holistic horses Archives - Page 4 of 4 - Lessons from Nelipot Cottage

If wishes were horses

“If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride”.

As a child, all my wishes were for horses. All my dreams and all my games involved horses, and all my wishes were horses and all my prayers were for a horse of my own (just in case there was a kind deity out there who could dish out real life miracle horses).

If wishes were horses, then I would have ridden every single day of my childhood.

I did OK. I had some riding lessons aged 7, which stopped pretty quickly once my mum realised that this inconvenient obsession would not be cured by increased exposure. The bus to secondary school passed an equestrian centre, as well as Mill Hill Boys School. While all my friends were getting off the bus to flirt with real boys, I was racing down to the stables, mucking out in return for the privilege of a fleeting bareback ride, bringing the horses in from the field.

If wishes were horses…I wrote poems about horses, practised drawing horses, covered every exercise book with doodles of horses’ heads.

If wishes were horses, I would have had a full stable!

I wonder how the books we chose shaped our equestrian dreams?

I read/devoured/memorised the Colt from Snowy River series, the Black Stallion series, the Thunderhead trilogy, the Shantih series. My horsey idols all lived out, in fields on the moors, or on the range, were often ridden bareback, had their natural instincts and characters kept intact, and seemed to have a mystical connection with their human hero/ine.

I dreamed of jumping, and galloping, mane and hair flowing in the wind, communicating by mind meld, not of fighting, or struggling, or arguing with my horse to achieve results.

I didn’t dream of rosettes, or winning. Just of being out with my horses, day after day, enjoying freedom and fun.

My mum took me to see the Spanish Riding School in London in the 80s. In those days, they were still the bastion of correct classical training. The advanced work looked effortless, the horses appeared magical, the synergy between horse and rider invisible. Years later, when I started competing, and having ‘proper’ lessons, the difference between what I had seen that evening and what I was being told to do seemed completely incongruous.

I didn’t dream of pulling my horse’s head in, of making him rounder, of making him submissive. I had dreamed of a willing partner, of being able to ride with my seat, without force, without pain.

I didn’t dream of whipping my horse to make him do something. The theory that your horse needs to be more scared of you than of the fence is just nonsense. I want my horses to trust me, so when they see a scary fence they check in, ask is it OK, and then go for it because I say we can. And after good training, I want my horses to be so confident that when they see a scary fence, it isn’t scary because they have seen similar stuff before, been allowed to work it out, and learned that they can. In the long run, I want my horse to be saying “it’s OK mum, I’ve got this, let’s go”. We don’t get to that point by force, but by education.

Anna Blake wrote a fabulous blog about that process

https://annablakeblog.com/2018/03/09/the-middle-path-peaceful-persistence/

Anna writes with a lot of wisdom: her blogs contain life lessons as well as horse lessons. Most of us need life lessons first 😉

And most horse lessons are life lessons, in the end.

I do ride with a schooling whip, as did the masters, for communication to say “this hip”, “this shoulder”, “lift your belly”, or to see “hey, I’m talking to you”. A whip is never to be used for punishment, never against the horse. It’s a communication device, for very specific aiding moments.

‘Aider’- verb, French- to help, assist, support, to help to do

That’s what the aids should be…

I also do lots of exercises where the whips are used as flags in my hands to show floppy wrists, or held down behind a straight back. My horses tolerate all sorts of waving whips around, because they know the whip won’t hurt them, and also because they know intent. They know when the whip is something to do with them: pointing at a particular body part during in hand work for example, or when the whip is absolutely nothing to do with them.

I do also wear spurs, but again they are for refinement. I have done years of work on my legs, with many more years to go, so that I can give an aid for energy with the inside of my foot, not my heel or calf. That means I can use my spurs for specific aids- currently “Cal, lift your belly!” I am nowhere perfect- our work as a rider is never done, but I can choose, leg or spur?

I do jump in spurs, but was surprised to find that cross country times became much more achievable once I loosened my legs and learned to balance on my legs not grip with my calves. Cal’s hindleg could then come forward into the space allowed, his stride got longer and smoother, and hey presto, the magnificent half draught learned to gallop.

