medicine. On the lower slopes of the Altai mountains, our botanist told we should expect to find 14-18 different species of plant within a metre square. None of these would be species that you and I would recognise as grass. There were lots of varieties from the pea family, a Mongolian thistle, Mongolian chives (delicious as a snack when travelling), bellflowers, Iris, Ephedra, and Artemesia or wormseed. My olfactory memory of our trip will be a perfume made up of Artemesia, DEET, leather and horse sweat- a heady combination indeed!

The horses were tough little buggers; approximately 13-14hh. They were all barefoot, obviously. None of the horses are trained to pick their feet up and none of the herdsman owned a rasp, so they are all self trimming. Feet varied in shape; although the majority were very similar to the mustang hoof we see in the Pete Ramey and Jaime Jackson books, there were some with flares, and slightly longer toes. The feet were all incredibly tough, and highly functional.

We travelled across boulder fields, up and down stony mountain tracks, across steep scree slopes, as well as across the green(ish) foothills and the more gravelly steppes, and the little horses picked their way confidently over all terrain, for 20-30 kms a day, and were still keen to charge into camp at the end of the day.

We gave them a day off after a few tough days, and then an easy day on the last day which the herdsman must have cursed us for, as it took them two hours to round them all up for their night-time trip back over the hills for their next clients. Even in hobbles, some of them could move pretty fast!

They were lean, but very fit. During the day, they got a snack at lunchtime, grazing around in hobbles while we ate our little picnic boxes of pasta or cracked wheat with chewy beef, and they were sure to drink copiously from every stream we crossed.

At night, the bits were slipped from their mouths, although the rawhide bridles were left on, and they were hobbled and turned loose around the campsite. In the morning the herdsman would jump on the nearest horse and go and round up the others, ready for action.

How much grass do horses need?

Not much, apparently, in the high mountain country. The herdsman and the botanist knew which plants contained the minerals and vitamins the animals needed for good health, and the horses self selected at every opportunity. At stream crossings, while waiting their turn, they took the chance to grab mouthfuls of more lush reeds and grasses. If we stopped to take photographs of a new variety of herb or plant, the horses also checked out what we had found and had a quick munch.

In Hustain, back in the East and South of Ulan Bataar, there is a reserve where the Przewalski horses thrive in the wild. Here, at lower altitudes, the plains were greener and lusher, but we still counted 18-25 species within a square metre, and over 90 varieties of plant just in the small valley where our campsite was situated. There were more grasses here, as well as numerous wildflowers and herbs.

The Takhi, or Przewalski, were very plump, but they get a very short summer and a long harsh winter, so presumably were layering up fat for the cold, None of them seemed to have pathological or sore feet.

Back home.. I looked at a few scattered metre squares in our field. I got up to 9 species of plant in the best one, and have about 20 species of plants altogether if I count the hedgerows and the low hanging tree branches. We have this little lovely- Prunella Vulgaris or Selfheal. What a useful weed! 😍

Below is a bouquet of grass flowers from our re-wilding area,

https://www.nelipotcottage.com/grow-your-own/

over-seeded with gifts from a friend, who inadvertently bought one of the last remaining areas of Upland Hay Meadow in the UK with his retirement cottage.

So how much grass do horses need? The answer seems to be, not much grass at all actually. As long as they have access to a wide variety of plants including grasses, herbs, weeds and trees they should be able to meet all their nutritional needs. The key to whole horse health is surely preserving the biodiversity of the fields they graze in, and also their own hindgut micro-biome?

The Mongolian horses were very skilled at self selection.

In human nutrition, we know that almost everything in moderation is good, while anything to excess can be bad, even celery!

Why would horses be any different?

We “know” that bracken is poisonous to horses. But bracken contains an insulin like compound. Eaten to excess (12kg, the research says) then yes, too much insulin like compound would be toxic. But in Spring, when the lush grass comes through, a little bit of bracken can help the horse cope with the sugar- rich grass flush and protect them against laminitis.

Likewise, oak trees are supposedly poisonous to horses. But oaks contain tannins, which have an anti – helminthic effect. Our horses choose to browse the low hanging oak branches in the field, and love to drink out of the tea- coloured stream that runs through the peat bog in the forest. Are they doing their own worm control regime?

