3.9.11 ~ The Weight of an Older Horse

 I’m definitely not a newbie to caring for an older horse; we got my pony, Checkers between the age of 14 & 16 and cared for her till her death at 24 (joint/leg complications took her, not age). But she was an easy keeper all her life though, so hard keepers are a bit of a puzzle to me in general.

 Diego has seemingly made the switch from easy keeper, all of his life to a slightly harder keeper as far as his weight is concerned. We’ve had alot of hurdles to overcome in the past 6 months concerning his health: he was malnourished when he arrived at our current barn in June. Coat was decent but not too shiny, his hoof wall was terribly, dry, cracking, his skin was prey to constant fungal infections and was super slow to heal from even the smallest scratches or cuts. He became a pasture 24/7 horse last June and once I added a ration balancer supplement back to his program I started to see major improvement by Sept/Oct. I would have seen results within the first month but I made a mistake on the dosage <embarrassment> and did not up the dosage till Sept. Summer and fall that was all he needed to be healthy and maintain a proper weight: grass & ration balancer about 4-5 times a week. (1lb for light work)

Winter came though and this is our first winter together since being in a pampered barn with a stall every night. I admit I did not take the advice of putting weight on him before winter as seriously as I should have and I regret it. It’s too hard to try and put/keep weight on at the last minute, preparation for winter should begin in October if not before. Ideally once the grass dies and even before that, which for us living in southern USA, is around December - horses should have access to hay 24/7. According to Diego’s body weight he needs atleast 19lbs a day to maintain healthy weight & gut health. Unfortunately this winter we have had troubles at my barn obtaining enough hay and keeping it out there constantly for the horses. While Diego isn’t in any immediate danger he has gone through winter much thinner than I prefer and it has had me stressed and worried for far too many months. Work, family life and other commitments keep me from being able to come out everyday to feed. Sometimes I feel very guilty, like I’m not being responsible enough for his well being. =(

Now because of the lack of hay issue, I am having to look into alternative ways to put weight on him. To some people this may not be unusual, or a big deal, but to me it’s very unnatural (for him) and frustrating. Horses were not meant to ingest large amount of commercially processed grains. While he might go the whole winter with no adverse side-effects (IF I choose the feed wisely and limit the starch & molasses) from excess amounts of grain my instincts tell me this is not the way to go. How many people out there have been faced with non-ideal feeding situations with their horses at boarding facilities? I find myself really wanting to hear their stories right about now. I have opinions thrown at me from all sides and it can get very overwhelming. I face judgment sometimes from all sides as well, no matter what decision I finally settle on. Most people are well meaning but also all of them think they know what’s bets for my horse.   *sigh*

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The options I have settled on for now are: Beet Pulp & Rice Bran Oil.

I started D on ½ cup of vegetable oil and then moved up to a homemade mixture of coconut & canola oil. My trimmer pointed out that canola is higher than certain other oils in Omega 6’s though which can promote inflammatory responses in the body. With D’s arthritis that’s something I definitely want to minimize. I’ve switched to rice bran oil currently and may continue to use coconut. Uckele.com has a coconut/soybean oil combo for about $18 which was tried and tested for us many years ago (and met taste approvals of our horses) so that’s an option too. As of last week he is now up to 2c. A large amount I know but it’s not permanent - I am looking for improvement and will drop back to 1c for maintenence.

The beet pulp from what I hear is slow to put weight on but reliable. Just this week we have moved up to 4lbs of it (dried, shredded measured). The trick for me is of course managing his intake - he is fed in one meal 4-5 times a week, so that presents a challenge of not overloading his stomach at one time. I break it up into 2 feedings over a 2hr period:

*2-3lbs beet pulp upon my arrival, before our work

*2lbs beet pulp + 1lb ration balancer + oil & hoof supplement before I leave

We'll see how this goes...

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UPDATE on the weight issue: 3/31/11

Apparently it's not just him being a "hard keeper" that's been the problem all winter. I've been at the BP and oil thing for a month with only minimal results. Recently it was discovered that D has a jaw problem and there is significant suspicion now that the problem has caused the majority of weight loss through the winter. More on that in subsequent entries!

Playing with Shoulder In

I thought I would write alittle this morning about something I have been experimenting with lately with Diego: the Shoulder In.

As you may know we come from a Dressage background so related movements are familiar to us both. I have neglected most movements though for the past 6 months in an attempt to spend more time focusing on exploration, experimentation and my own learning through feel instead of head knowledge. As time goes by it is clear though that it’s time to start working these movements into our workouts and regular fun time: Diego needs the physical benefits such exercises provide. The building of the ab, hip and haunch muscles, the extending of the hind legs & careful weight loading, balance practice etc

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In the world of dressage often as my old trainer used to say we complicate movements by studying each individual aid instead of the movement as a whole. I can say personally this was true for me and tends to “freeze” me as a rider… I stop riding because my brain and body can’t keep up/communicate. Then Diego stops because I froze… uhg.  One of the first people to help me unravel these dressage movements was Art of Natural Dressage founder, Josepha Guillaume  (www.josepha.info/ ) 

I believe her first comment was to not over-think things… just feel.  Feel what the horse does and try experiments with your body to see how he reacts. Secondly she says to simply make your body do what you wish the horses body to do: for instance turn your shoulders inwards for Shoulder In, keep your hips straight since that’s the goal of the movement.  This made absolute sense, by mirroring body movements I could eliminate the noise in my brain about “Do this do that”. 

The last week I was reading JP Giacomini’s blog (www.equus-academy.com) and found an entry on the “Aids for Shoulder In”. I would quote the specifics if I could remember them, but basically I came away with the idea to try weight experiments using my stirrups. So when riding Diego at the walk I attempted Shoulder In as usual, my shoulder turned in alittle, my inside leg swinging freely with his barrel and pressing lightly as the barrel swung towards the outside (that times your leg with his legs properly). This time I very carefully stepped into the outside stirrup a bit. I don’t normally keep weight in my stirrups much at the walk… it’s just how I ride, for better or worse, but this stepping into the stirrup made a HUGE difference! Diego fairly glided sideways suddenly!  O.O  3 steps in a row, body bent, crossing his legs over – and I could FEEL it. I am finally learning to feel the difference in his body when he walks like that!

This really made me realize just how important proper weight signals are. Diego had been waiting all along for me to give him a signal that made sense, apparently that shift of weight was exactly what he needed. 

   Yesterday I experimented a bit more with weight aids while riding. We had a brief trot around the arena to burn off some energy (we’ve had a COLD snap here! Brrrrr) and then a lap or 2 of canter both directions. I found the weight thing most helpful at the canter around curves. D is quite weak and unbalanced at the canter right now and leans terribly (for him atleast). No amount of lifting and releasing the inside rein gets him off his inside shoulder. I found it helped him significantly if I made sure my weight as very slightly to the outside stirrup (but not so much that my body was crooked!) and my inside leg rested firmly against his ribs as an aid to support him.

Definitely something I will continue to play with.