When I recall my early reading choices, It’s no surprise our horses live out, unrugged, in a herd, with their key needs catered for #friendsforagefreedom.

And a dog. Every horse should have a pet dog😂.

Our horses have 6 acres, so cannot be described as free range, but they have as much freedom and movement and equine free time as we can allow them. As well as ample forage, a field with an increasing number of plants, grasses and herbs to choose from, and plenty of life to watch.

Our summer Paddock Paradise style track along the bottom edge of the field

l’m not trying to tell anyone how to do things- we all find our own path and our own compromises. And we should all continue learning and examining our “truths” every day.

But what I would ask is that you look back to your childhood dreams of horses and just reflect on how close you are to those ideals? Did your wishes turn into the horses you dreamed of? Did the horses turn into happy, healthy, willing partners?

And did you turn into the owner your horse would dream of?

Would your horse pick you?

Cal and Lilly, our neighbour. Every horse deserves to be loved by a little girl- looks like Lilly is going to be Cal’s little girl…when she’s a bit bigger

Lilly is about to start riding lessons, at a local riding school where children aren’t given whips. I look forward to hearing about the ethical riding lessons as she learns the basics, properly.

Another ethical establishment – East Devon Riding Academy- blog regularly about their approach to teaching children the joys of horsemanhip.

http://www.ridingacademy.co.uk

Because who remembers falling in love with horses and then somehow, along the way, we are taught that it is OK to hit them, OK to tie their mouths tight shut, OK to force their heads down, rather than allow them to express their opinion about our riding?

When I dreamed of horses, my childhood dreams were full of sound, happy horses.

Now that I have learned to listen to the horses I have, to allow them a voice, an opinion and a good equine life of their own, now all my dreams are coming true.

And I hope Lilly’s will too.

The Unbeatable Lightness of Being- Seeking Lightness in Riding

The unbeatable lightness of being that we can achieve with our horses, for me, is the absolute goal of classical riding and training. One you have felt the unbeatable lightness of being, it becomes addictive, and nothing less will do.

I hold cherished memories of a lesson a couple of months ago. The gait was canter, the exercise was 3 strides shoulder fore, straighten to the diagonal for 3 strides, then plié back to the track for 3 strides and repeat. The difficulty, high, the execution imperfect but the effects were the unbeatable lightness of being.

I can still remember the feeling –

Cal under but mostly in front of me, shoulder apparatus maximum width, withers lifting me up, huge neck up and out in front of me, the bit felt light yet firm in my hands, he felt completely balanced between hand and seat. In that moment, I could have put him anywhere in the arena, speared my enemy, jumped an enormous hedge, asked for a flying change, or halted him into a levade, if I had those skills. He was completely engaged, completely available, completely “on it” and completely with me. That is my current definition of lightness in riding, the unbeatable lightness of being.

It was a surprise, because it wasn’t soft.

Having had a previous horse that had been extensively ridden behind the vertical, I had come to associate that evasion with softness, an empty hand felt soft, but actually was an empty hand, a horse curling behind the vertical to avoid bit pressure. This time it was a more tangible contact, like holding hands on a summer’s day, not restrictive but there was a definite sensation of holding something precious, something that must not be dropped. And it was about much more than the hand; my seat was filled with my horse’s back, wide and firm but comfortable and malleable. My back was straight, my legs stable. I guess it was an adhesive seat on an inflated back; it felt like sitting on firm memory foam, totally comformable, comfortable, but active as well.

It only lasted a few strides of course; in training at our level these moments are fleeting. But it was enough to know that I would seek that feeling, every day in every ride, until that is our normal way of going. Had we been in a double bridle, we would have been on a loose curb, because in that moment, he filled the rein, it wasn’t me seeking him.

I have felt it a few times since. Last time it occurred we got our first clean canter to walk transition. I’m still amazed at how much horse it requires to achieve lightness. Cal the grey is quite soporific to ride; his mind is hugely powerful and he’s quite happy working on low revs. I call him the hypnotist; I get on determined to access the whole amazing war-horse body and get off having had a lovely ‘nice’ ride!! For him to be fully light, he needs to be fully engaged, brain, body and soul. He doesn’t yield (or step up?) to that easily. Therein lies our biggest homework. When he does turn up he is huge, in body and in personality. He and I aren’t quite comfortable with that… just yet.

