Full Stride Equine Massage Therapy

12/31/2024

❄️🐴 How Do Horses Stay Warm in Winter? 🌨️

Horses are naturally equipped to handle cold weather with unique adaptations that help them conserve heat and stay cozy. From their hair coat to their digestive system, they’ve got tools to help them thrive in winter conditions.🐎❄️

While they’re built for the cold, extra care—like proper forage, shelter, and monitoring—can help support them all winter long.✨

Want to learn more about how horses stay warm and how to support them during the colder months? Visit our article:

🇺🇸 https://madbarn.com/feed-horse-in-winter/
🇨🇦 https://madbarn.ca/feed-horse-in-winter/

10/04/2024

12/09/2023

How to become a more positive rider----Some thoughts----

I got an email from a rider---“I wish I had more courage. Sometimes I feel like such a chicken, and I hate it. Do you have any suggestions for getting braver?”

Well, Jack LeGoff’s advice to the rescue. Jack had a saying about boldness, which is just another word for bravery or courage. It went like this, and though it pertains to training horses, it equally applies to people---

“Boldness comes from confidence. Confidence comes from success. So it becomes the job of the trainer to create as many situations that as much as possible guarantee success.”

If we KNOW we can do something, because we have already done it many times without a hitch, we are likely to be confident about it, courageous enough to do it again. Take driving a car. Or swimming in a pool. Or speaking in front of a group. Or skiing down a bunny slope. Or anything that is at least mildly risky, or, as in the case of public speaking, possibly nerve wracking.

So, for a rider to get more gutsy----START WITH A CALM HORSE. That is rule number one. If you are nervous about riding, be POSITIVE that it is not because of your choice of horse. If it IS the horse, even if partly so, get a quieter one to help you build confidence. If you stubbornly refuse to do this, I don’t think anyone has a good way to help you.

OK, so now you have a quiet horse. Next, do relatively easy things that, as LeGoff said “guarantee , success.” Get lots of success at that level, to the point that you are not afraid to do it.

So what’s next? Make it a TINY bit harder. Go through the same process as before. Then add just a hint of greater difficulty. Hey, at some point even Atilla The Hun would start to feel overwhelmed, so go until you are pretty darn sure you have reached a point that is good for you.

Do what you can do, and be happy there. There will ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS be some others who can do more. Goodie for them---.

10/21/2023

10/05/2023

Pretty much everyone agrees that it’s nice to ride in a comfortable saddle. Most likely, horses would agree that a saddle should be comfortable for them, too. In the last decade or so, the horse’s saddle has received a good bit of attention in equine studies, especially as to how it related to w...

09/12/2023

So here’s a question to ask ourselves before we get angry at our horse----“How much damage control do I want to have to do?”

Think about it---We have many reasons to lose our temper at horses because training horses is extremely time consuming and it requires the patience of a saint, which most of us are not.

So something that we want the horse to do, the horse is not doing to our satisfaction. Now the real reason might be all sorts of things, poor fitting tack, improper preparation, poor riding from us, whatever, but it doesn’t FEEL like that, not at this moment. It feels as though the horse is willfully being a pain in the ass.

And so the temptation is HUGE to respond by getting rough, by drilling, by getting frustrated, we have all been there, I suspect.

BUT---And here’s the gigantic “but”----But if we DO lose it with the horse, whatever the problem was that made us get annoyed or angry in the first place is going to get worse. Count on it. The “lesson” we think we are teaching our horse, not to be “bad” is absolutely going to backfire. The horse did not know why he was getting rammed around. All it will do is scare him and confuse him, so now we have to undo the harm we did to even get back to the place we were before we lost our temper.

We have to do damage control, and the worst thing about it is that WE did the damage.

Hard? You bet. One of the hardest things about riding horses is self control. It is the ONE vital piece that so often keeps an otherwise good trainer from reaching full potential---.

06/13/2023

Wonderful,clear explanation.

04/29/2023

If your horse is exhibiting strange sleep patterns, or appearing to be constantly sleepy, he might not be getting the rest he needs.

04/22/2023

Any nasal drainage can be an important indicator of a horse's health and can even herald an emergency. Here are 6 scenarios and possible causes.

04/22/2023

Interesting implications for possibly preventing EPM.

Once-weekly Protazil administration achieved steady-state plasma concentrations known to inhibit S. neurona, which causes EPM in horses.

03/16/2023

Why do ‘cresty’ necks suddenly go rock hard?

This information is relevant and useful to people who own horses with Equine Metabolic Syndrome and are in danger of laminitis or whose horses are intermittently ‘footy’. Understanding this has helped with rehabilitating, not only all the ponies at Jen Heperi’s Mini-HaHa Rescue Haven but many more horses and ponies all around the world.

We learned from Dr Deb Bennett PhD (who has conducted many dissections), that “the horse's "crest" is made of fibro-fatty sub-cutaneous (adipose) tissue similar in texture to high-density foam”.

Have you ever wondered how it is that the ‘crest’ of the neck can harden so rapidly? Sometimes overnight?

The actual reason is because it goes ‘turgid’ (it fills with fluid). Like foam, the crest tissue can take up water like a sponge; so it swells and hardens because fluid ‘leaks’ into it, filling the interstitial spaces until it is hard as a rock, and ‘softens’ when electrolyte balances are corrected thereby allowing fluid to be resorbed.

When the crest swells with edema, other parts of the horse's body like the abdomen and the hooves (significantly the digital cushion is made of similar material, it is a thick wedge of fibro-fatty subcutaneous tissue) -- are liable to be in trouble, too.

Hardening of the ‘crest’ coincides with not only spring and autumn growth spurts but also potassium and nitrogen spikes in autumn and winter grasses. It coincides with early signs of laminitis which are ‘stiffening’ of gait and being ‘footy’.

It is a sure indication that one cause of ‘pasture related laminitis’ is as much to do with mineral imbalances, (particularly potassium and nitrogen excesses concurrent with salt deficit) as sugars and starches. It explains why short Autumn grass can cause laminitis when analysis shows soluble sugars + starch content is only 7.5% while potassium is 3.4%, sodium only 0.154%, nitrogen 5.8%, nitrates 2290mgs/kg (far too high, in mature grass/hay they are undetectable).
It is one of the many reasons clover is such a ‘no-no’ for EMS/laminitis equines and a likely explanation why there are some insulin resistant/elevated insulin horses that can't tolerate Lucerne (alfalfa) and is why Lucerne can perpetuate laminitis when everything else is being done ‘right’.

People who own horses with EMS are aware they need to pay attention to this vital sign: that just before a horse has a bout of laminitis, the normally soft and spongy crest stands up firm and hard. Then they can immediately reduce potassium/nitrogen intake by eliminating short, green grass replacing it with soaked hay and make sure they add salt to feeds and not rely on a salt lick. If action is taken quickly enough in these early stages, laminitis can be averted, you can ‘dodge a bullet’.

Soaking hay for about an hour not only reduces sugars but also reduces potassium levels by 50%.

Therefore a very important aspect of EMS and laminitis is that identifying and addressing mineral imbalances (particularly high potassium/nitrogen & low salt) are equally as important as sugar and starch content when rehabilitating individuals and assessing suitability of forage for these compromised equines.