Or even better, their own pro-biotic? I’m now buying EM1- Effective Micro-organisms, a suspended culture of live bacteria for hind gut health. Drinking from a muddy puddle may well provide the same bacteria, in a handy suspension, at no cost?

Maybe, when horses gorge on acorns, escape from fields or break into feed rooms, it’s because they don’t have sufficient to meet their needs? Was their paddock bare, had the haynet run out, or are they craving a vital nutrient that cannot be obtained from grass alone?

Our horses only break into the middle grass, off the track, if the Haylage feeders run dry and there isn’t enough on the track to interest them. Last Friday, the Haylage finished overnight but the hedgerow is chock full of fun stuff like blackberries and fresh hawthorn, and the track is now covered in tiny bits of green- they didn’t beak through the electric despite the battery being low.

So much grass do horses need?

I guess it all depends on the quality of your meadow-

Maybe a better question would be how many grasses do horses need?

Here’s a challenge– how about you go and measure a rough metre square in your grazing and count how many different species of plant grow there?

here are some links to other accounts of the trip

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeenshire/1538375/adventure-seeking-castle-keeper-takes-trip-of-a-lifetime-with-mongolian-horseback-expedition/

https://www.caymancompass.com/2018/08/12/cayman-resident-explores-the-steppes-of-mongolia/

https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2018/08/18/rare-sights-for-mongolia-team-led-by-jersey-adventurer/

Grow your own….

When you can’t get hold of the organic, GMO, low sugar forage you need, one alternative is to grow your own…if you are lucky enough to own your own land.

We are very lucky; we have a consistent supply of organic meadow Haylage from a producer large enough to keep our little herd going all winter, although it was close this year! It hadn’t occurred to me that we could grow your own…

This summer is the horses’ third year of living on our field. After a couple of years of experimenting, we now track around the edge in summer, growing the grass in the middle long for winter foggage, also known as standing hay.

Over the last couple of years I have learned more about how natural biodiversity in the horse’s diet is vital for good hindgut function. I have been following the wonderful work that Carol Hughes does at Phytorigins, using the wild Carneddau ponies of North Wales and their environment as a source of inspiration and study. Carol is very generous with her knowledge and shares much priceless information on her public Facebook page

https://m.facebook.com/groups/1862115997153052

Sarah at Forageplus has also been a big part of my learning journey and introduced me to the work of Albrecht, an American agronomist who was all about preserving the diversity of the micro-ecosystem within the soil itself, vital for the health of all animals and for our survival.

Forageplus offer a soil testing service and advice on soil mineral balancing to Albrecht principles. As far as I know, they are the only company in the UK to offer this service.

I wrote a couple of years ago about our early experience trying to explain Albrecht to our local agronomist-

https://www.nelipotcottage.com/albrecht-and-the-agronomist/

Since then we did manage to soil test and treat as per the recommendations for two years, giving ourselves a budget break this year because treating your land isn’t a cheap fix, although much cheaper than vets bills!!

I have also been reading about re-wilding, and the remarkable ability of the land to heal itself if left alone. Our land would have started life as a lowland meadow

http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/UKBAP_BAPHabitats-29-Lowland%20Meadows.pdf

With a bit of mere and moss thrown in

https://www.cheshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife/our-work-wildlife/living-landscapes/meres-and-mosses

A work colleague recently bought a house in North Wales with a 3 acre native upland hay meadow. Talking over coffee about the recommendations he had to follow for the preservation of this incredibly rare habitat made me think- could I get our field nearer to its original ecological state? And how much healthier for our horses would that be?

So, no chemical fertilisers or weed killers. In fact

Encourage and embrace plant diversity. Rik gave us some seeds from Wales, and I bought some native wildflower seeds from https://www.meadowmania.co.uk/

A single hay- cut followed by grazing, but the grass clippings must be cleared not allowed to rot and thereby fertilise the field.

Regular aeration- we have not achieved this yet- seems to be he hardest job to convince a contractor to do, but it is vital as it gets oxygen into the soil for the roots and the root dwelling organisms.