Lightness in riding is the ultimate goal. The pinnacle of classical training at the old school SRS was the solo display, birch upright in one hand, the snaffle rein loose and the curb reins held lightly in the other hand. The display would typically include all the Grand Prix movements and finally Piaffe to Levade, without a single aid being visible, horse and rider as one, effortless centaurs, mind meld and body meld, in the unbeatable lightness of being.

How do we get there?

First we need an independent balanced seat – we need to look to our own riding. A good seat, the sort developed on the lunge in days of old, an adhesive seat with a supple back and allowing joints, with each leg and each arm able to act independently, in several parts, to aid each footfall if required. The upper arms are part of the back, the hands and the bit belong to the horse; we receive what he offers, never taking or restricting. The neck is allowed the length the horse requires for balance: when the balance is good, the hindlegs will flex, the croup will lower and the topline will reflect that. Two to four years on the lunge, as an apprentice in a good riding academy in days gone by. My sister, growing up in Germany, spent four years on the lunge, as a learner amateur rider. Klimke was lunged once a week all the way through his career. A good seat takes work. Why do we think we can do away with these basics these days?

gymnasticise your horse

Next gymnasticise your horse. The two sides have to be equalised; the overbent side decontracted to the same length as the long stiff side, the weight in the footfalls equalised, front to front first then front to back, then eventually the back will take more weight than front (not there often yet). The back has to be both strong and supple, the front and back of the horse connected, the neck coming UP out of the withers strong and long before it can help lift the back into collection. That alone could be years of work, for the part-time amateur rider with no arena and limited riding time.

The school exercises are designed to strengthen and supple your horse, to teach him better balance, to empower him to control his body better and become magnificent. We have forgotten their purpose, these strange exercises that appear in our dressage tests. Learning their purpose and their criteria takes study, i.e. reading, practise, analysis, and educated application. It’s not about how they look, it’s about how they make the horse feel, how they develop his body, which muscles and joints they target. Putting the head and neck over a specific hind leg is like power lifting for a horse, developing the strength in his haunches. Half pass is like the ultimate cross trainer, the Carlsberg of exercises, it reaches parts other exercises cannot, the reach of the outside hind leg, diagonal power, open shoulders, squats on the inside hind leg, WHEN DONE CORRECTLY.

the horse needs to trust your body

And most importantly you need your horse’s mind. He needs to trust your seat to be stable, to trust the hand, to reach forward willingly into an allowing contact that offers him a point of reference without restricting his balance. The aids are aids that offer the horse space to move into, a point of balance to move across to, not a shoving or a pulling or a pushing that contorts him into a certain shape. It becomes a dance, between partners.

A really useful note on the hand position from the greatly missed Sandy Dunlop – this is regarding the line from elbow to bit:

“The key of that line, a line which most people do incorrectly, is that the line is along the underside of the lower arm, NOT the upper side. Most people have their third finger pressing down on the rein when they think they are straight line from elbow to bit. A correctly bent elbow with the correct line can look to many modern riders as if it is a high hand when in fact the line from horse hip to rider hip through elbow to bit is unbroken.

During the learning process all riders find and lose that connection angle. In general there need to be phases of temporary exaggeration of the articulated elbow in order to prevent the erroneous muscle memory which keeps ‘relaxing’ the hand down onto the old line which causes pressure on the bars and tongue of the horse. This becomes an elastic thing where the temporarily high hand is no longer needed. Sadly, people often mistake the temporary for the permanent.

This single, simple error of line is the common cause of the mild to medium btv posture we see in most horses i.e. that btv posture which prevents throughness and correct biomechanics of postural usage.”

I love internet discussions on training. I have learned loads from international virtual friends who are incredibly generous with their experience and expertise and are well practised in the black art of explaining training principles in writing. The Masters are all but gone, but those who trained with them are still with us and working really hard to keep the Art of Dressage alive, despite modern competition aberrations.

