Biomechanics is the science of movement of a living body, including how muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments work together to produce movement. Biomechanics explains the negative impacts upon a horse’s body caused by incorrect riding and training methods, such as Rollkur.

It is important for riders to understand the physical effect that their aids have directly on the horse’s body as a whole, and realise that incorrect aids (such as backwards use of the hand) can make it impossible for the horse to become supple through the back and able to work correctly and also, that long-term use of such aids can lead to serious lameness and behavioural problems.
The position and length of the horse’s neck, through its many anatomical interconnections with the trunk, has a direct biomechanical effect on the back. If the head is placed unnaturally deep or the neck is unnaturally shortened it will inevitably lead to movement faults and eventual health problems.

The purpose of dressage training is to gymnasticise the horse, to make him stronger and in better balance as well as obedient to the aids of the rider.

It takes time and patience to build up muscles. In training a horse, the rider has a job similar to that of a human personal trainer, they must attempt to show and encourage the horse to use his muscles in the correct way in order to strengthen them, but also not overdo it as this will cause pain, possible injury and increase resistance in the horse. It makes sense, then, that a rider must understand something of the anatomy and physiology of the horses’ muscles in order to achieve their goal.

As Chris Bartle, the British international event and dressage rider and trainer of the German eventing team, said in his book, Training the Sport Horse, the key to performance in the sport horse is the back.

The overall aim of training is to strengthen this bridge between the forehand and the hindquarters and so enable the power from the hindquarters to flow uninterrupted, over a supple longissimus dorsi (long back muscle) to an independently carried forehand.
When this is achieved, we can communicate with finer and finer aids, as half-halts flow through easily from the rider’s body, back over the horse’s back to the hindquarters to increase the bending of the hind legs and to cause a moment of collection. I believe that an understanding of biomechanics and the way the muscles work is crucial to achieving this athleticism in a horse.
The horse was not designed to be ridden. Consider what happens when a rider gets on a young horse for the first time. It may arch its back into a spasm and buck. When it relaxes, it will drop its back and is in effect carrying the rider on its skeleton, without the help of its back muscles.

The lower brace (the mass of tendons running from the breastbone to the pelvic girdle) plays an important role in this, because as the horse starts to tire, he places the forelimbs farther forward and the hindlimbs farther back. The ligaments of the lower bracing arch are passively tensed and placed under increasing strain, without the muscles actively helping. The horse can carry the rider in such a way for long periods of time, but its ability to move naturally is severely restricted. He moves unsteadily, swaying from side to side as he moves and the rider feels to be sitting in a rocking hollow.

When this position becomes uncomfortable, or even painful for the horse, he will try to stiffen his back. By tensing all the muscles of the back, he is able to carry the weight. The gait however, feels stiff and tense with the horse taking small steps and the rider is unable to sit to the trot. The long back muscle, which is large and fleshy with little tendon fibre integration, is unable to function this way for long. It will soon build up with lactic acid and become painful. So the horse releases the back muscles, drops its back and reverts to the original position and the process is repeated.

Some horses cope with carrying the rider this way for their entire lives. Their back does not swing and is never supple, and they will never perform at a very high level. So that this does not happen, the young horse must learn to raise the back from an active hindquarter and allow the neck to lower. This means the nuchal ligament together with the abdominal muscles will relieve the back muscles so that the rider’s weight can be comfortably carried.

Muscle anatomy and function
The function of the long back muscle is purely for forward movement, and not to carry a rider. This task falls to other groups of muscles that need to be built up during the course of the horse’s training so that they can support the weight of the rider and leave the back muscle free to perform its task, which is locomotion.

The musculature of an equine athlete, similarly to that of a human athlete, must be developed gradually over time. The transforming of a muscular body is associated with intense pain, and anyone training horses must be aware of this and watch for signs of muscle pain and fatigue and respond accordingly. This means having frequent breaks on a free rein and days off training when necessary.

German Training Scale
The German Training Scale is often spoken of, but in my experience in Germany, not always strictly followed.