After cutting, grazing by herbivores is allowed and harrowing the dung. Ideally the herbivores should not have been treated with wormers as these kill the dung eating insects. We don’t worm unless necessitated by faecal egg counts and tapeworm saliva tests

https://www.nelipotcottage.com/targeted-equine-worming-programme-action/

So what changes have I noticed?

We had over 10 species of grass that I could differentiate in the field this year. We have had almost no ragwort this year – 15 plants pulled to date in the improved area, the track has a few more tiny rosettes but has not been treated as per Albrecht.

We have lots of new herbs and wildflowers, including this wonderful Prunalla Vulgaris, also known as ‘self-heal’.

The huge expanses of clover were not evident this year- instead we had swathes of new grass.

And we had enough grass to cut!! I was thinking we would have to pay someone to cut it and take it away as there wouldn’t be enough to bale but in this funny spring the grass just grew and grew.

And then shrank again in the heat…

Nonetheless it was still worth a go.

It doesn’t look like much once it’s mowed and rowed

However the baler kept spitting out good sized round bales

So there we have it- 3 months worth of home grown organic meadow Haylage. I am both delighted and gobsmacked. If you can’t buy what you need, do think about whether you could find a way to grow your own… there is no more satisfying feeling than seeing your own land produce a crop.

Although strictly speaking, we grow horses, not grass.

I hope I have inspired you- it is possible to grow your own hay or Haylage, to suit your own horses’ needs.

Next time, I’ll be able to tell you all about these guys

And what I will have learned from meeting them in their own natural habitat- in the wilds of Mongolia 🇲🇳

Big fit horses in reasonable work can get laminitis too…

Laminitis is not just a disease for small natives: big, fit horses in medium work can get laminitis too, as I discovered to my chagrin a few weeks ago.

I was chatting about our recent troubles at the area 20 qualifiers yesterday and the lady I was chatting too said “Oh, he’s a big horse, we forget they can get laminitis too” as if this was rare?

It had never occurred to me that laminitis was mainly a disease of small ponies, although I do associate it mostly with good doers. Cal is a good doer, but he is also a big, fit horse in medium level work and had been eventing the week before he showed that big fit horses in reasonable work can get laminitis too.

The causes of laminitis are now known to be metabolic, either associated with Equine Metabolic Syndrome ( a sort of type II Diabetes for horses) or Equine PID, more commonly known as Cushing’s disease. Metabolic causes means that laminitis is a disease of the whole horse, the cause and the treatment are not limited to the foot.

I’m pretty sure Cal has EMS, although I’ve never tested him properly. How do I know this? Because he has been such a tricky barefooter over the years. For those of you who do not fully embrace the barefoot concept, let me share with you my paradigm.

Any horse with the correct diet, environment, exercise and trim should be able to go barefoot and work hard barefoot.

Those 4 simple sounding words are not simple things to achieve in the U.K. Cal is an Irish Spirts horse, so he is half Irish Draught, and he looks like he got quite a lot of Connemara in the mix, so a dose of Spanish blood too. He didn’t get much TB in his phenotype, that’s for sure.

Diet- Cal is finely tuned to survive in the Irish peat bogs, or possibly also in Spanish scrubland. He doesn’t get much green grass, a sniff makes him footsore so a good bellyfull would probably kill him. He is the main reason our horses are track dwellers, and his story is partly why we bought our house and land, because traditional livery yards simply could not cater for his needs. This horse loves fresh thistles, bashes down nettles to let them wilt, eats a bit of bracken for the insulin like compound, goes for ivy, again for the sugar busting properties. He is pretty good at managing his own condition, as long as he is offered the variety of herbs and plants he needs to offset the green posion. He gets a small bucket feed which contains salt, Phytorigin GI, a hindgut balancer ained at feeding the good bacteria, Phytolean plus, a plant based supplement with lots of anti-oxidants designed to support the immune system and homeostasis of tricky metabolic horses.