The truth is often uncomfortable, but it’s still the truth.

And the two bodies together become more powerful and more beautiful, and the human should become invisible because the horse should dazzle and shine.

Just a small ambition for life then!!

I hope you too all find moments of the unbeatable lightness of being.

I have a new favourite video- feast your eyes and then go and emulate this and you won’t go too far wrong searching for the unbeatable lightness of being.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpyO3B5dHmQ

An exemplary line from elbow to bit — Huge horse, light on his feet, light in the hand Pollay at the 1936 Olympics – youngest rider competing and Gold medalist

Change is inevitable

Change is inevitable in life- we are never static. With horses, we are either building them up or breaking them down (Charles de Kunffy).

Photos are an important tool to chart our progress, in either direction.

I found this old photo of Cal in my memories today- what struck me immediately was how weedy his chest looked then compared to nowadays.

Change is inevitable.

This photo was taken on the Whitegate Way when he would have been 7. I bought him at 6, he fractured his carpal bone that winter. This photo was taken the winter after, when he was just back into work but we hadn’t yet met Patrice and started our Classical training journey.

I think this was the snow that disrupted the first Patrice clinic I was due to attend. I’m pretty sure this was the day we were meant to be at Stafford Horse Trials- funnily enough it was cancelled that year!!

Change is inevitable, and its lovely when it’s good. The photo below was taken late summer this year. Look at the chest on it now! He is every inch the magnificent draught in this photo.

So for those who don’t believe that horses grow both taller and broader with correct training- here is some evidence 🙂

Change is inevitable, but you can choose which change to pursue.

I’m hoping the TB half will be more obvious when he is eventing fit…but then again… I quite like the magnificent charger.

We get the horse we need for the next stage of our learning, not necessarily the horse we think we want.

Bring on 2018 🙂

First do no harm…

First do no harm… You may not know, but I am a surgeon in my other life, so “first do no harm…” is the mantra that I live by, day to day, and try to apply in every interaction in life, human to human and human to horse. Above is another doctor, who I am sure shared the same mantra.

Now I know we all love our horses and we work really hard for them and with them, and nobody that got into horses ever did so with the intention of causing harm. But here is an awkward truth:

“The intention to harm need not be present for a horse in fact to be harmed”

So how might we harm our horses?

The first most obvious example is blood. Now we all may have different standards but one of my basic principles is that nothing I do to my horse should make him bleed.

I’m not saying I have never caused a horse to bleed- when Paddy was in work, I rubbed his side raw in a jumping lesson, not with a spur but with a spur rest. Yes, he does have incredibly thin skin. But that wasn’t an excuse. I rubbed his side raw because my leg position wasn’t good enough in those days and I was gripping with my calves, in that “knees out, heels in” stable, secure and incorrect position that jumping trainers encourage because it decreases the number of ground slaps that might occur in any one lesson.

It wouldn’t happen now. Four years and hundreds of pounds of seat focussed lessons later my leg position has changed entirely, my seat is now secure and I aid with the inside of my foot not the back of my calf.

When Cal was young I rubbed his mouth raw with the bit. The well meaning livery yard owner gave me some crystals to mix with water to harden up his mouth. I was an idiot and uneducated and I used the solution and carried on schooling. No one suggested I should learn to use the bit better or learn to keep my hands still (independent seat again); it was the young horse’s soft mouth that was the problem and there was a caustic solution for that.

First do no harm…

Rocky has not had a sore mouth. Now we have learned that the bit should only act up or out, never down on the bars, that the length of rein is dictated by the horse, that the frame dictates the length of rein and the horse’s level of balance and schooling dictates the frame. And I have a more secure seat that allows me to think forwards with my hands without losing balance.

So obviously I’m still not perfect, but I’m learning and trying to be better all the time. And if I caused one of my horses to bleed in a competition I would eliminate myself and kick myself and run for home to train and improve myself so it could never happen again.