Rhythm
The horse’s natural rhythm is that in which his legs swing like a pendulum under his relaxed swinging back. This rhythm is A LOT SLOWER than most people think. To observe his natural rhythm, let the horse go at his natural speed and find his balance, either on a lunge or with the rider in a light seat.

Suppleness and relaxation
The horse must be relaxed or you will make no progress. Without the correct rhythm, you will not achieve true suppleness. A lot of horses under a rider will rush and go too fast, because they are tense and find it easier to balance at a faster pace. If a horse is too fresh and not concentrating, there is no use continuing with training until he is relaxed and listening. He must be calm, moving at his slow, natural rhythm and starting to reach his neck forward and down.

At this stage the reins are long; we have not reached contact yet. The reins are very long, they are not completely loose, there is a soft connection to the horse’s mouth but the head and neck are free to ‘breathe’. If a firm contact is taken up too early, this means we are working from the front to the back and the movements of the hindlegs will be disturbed. If the rider stays in a light seat and lets the horse travel at his very slow natural rhythm, he will start to relax and drop his head. The front lever is then working to raise the back.

As the back starts to raise, the hindlegs start to be freed up and are able to move farther forward under the centre of gravity. The horse will feel very comfortable to ride, his tail swings back and forth, the steps will be very regular and now it is time to shorten the reins, but very slowly. You should then start to feel a connection from the horse’s hindlegs to the bit.

As one hindlimb goes forward, there is a movement towards the bit on this side. The rider must not block with the reins, as this would restrict the forward movement of the hindlimbs. The hands must remain still in relation to the horse’s mouth and the rider remains independently in balance in the horse’s centre of gravity. Depending on how strong the horse’s back and hindquarters are at this stage, the rider will need to keep the weight fairly far forward and light off the horse’s back to free up the back until it becomes stronger.

The horse’s back is often likened to a suspension bridge with levers at both ends. The front lever is made up of the neck (the nuchal ligament and upper neck muscles) and these do the job of pulling the backwards-facing spinous processes forward and thus raising the back. At the other end, muscles of the hindlimbs and the abdominal muscles working via the sacro-iliac joint, raise the back from behind by pulling the spinous processes of the vertebrae farther back, which are oriented facing forwards.
Early on in the horse’s training, the upper neck muscles do the majority of the work in raising the back, aided by the passive nuchal ligament (which runs along the top of the neck from the back of the skull to the withers). The lower the head is positioned, the more work the nuchal ligament does (this function requires no energy from the horse and it is used to support the back during grazing), the higher it is, the more the upper neck muscles must work.

LOSGELASSENHEIT –
One of those terms that is hard to define because it’s about the feel between horse and rider. Here’s what it says in the German National Federation hand book.
Losgelassenheit can be interpreted as suppleness combined with looseness and with a complete absence of any tension ie. the horse is unconstrained.
A correct rhythm can be achieved only if the horse’s back is swinging. The muscles of the neck and back must not only be relaxed, but must work and swing with the movement of the horse’s legs.
All joints should bend and stretch equally well, and horse’s whole body must convey the impression of looseness and suppleness in all joints, as well as a willingness to co-operate and to move actively forward. Without the willingness of the horse, there cannot be true losgelassenheit.

It is a prerequisite for any work in a contact, or on straightness, impulsion or collection. Without losgelassenheit, attempting work on these things creates tension and resistance.
The upper neck muscles have a lot of tendinous fibres within them, so are classed as postural muscles and can work in the same position for a very long time. Nevertheless, they must be trained gradually over time until they are strong enough. This training requires a lot of alternate stretching and raised work.

When the neck is raised in this fashion the hindlegs start to take over some of the work of raising the back from behind. The horse must not lean on the bit, but should work in balance with only a very light contact. If the horse wants to drop the head lower and fall on its forehand, the head must be raised by getting the hindlimbs to work harder, not by pulling on the reins!
In riding, we are constantly trying to create a more supple athlete who is in better balance, both longitudinally and laterally. For this to be achievable, the rider must be able to sit in balance. If the longitudinal balance is disrupted by the rider pulling backwards on the rein or by use of gadgets such as draw reins, the horse will fall on the forehand, and either lean on the bit for balance or suck behind the bit, tensing the underneck muscles. This tension will be transmitted to the back and the natural movement will be destroyed.