Environment: he on a track system or paddock paradise. His main needs #friendsforagefreedom are met as best we can. He lives out 24/7, in a stable herd with his mates, to groom, play, commune with and boss around. They have access to constant ad lib forage, and are safe from stress. As he is pretty dominant he is the safest of all from stress, especially as Paddy is the lookout.

Exercise: he’s my main horse. He lives on a track so does about 5 miles a day mooching around on there, he also gets ridden 3-4 times a week, a mixture of hacking, schooling, jumping and fast work every 10 days or so. Of course he could do more, if I had more time.

Trim: trim has always been tricky. But that’s mainly because Cal has been tricky. The more I learn about feet, the more I think there difference between a good trim and a bad trim is a bit like a clip: two weeks!! Bad feet are impossible to trim into a healthy shape and function, and good healthy working feet are really hard to trim into bad shape because they just wear themselves correct again with work and movement. Cal has been footy on stones for his entire barefoot career. We use nice little euphemisms but make no mistake, a slightly sore foot is a slightly weak or a pathological foot. That’s why I would never call a horse sound unless it was truly sound without shoes: if the horse is sore when you take the shoes off, the shoes are disguising a problem. It took me a few years of looking at hoof photos to realise that Cal was a sub-clinical laminitic.

When I bought him his feet ran so far forward the whole foot sat in front on his legs, but he was sound as a pound in shoes! When he broke his carpal bone and we took the shoes off it took 3 full years to get a hoof that actually had hoof under the leg bones, and 4 years to get the heel bulbs in line with the middle of his cannon bones. The under run heels, the slipper like toes, the occasional growth ring, these were all subtle laminitic stigmata. Yet he had worked hard, team chased, hunted, evented, with the only sign of challenge being on very stony ground. So many people said I should just shoe him, as if that would solve all our problems, and that advice even came from some barefoot trimmers and vets.

Had he been shod, I might not have spotted the mild attack of laminitis until it was a full blown disaster.

I had brought him down to the house ready to compete at the weekend. I had ridden him in the school, bathed, cleaned tack and left him in the stable at the house for an early start. Normally when at the house they get Horsehage HiFi Haylage,

but our local shop had run out so I had bought some West Lancs Haylage instead. I gave him a good feed and a good big section of Haylage to last him overnight. The next day he was pointing a foot at me, and shifting around behind.

It took me a few days to twig what was going on: because one foot seemed to be worse I thought abscess first of all. And I was still feeding the West Lancs Haylage. It was only when I realised it was pure Ryegrass Haylage that I put two and two together. After a few days at the house no abscess had appeared and he wasn’t actually a welfare case so I moved him back to the field. He got better there but after 10days was still not looking rideable. He had palpable pulses in all 4 legs and was moving very slowly and appeared miserable.

I got the vet out, who agreed with me that it was laminitis, but very mild, to the extent that, I quote, “a lot of owners wouldn’t have noticed there was anything wrong”. He gave Cal a shot of i.v. analgesia which allowed me to get hoof boots on his front feet so he was comfortable enough to walk back to the house, and then to march him up the big hill. I kept him at the house, rationing every mouthful: no grass at all, a section of Hifi or a tiny feed very 4 hours and walking up the hill once or twice daily. All this strict diet and exercise was aimed to sharpen his insulin response again. He had Phytorigins Rescue Remedy which is a 5 day course, double dose PhytoGI, double dose Phytolean Plus for maximum antioxidants and a sachet Danilone twice daily.

http://phytorigins.co.uk/Phyto-Rescue-Remedy

After 4 days he was much improved, back to hacking out and schooling again at 10days. He went back to the now very dry sandy grass free track (thanks weather) on about day 5 (more to do with work than precise symptoms).

The vet offered to do a glucose stimulation test to see if it was definitely EMS- I have declined this. The blood test says it’s not Cushings, there is no really effective treatment for EMS other than really tight management which we do already, and there is a significant risk of laminitis from the stimulation test.

I now know that every mouthful counts, that I will never switch Haylage again for my own convenience, and that this horse needs to work every week, no matter how busy I am with my job.