First do no harm…

There are other more insidious ways of causing harm to a horse. The modern fashion of riding Low Deep and Round, also known as deep stretching, well behind the vertical, has been shown by more than 50 scientific studies to be physically and mentally damaging for the horse. Modern science is proving what the Old Dead Guys knew by keen observation- closed postures and curling the front of the horse rather than riding from the haunches leads to problems with kissing spines, suspensory ligament pathology, SI joint damage, hock arthritis, and also to stress and gastric ulcers first from having their vision limited and then from learned helplessness.

First do no harm…

This horse is behind the vertical- red vertical line included for reference.

Please don’t take my word for it: read the research for yourselves

http://equitationscience.com/equitation/position-statement-on-alterations-of-the-horses-head-and-neck-posture-in-equitation

And then make your own minds up. But please remember

“To know and not to do is not to know”

So we are naturally too quick to criticise others, and all of us are just doing our best. How will we know if the work we are doing is correct?

Luckily horses are very clear once we have learned to look and listen.

I’ve altered the quote below (from Maya Angelou)

“I have learned that horses will forget what you said, horses will forget what you do, but horses will never forget how you made them feel”

So how do we know that our work is good? In a world where so much teaching is against the horse rather than for the good of the horse, how do we tell the difference? How do we know whether the work made his body feel better? Which after all is the whole point of Dressage- from the French verb ‘dresser’ which actually means to train, to sculpt our horse into a thing of beauty that is empowered rather than diminished by our interventions.

Did it make the horse feel good?

What signs do we look for to know it made them feel good?

My favourite sign is helicopter ears- they go soft and floppy and assume all sorts of funny angles. Rocky has huge ears, as do all his family, so this one is pretty obvious, as well as being visible from on top!

Another sign is soft liquid eyes, with relaxed ‘eyebrows” and slow blinking. When the work is good, the horse is calm, because horses are kinaesthetic and they find it frightening to be out of balance. When their balance is aided to improve, they relax and chill out. They almost look stoned after good work. Stoned, not exhausted.

Breathing slows and calms: soft hurrumphs or gentle chuntering are signs of a relaxed mouth , tongue and larynx as well as relaxed brain. Harsh sharp breathing, breath holding, or sharp snorting, teeth grinding or calling out are all sure signs of a horse either stressed or on full alert.

Winter is coming…

Winter is coming…whether we like it or not. For the traditional horse keepers amongst you, this means months of mucking out in the dark, clipping, changing sodden rugs, riding for fitness in the dark or paying for indoor arenas.

Winter is coming, and the winter preparation for track kept horses is slightly different. Our field is about 6 acres. We have a summer track around the edge, a hard standing area for giant hay feeders and the middle is split into 3 paddocks. This summer, one paddock has been grazed by Gary’s TB, who needed extra weight and needed to be segregated from the others because they bullied him horribly. It turns out he has had Kissing Spines, and now his back has been injected, and he is moving better, he is allowed into the herd; presumable he doesn’t look like the weakest link anymore. That’s another story for another day though.

Winter is coming, which means the grass will finally be safe for the grass sensitive Cal to eat without going footsore. The other two paddocks have been left long to act as standing hay for winter. Our grass doesn’t really turn onto foggage as our weather generally is not cold or dry enough, but we had great success last year introducing them to the long grass one paddock at a time, until they had access to the whole 6 acres for the worst part of winter. Allowing wider access reduced the footfall in any one area, and thereby reduced the mud damage. A couple of the gateway gaps were trashed by spring but they have recovered really well over the summer. And the gravelled feed area proved a life saver last year: the feeders were easy to fill, the horses didn’t get mud fever, their feet were brilliant from standing and loafing on pea gravel. I’ve made a road from haylage store to feed area from old stable mats, eventually this will be stoned too.

The horses made their own gateways last year. This year the electric tape is staying up and electrified for now, but if they start barging through willy-nilly again, it will get unstrung and put away for winter. I’m not sure how well the solar energiser will work over winter!

Winter is coming, and it’s a good time to take stock.