Straightness
As most people are right or left handed, most horses are right or left footed. Their spine has a right or left handed bend to it and they move crookedly; putting more weight on one shoulder and escaping to the side with one hindleg.

In Germany this fact is taught to all children learning to ride, but many experienced vets are unaware of this fact, which can make a horse appear uneven when trotting in a straight line. If bent to the right (as most are), the right hind spends less time on the ground as it has less ground to cover so these horses can appear right hind lame.

Horses have varying degrees of crookedness and often the most difficult horses to get working over the back are more crooked than average. No work should be attempted on straightening the horse until he is losgelassen and swinging through the back into an even contact on both reins. In a horse bent to the right this will probably require some shoulder-fore work using right leg driving aids and gentle flexions with the right rein to get the right hind limb in line under the body.

Lateral balance (ie straightness) is developed as the contact improves and is even in both reins. Then we start to work more on bent lines and circles, as well as on lateral work. However, it is important to make sure that the contact is even (and stays even) on both reins and the horse pushes forward evenly with both hindlegs (ie becomes straight). As straightness develops, the thrust or impulsion from the hindlimbs is improved, and the horse carries himself more uphill and relieves the forehand.

As the hindlimbs develop in strength and the horse can carry himself in a more raised posture for longer, the rider can start to ask for collection, that is, bending of the haunches. The rein then acts on the hindlimb as it is in the stance phase and prolongs the stance phase. This causes the horse to flex the joints of the hindlimb more, and when the half-halt is released, elastic power contained in the flexed hindlimb is let out forward producing a springy, expressive gait. If the hand is used in the moment the hindlimb is being drawn forward, it will restrict the forward movement of that hindlimb and cause a gait irregularity.

It must be kept in mind that this is like asking a human walking along, to do squats at the same time. It must be worked on gradually as the muscles need to be strengthened slowly over time.

Contact Issues

Contact can only be achieved with a relaxed horse that is moving regularly and freely forward into the rein and accepting the bit. Only a light and steady contact leads to throughness and later carriage of the horse.
A horse that refuses to take the contact does this to avoid bending his haunches. He can do this either by leaning on the bit, pushing off with almost straight hindlegs or he can escape backwards by not letting the bit rest against the bars of his mouth. He goes above the bit or behind the bit and shows a restricted gait, taking short, hurried or long, dragging steps. Often the bit can be heard rattling, the teeth grinding, or tense chewing is seen. All of these are signs of tension. Every correction that starts with an attempt to act on the mouth is doomed to failure, because the cause of the problem has been confused.

What to do: Let the horse relax and move at his slow natural rhythm with head long and low and with no contact. After he relaxes and his back starts to swing, he can be asked for more activity from behind, which will raise the forehand, maybe only for a few strides at a time but gradually he will build up a stronger connection over the back into a soft contact.

Realise this as you train your young horse. Draw reins will do nothing in the long run except put your horse on the forehand and prevent the building up of correct muscles.

It is beneficial to take young horses for rides outside the arena as they have increased motivation to push from behind and it is easier to develop their strength this way.

For a horse to learn to balance and hold himself in a raised carriage, he cannot be held in or up by the rider. Self-carriage means he carries himself. Anything else is a horse on the forehand and is not increasing strength in the upper neck postural carrying muscles, but instead causing wear on the forelimbs. At first the horse will only be able to carry himself for a short period of time, then he must be allowed to ‘chew the reins out of the rider’s hands’ and stretch forwards and down. If a horse isn’t willing to do this, he is not working correctly over the back and is a ‘leg mover’ – this demonstrates a severe lack of basic training.
The popular training methods often seen in competition warm-up arenas, often referred to as ‘Rollkur’ or ‘LDR –low, deep and round’ are anatomically incorrect and physically damaging to the horse. The back is overstretched and tense, therefore the hindlimbs cannot step under properly and instead trail out behind. As the hindlimbs cannot step under and be used properly, the muscles do not increase in strength so cannot start to take the weight and lighten the forehand.