It’s been a bad spring. I have another medical friend whose horse got laminitis because she was a bit busy with work and didn’t ride for a week: nothing else changed. And I have heard local tales of other big, fit horses in reasonable work who have succombed to the condition after a seemingly innocent change in diet or management. The grass this spring has been bonkers, wet and warm and then sunny is a great combination for really rich Cheshire cow grass. Our track looks totally bare now but it’s the scorching sun that has killed the green stuff the last couple of weeks, before that it was the horses munching away that kept the grass looking poor.

Do you check your horse’s pulses every day?

http://www.ironfreehoof.com/equine-digital-pulses.html

Shod or not, a palpable pulse might be the first sign of impending laminitis and feeling a change early might just save your horse from a full blown attack.

https://thehorse.com/111374/10-early-warning-signs-of-laminitis/

Do you watch every mouthful your horse eats?

Keeping a tricky barefoot horse sound, healthy and in full work is a sure way to turn into a feed geek; Paddy could eat more or less what he liked and still trot and canter on any stony surface in the forest.

Since having Cal my rudimentary knowledge of horse physiology and nutrition is now more or less at degree level; of course it helps that I am already an expert in human physiology so the proper equine textbooks are legible to me. I have tried every supplement on the market, tried every supposedly healthy bagged feed and have come around to the acceptance that maintaining a healthy hindgut is key, and that all is really required is hay, water, salt and enough variety in their environment to allow them to forage for what they need. in the absence of variety, supplements might be required and it’s the Phytorigins approach that makes the most sense to the cynical scientist in me.

Do you reduce the bucket feed if your horse is doing less work?

Cal isn’t on anything rich or high in protein or sugar, we use Agrobs, but I have cut down significantly from what I was feeding and will cut down even more if he has a quiet week. He wasn’t fat, but his condition hasn’t really changed on less food so I think feeding the minimum required to keep him fit is definitely the way to go. Even in a busy month, he will never be in hard work like a polo pony or a racehorse.

Do combination wormers cause abscesses?

Do combination wormers cause abscesses? I described in a previous blog

Targeted Equine Worming Programme in action

how we operate a targeted equine worming programme based on Faecal Egg Counts and saliva tests for Tapeworm.

The reasons for this, briefly, are

1) the national problem of increasing resistance to anti-helminthic chemicals with no new drugs in the pipeline

2) a general desire to limit the herd’s exposure to synthetic and possible toxic chemicals

3) a sneaking suspicion that worming can cause systemic upset in sensitive horses

Do combination wormers cause abscesses?

Now I’m not advocating letting the worms flourish. I completely understand how dangerous worm infestation can be for our fragile equines. I have close friends who have lost horses to worm disease. I also have friends whose horse had a terrible reaction to a commonly used wormer. So I’m just trying to minimise the amount of worming doses I have to use for my horses, to be a good citizen and decrease the spread of resistance for all of our sakes and to reduce the chance of bad reactions in my own precious herd.

Do combination wormers cause abscesses?

So after testing for redworm and tapeworm in October, I had 4 horses needing 3 different treatments. I went to the farm shop and bought the wormers and labelled them carefully with each horse’s name so I wouldn’t get too confused. The 4 horses came down to the house for hoof trimming and I took the chance to do a worming round. And got confused.

The short non profane version is that Cal, the most systemically sensitive horse, needed worming for tapeworm and didn’t get the Equitape he was meant to. After I’d jumped around swearing a bit I thought never mind, he’s only mildly positive for Tapeworm, I’ll do a combined dose in winter and cover tapes and encysted. It’ll be OK.

Do combination wormers cause abscesses?

So on the 3rd Jan I wormed them all, 3 with Equest for encysted redworm and Cal with Pramox to cover both encysted redworm and tapeworm. 8 days later he was really quite lame.

Do combination wormers cause abscesses?

Both front feet had palpable digital pulses and both front hooves were warm to touch. The other three horses were all fine. We had had a touch of frost and one of the bales of haylage smelt a bit ripe so I didn’t immediately connect the situation to the wormer…after all it was a good few days later. I cursed the frosty grass, cut back on Cal’s bucket feed and kept him turned out for movement. A couple of days later I brought him down to the house to have a good look at the still sore feet- the pulses were less bounding, there were no obvious boggy bits or sore spots in the sole and no signs of an abscess ready to burst so I painted his soles with frog oil and back down to the field he went.