Gary and I have had the most excellent year. We have continued the brilliant monthly clinic lessons with Patrice- Cal is getting stronger and more established in his work, Rocky got through his teenage tantrums, although we had a bit of outside help with that, and Beat settled in lovely and will be the most fabulous event horse if his KS come right. Cal and I have been to 2 British Riding Club Championships, both team trips with friends from the Exceptionally Cool Riding Club. The East Clwyd Riding Club is most excellent, and has been rightly shortlisted for the NAF Riding Club of the Year Award- Please vote here

The Horse Trials Championships were obviously the most fun; bonus was we had a season best dressage and a lovely double clear.

Previously known as sicknote, Cal managed to remain sound for a whole summer. I got really brave and took him down to the Dovecote Stables for 2 ridden lessons with the legendary Charles de Kunffy. Now I will admit, in my dreams I wanted it to be a breakthrough clinic where we got to clean changes. However, Charles is a genius at getting to THE thing; and the breakthrough turned out to be that there is no point doing all the funky stuff until his body submission issues are completely sorted. Many people who know him think Cal is an angel; he’s not hot, he doesn’t dance or jig or bronc, but he does just do this tiny brace in his neck, and fractionally lock his jaw, and he doesn’t ever yield his brain. So the Charles lessons turned out to be all about ensuring we get a good topline, with a lifted back, swinging shoulders and a soft lumbar back. And that’s OK, because when I take that horse to the harder work, that works much better too! Except for trot/canter transitions…if Cal can’t brace we can’t yet do them on demand…..more practise.

We have done 6 ODEs, including an unaffiliated 90 at Eland. Not bad for a full time surgeon! And finally we finished our summer season with the FOTH qualifier at Berriewood- first out on course for individual 3rd and a team win. It was at 80 level again, rather than the planned 90, but this last month has been mad busy so I didn’t feel ready to step up.

For those of you who haven’t noticed, this was all done without shoes. With 24/7 turnout on a track system.

Naughty turned out leg in the showjumping photo- much winter homework required!

Winter is coming, and the horses are getting furry. The working horses will get a shallow trace clip when they get really furry, just to enable us to ride them. I think the TB will need a rug, depending on how much coat he grows, but based on last year’s experience, the others won’t need a rug.

Winter is coming. I was musing the other day that we need to work out how much of what we traditionally do over winter is done for our human convenience, and how much is done for the horse’s benefit. Shoes exist for human convenience. Horses don’t need shoes, they need good feet. And good feet don’t come easily once they are brought into the sphere of human influence. Stables exist only for human convenience. Stables don’t make good feet. Clips are for humans really- people want to use their horses over winter and are taught they can’t do so unless the horse is clipped. Clips lead to rugs, and lead to stables being required. Horses can easily deal with temperatures from -5 to 25 degrees Celsius, if they have adequate forage, shelter and hair. As well as friends. Friends are crucial. When it rains, our horses huddle behind the hedge, or in the dip, taking it in turns to be on the outside. When it stops, they go for a mad 10 minutes play, get warmed up and then get back to eating. Forage ferments in the equine caecum, providing their own central heating system. They eat for about 16 hours a day, to trickle feed their caecum. Their fur can stand up, fluff out, the dense layers of unclipped fur resist rain beautifully and they are often completely dry underneath the herringbone pattern the rain forms in the long top hair. Mud is a great insulator, as is snow and ice if we get a proper cold spell. Our horses only really use the field shelters if it’s wet and windy, or nights like tonight, persistently wet with their full winter coat not quite through yet.

So our choice is to let them deal with winter as naturally as possible. We still ride regularly, with fluffy numnahs to prevent damp hair rubbing. We hack and school and jump and drag-hunt and do farm rides. I’m careful not to work them so hard that they overheat on warmer winter days. The horses cool themselves off perfectly mooching around the field after being worked. We feed ad lib unlimited haylage and grass, along with one hard feed a day. They have ample shelter and they have each other. And the natural lifestyle keeps them fit, in mind and body. It’s not always easy. It’s certainly not always convenient. But it is a valid choice, and our horses are the better for it.

And all we have to do is pooh pick and knock off the odd bit of mud.

Winter is coming. So what? Horses have been doing winter for millions of years, without us as well as with us. Here’s to winter training!

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.

Tag: holistic horses

If wishes were horses

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