The horse works for long periods on the forehand, and instead of increasing the power in the upper neck muscles he must use his under-neck muscles to hold the neck in this unnaturally flexed position. The discomfort these horses experience is plain for for all to see in the violently swishing tails, rolling eyes, grinding teeth, excessive foaming at the mouth, it can also be often be seen in the four-beat canter, croup-high piaffe with uneven steps, and dramatic toe flicking in extended trot. It looks like a real physical effort to ride these horses. A loose, supple, correctly trained horse should look effortless. I am thinking here of a test I saw last year of Carl Hester with Uthopia where Carl looked round at the crowd and waved as he went down the centre line to the final halt.

That is dressage.

THE NATURAL CROOKEDNESS OF HORSES AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH BRIDLE LAMENESS

What do we mean by the natural crookedness of horses?
Just as people are right or left handed, horses are also born right or left ‘footed’. Their spine is bent either more to the right or left . Most horses are crooked to the right, which means their spine has a right sided curve to it. The right side of the body is concave or ‘hollow’ and the left side is convex and referred to as the ‘stiff’ side. However, it is actually on the right, concave side that the muscles are shortened and more contracted.

It is thought that natural crookedness is due to the left hemisphere of the brain, which controls the sensory-motor control of the right side of the body being dominant (as it is in 80 % of animals. This results in right handedness and right eye dominance.
A horse that is crooked to the right tends to, while grazing, hold his left foreleg in front, right forelimb back under the body. Accordingly, he places his left hindlimb back, and right hindlimb forward.

When standing still, he stands with his right fore and hindlimb closer together as he is bent to the right. Lateral flexion is easier to the right.
In walk, trot and canter there is a displacement of the shoulders to the left and the hindquarters to the right.

What effects does natural crookedness have on riding?
Every horse has a good and a bad side. He is better able to bend one way. This natural crookedness prevents the horse from evenly loading each hindleg and stepping into the tracks of the forefeet. Normally the left hindleg steps between the tracks of the forefeet, while the right hind evades to the right. This causes excessive weight to be transferred to the left shoulder causing uneven wear on the joints and in right footed horses, the left fore is often the first limb he goes lame in for this reason. Each horse must therefore become more or less straightened through gymnastic exercises. The diagonal aids are used to gymnasticise the horse in his longitudinal axis and establish true suppleness. True losgelassenheit has not been achieved until the horse’s back is raised and the hindlimbs are swinging forward under the centre of gravity. The long back muscle becomes relaxed through even sidewards stretching, so that the hollow side can relax and stretch as much and as easily as the ‘stiff’ side. Only then can the back become fully losgelassen or supple and the thrust from the hindlimbs can come through truly uninterrupted to the poll. This takes a long time with a lot of horses.

The natural crookedness of horses means that the right hind is stronger than the left. This makes it easier for them to turn instantly to the left in flight, and means that they bend more easily to the right. Most horses, since they are ‘right footed’ tend to turn to the left when they spook at something. Horses that refuse to move forward try to evade to the left and tend to rear when forced to turn right.

A crooked horse always has the possibility of ignoring the aids, as the rider has not got control of the hindlegs (the horse is not ‘inside the rails’ and on the aids.)

A large part of riding problems are related to the natural crookedness of horses. Especially riders who practice hand dominated riding will encounter major problems due to natural crookedness.
The consequences of natural crookedness can range from unspecific riding problems to very obvious movement faults (lamenesses).

How does natural crookedness lead to bridle lameness?
A rider feels the above mentioned crookedness of their horse, and, in an effort to correct it, pulls on the inside rein. The horse will react to this backwards acting constraint with tension and resistance. This causes many riders to pull back still more, or even hold themselves steady with the rein, because they cannot sit independently from the reins.

This unyielding hold and backwards acting riding is the cause of many riding problems. Many horses presented to vets with lameness problems are never diagnosed satisfactorily. Up to moderately “lame” horses can show no response to nerve blocks. Flexion tests, especially of the hindlimbs worsen the lameness frequently, but except for some incidental findings, it is uncommon that a positive nerve block can be achieved. In the case of most ‘bridle lame’ horses, no injury-related cause can be found.