The sore feet and the palpable pulses lasted about 10days in total. The left forefoot did smell of pus for a couple of days, although I could never find a convincing egress wound. The frog was a bit spongey but he didn’t mind me prodding it and there was no visible punctum. The right forefoot didn’t smell of pus or thrush but was on off sore for that time and had a variable pulse.

After about ten days I was doing night time bucket feeds and noticed he was moving better (charging around the field with his tail flagged out). Saturday came and I marched him down to the house, picked out his feet without any problem, tacked him up, hacked around the corner on the stony tracks and worked him in the neighbour’s arena. He felt amazing, strong and willing and almost better for a couple of weeks off.

I checked his feet again and there was a small divot in the sole of the left forefoot, as if a small solar abscess had burst or a bit of sole exfoliated, but there was no other sign of what might have caused the lameness.

It was a few days later when I remembered we did have a similar episode two years ago. The last time he abscessed was when were still at livery. That year at the livery yard was a foot- related nightmare. Cal had a few months of constant abscesses and went around his hooves twice; I seem to remember 7 consecutive abscesses. Even Paddy the invincible barefooter had an abscess whilst there. The forage analysis showed their hay to be very high in iron. Because we had so much trouble with abscesses at the livery yard, the various episodes all merged into one. The information did percolate through to my brain though that the last time Cal had a combination wormer was that last winter in livery.

Since moving the horses to our own land we had not had any trouble with abscesses in nearly 2 years…until now.

So I did some Googling: Do combination wormers cause abscesses?

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence on the internet about horses becoming footsore after combination wormers. It seems to be more of a problem in horses with Cushing’s disease or hind gut problems.

There are numerous stories of colic too, but the toxicity there seems to be associated with high worm populations being exterminated quickly and releasing endotoxins into the gut as they die. Cal’s tapeworm test was weakly positive and his redworm count negative in October so I don’t believe the worm burden was the problem in our case. He has tested negative for Cushing’s to date. However he always looks and feels better when he is on regular treatment for hindgut issues.

Do combination wormers cause abscesses?

Other possible causes of this footsore episode include ripe fermented haylage and frosty grass. We have had both these situations occur again since Cal became sound again and he hasn’t missed a step.

Will I give him a combination wormer again? I have to say that I will do my best not to. If he needs covering for both tapeworm and encysted redworm in the future I will dose separately a couple of weeks apart.

I have never tried non-chemical or natural wormers. I’m too much of a doctor there- I think that if worms are detected they need eradicating and then the horse needs re-testing to check eradication has occurred. If there are no worms on testing then the horses shouldn’t need anything other than a balanced species -specific diet.

I know people report egg count success with regular use of herbal wormers but I do cynically wonder if their horses are all non shredders? Paddy has only tested weakly positive for redworm twice in the last 5 years.

I am really looking forward to the promised ELISA test for encysted redworm becoming commercially available.

Once we have reliable affordable tests for common equine parasites, there will be some calendar years for my boys where no chemical worming is necessary. It isn’t cheaper than worming blindly every few months, but my recent experience suggests it may well be safer for horses to test before dosing unnecessarily, both in the short and the long term.

Soil analysis digging done today -year 2- I’ll keep you posted.

Category: Holistic Horse Care

Today We Turn Left

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If Only my Horse could Talk…

“If only my horse could talk!”

“If only my human could listen.”

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Sitting Pretty…when the saddle fits

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Turn out versus living out

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The Rocky Road to Rehab

We bought him as a yearling.

The pity party

We’ve taken it really slowly

The value of good in hand work

In classical training, the bit belongs to the horse.

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Naming your horse

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How much grass do horses need?

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Grow your own….

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Big fit horses in reasonable work can get laminitis too…

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Do combination wormers cause abscesses?

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“If only my horse could talk!”

“If only my human could listen.”

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We bought him as a yearling.

The pity party

We’ve taken it really slowly

The value of good in hand work

In classical training, the bit belongs to the horse.

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