Horses learn to become ‘bridle lame’ when work on collection is attempted without ensuring the horse is straight (pushing off evenly with both hind limbs into an even rein contact) or also if collecting exercises are performed before the horse’s hindlimbs are strong enough. Energetic horses will tend to make a shorter step and push off more strongly with one hindlimb (usually the left) and the rider feels to have a heavy weight in the left hand and nothing in the right. Lazy horses will appear lame in the right hind as the left hind takes a normal step and the right hind, a weak and short one to avoid reaching out to the bit on the right side.

It is therefore important to be aware of the natural crookedness of horses and its implications and management both from a riding point of view and from a veterinary perspective. It is clear to see that correct dressage training is beneficial for the horse’s longterm soundness as it teaches him to carry weight evenly over all four limbs (and also to reduce concussion on the limbs when he learns to use his back elastically for forward movement). Incorrect training on the other hand, can cause apparent lameness and contribute to uneven weight bearing, as well as preventing correct use of the back.

Below: Diagram showing horse crooked to the right with overburdened left shoulder and escaping right hind.

About Angela McLeod:

Angela McLeod studied veterinary science at Massey University, New Zealand before moving to Australia to work on the Gold Coast in equine practice.

After working for four years in a predominately racetrack practice, she was frustrated with making little progress in training her very talented young Warmblood. When she met some young German girls they gave her the idea to make the somewhat rash decision to take him to Germany, the horse centre of the world, and see what she could achieve there. 

Angela started in East Germany, and as very few people spoke English there, learnt to speak German quite quickly. Here, she travelled to a lot of shows, competed to L level Showjumping with some success, attended Junior Eventing Championships as a helper, and also the Young Rider Championships at Warendorf. 

She joined the German group FFP – an association involved in research in horse sports and attended a conference in Vienna on ‘the effect of the riders’ seat on back pain in horses’. Here, she was much more impressed with the ‘seat experts’ than the vets, who seemed a lot better able to solve the ‘lameness’ issues than the latter! She attended Mercedes Benz Rider Forums and heard talks from the likes of Karsten Huck, Klaus Balkenhol and Christoph Koschel. She then spent three months working as a vet in the UK before returning to Germany to work as a groom for an S level showjumper. 

While in England working alone with her horse, Angela discovered the methods used by Gerd Heuschmann in re-educating ‘correction horses’ and teaching them to relax and swing over the back. On return to Germany, Angela met up with Gerd at his home, and later attended both his lectures at Münster Reitundfahrverein, to the class of Pferdewirtschaftmeisters. Here she met and spoke with Martin Plewa, another respected horseman and saw him teach. 

Gerd introduced Angela to Klaus and Judith Balkenhol and she later stayed with them and had the opportunity to ride one of their Grand Prix horses.  Angela also stayed for a month with the Klattes in Lastrup while her horse was stabled at Klatte farm. She attended many sales and stallion shows, and was impressed by the young horses at Classical Sales Warendorf. 

Angela says she saw a lot of very good riding, but also a lot of cruel practices. She witnessed debates between riders, and between vets on the subject of Rollkur. 

She came to the realisation that there is a widespread lack of understanding of the importance of muscle building in the horse. The horse was not designed to be ridden and unless he is trained carefully in such a way as to build up his postural muscles so that he can easily carry a rider without impairing his natural movement, he will not perform to potential. Lameness and behavioural problems will quite likely result. 

Currently she endeavors to incorporate her knowledge of biomechanics into her daily veterinary work. She is back in Australia working as a general equine practitioner based near Camden, NSW. In the future she wishes to focus more on biomechanics and giving training advice to help riders improve performance and reduce soundness problems. The Horse Magazine is proud to publish this stimulating article, not least in the hope that the ultimate beneficiaries will be our horses…

FEEDING THE EVENTING HORSE

with Elizabeth Owens B Sc Ag (Hons)

Years of experience has taught me that most horse owners have the gift of the gab, and can put the most wonderful spin on their horse’s achievements and level of training. The only time I have been proven wrong in this theory was when I was coaching young riders in a paddock south of Geraldton. When I asked one girl what her pony did, she replied “Not much, but I can make him skip”. “OK, show me” I said and this 9 year old promptly produced 20 very straight, one time changes on her 13hh pony!

This is the exception that proves the rule because ever since, when I enquire what level of competition a horse is at, riders usually inflate the level of work and grade of competition. This kind of thinking maybe beneficial to one’s positive re-enforcement, but is counter productive when you are seeking assistance with regard to the horse’s diet. Before an animal can be classified as an eventing horse, it needs to be in full work and in the run up to a competition. Cantering around the paddock for 20 minutes every pancake Tuesday does not qualify your mount as an event horse and if you were to feed him a diet formulated for ridgy didge event horses, there is a good chance he will develop laminitis.

So, at what point are you riding an eventer and not just doing standard fitness work and training that a young dressage, show jumper or campdrafter may do? If you have a designated flat work, jumping and fast work programme that is increasing in intensity each week and in this programme ride your horse at least 30 minutes per day 6 days per week, then you maybe categorized as an “eventer” at whatever level you are competing i.e. novice, advanced, open and so on. From here we can start to build a diet regime for your horse, and the process goes like this:-
Describe your horse. Not just his colour and favourite foods, but quantitative stuff such as:

How much does he weigh? This is critical information and you need to know your horses “fighting” weight or the weight he performs best at with regard to fitness, recovery and endurance. Weight tapes are OK for amateurs, but if you’re dinkum you need to get your horse weighed over some digital scales. Better vet practices have these now and so do most good studs.

Grazing and eating habits. Horses are individuals. Some eat like vacuum cleaners gulping down feed, while others have a suck and plunge technique whereby they take a mouthful of feed followed immediately by a mouthful of hay. Some, like mine, take hours to consume a feed and refuse feed completely if anything remotely resembling a powdered supplement is added. This is critical information in the design of a diet for your particular horse.

What does the waste product look like? The urine should not be a milky colour or smell too strong. This is a sign of excess protein in the diet or could be an indication of kidney problems. You should know what your horse’s manure looks like when it is healthy i.e. round “apples” that break when they hit the ground, with a slightly glossy, moist but not wet texture. A change in the colour, volume or smell of faeces or urine maybe a sign of digestive or diet problems.
How long since you had his teeth done and what were they like? Good dentition is critical to effective digestion of feed – I don’t care how it is processed. You need to ensure your horses teeth are attended to every 6 months if you don’t want to waste money on feed.

Health history. Incidence of colic, tying up, shelly feet, anhidrosis, respiratory problems or general muscle problems may or may not relate to diet but must be considered when designing a diet for your horse. If the problem is affecting your performance then it is a worthwhile investment to obtain a veterinary opinion in the first instance. I am constantly astounded that riders, who invest countless thousands of dollars and more hours in their horses, refer to the internet guru or some bats-wings-and-foo-foo-dust merchant for a fix when their eventer develops a diet problem!

Describe his current diet. How much does he eat? The yellow dipper is not an internationally recognized unit of measurement. To design a diet, actual weights of each ingredient is required along with an estimate of the amount of time spent actively grazing if he is at pasture. I conducted a study on behalf of the Australian Sports Commission whereby I accurately weighed feed intakes versus bodyweights on 11 eventers over a 5 day period which gave the following results:

This table illustrates the difference in feed intake for horses of similar bodyweight doing similar types of work. In this evaluation, the eventing horses consumed an average of between 1.484 and 2.449% of bodyweight. That equates to a horse of 500 kgs eating either 7.42 kgs per day or 12.245 kgs. This is a big difference and highlights the individuality of horses and how important it is to consider existing eating habits before recommending a diet change. It also illustrates how potentially dangerous it is to blindly follow intake recommendations on feed bags since these are based on an “average” horse and as you can see from the above data, the “average” horse can have a very wide range in his level of feed intake.

How much does he leave? You need to weigh left overs. For hay as well as concentrate.

What are the ingredients? Include them all, not just the ones you feel it is politically correct to reveal. If you are indeed giving your horse 10 kgs of carrots per day, then you need to include that in the list. Minor ingredients such as supplements and amount and type of salts given are important in designing a diet for an eventer. The type and amount of hay the horse is consuming is perhaps the most important aspect of his diet. Again, a “flake” or “biscuit” descriptor does not constitute a quantitative measure. You actually need to weigh the amount of hay consumed – i.e the amount offered less the amount still lying on the ground/sawdust at the next feed.

How are the ingredients processed? There are many different processing methods and the suitability of one over another for your horse depends on many factors such as:
How fast or slow he eats?
Whether you are chasing weight gain or loss.
What else you are feeding?
What diet related disorders your horse has and his general health history.

So, now we have a fair picture of your horse. Armed with this information you should follow the following rules to arrive at the best diet for your horse:
Base the diet on roughage. 50% of the diet by weight should be long stem roughage. I say long stem i.e. hay, because chewing hay stimulates saliva production which is an important buffer against ulcers which affects many eventing horses, and also because this stimulates water consumption. For mature working horses, grassy hay is preferred, or at most a blend of grassy and legume hay. DO NOT FEED PRIME LUCERNE HAY to working eventers. It is too high in protein, interferes with fluid balance and has been shown to increase recovery time in eventers.

Select your concentrate. This is the non-roughage part of the diet. For eventers it needs to be at least 8% fat or oil content (to improve endurance) and ideally should contain a high level of Vitamin E (to prevent muscle damage). Lower protein is better – maximum 12% unless you are using a 1 kg per day supplement which may then be as high as 16%. Ideally choose a concentrate that incorporates processed or cooked starch which would be steam flaked, extruded, pelleted or micronized grains.

DO NOT FEED MORE THAN 2.5 KGS OF CONCENTRATE PER FEED. Most eventers will need at least 5 kgs of concentrate per day – although there are some notable exceptions. By feeding 3 times per day, you will improve feed utilization and reduce the risk of digestive disorders.

Feed to appetite if you are increasing the workload and you do not wish him to lose body condition. This may mean increasing the daily allowance until at least a double handful of feed is left each meal. Then you know that your horse has consumed all he required.

Do not feed a concentrate closer than 4 hours before an event.
You may feed approx 500 grams of some lucerne chaff prior to riding/competing as an aid in prevention of development of ulcers.
Feed at least 50 grams of salt per day. This should be used in addition to electrolytes in warm weather.
Ensure your horse is receiving at least 1500 iu of Vitamin E per day derived either from the concentrate portion of the diet or as a result of supplementation with a dedicated Vitamin E supplement.

Reduce the amount of concentrate on non-work days. Ideally, remove all grain from the diet if the horse is not being worked. A low starch pellet maybe used if weight gain is an issue.
You should use the same measures described above to monitor the success or otherwise of your diet i.e. weight of the horse, weight of feed consumed or left, appearance of urine and faeces, incidence of health problems. Blood tests may also be a useful tool, if interpreted by your veterinarian, but hair analysis is not a good measure of your horse’s total current nutritional status although they can be a useful diagnostic tool when investigating history of heavy metal exposure.

Good nutrition is not difficult. There are some excellent products on the market, but there are also some very dodgy ones. You do get what you pay for so look for products that contain a full declaration of composition right down to the amounts of each vitamin and mineral, and state the energy level. You should also support those companies that support your sport and regularly sponsor the events in which you aim to compete. They are investing in your sport and deserve your support in at least trying their product. In a well formulated feed, you should not need to add more than salt and perhaps a vitamin E supplement. If you are adding a half dozen extra powders then my guess is you are doing more harm than good and need to go back to basics ie good quality hay, a well formulated concentrate and salt.
Good luck.

Need your feed, hay or pasture analysed by an independent laboratory? Symbio Alliance employs an equine nutritionist that can help interpret the results for you and suggest improvements to your horse’s diet. Contact Elizabeth Owens on eowens@symbioalliance.com.au

Supplements – are they really necessary?

By Elizabeth Owens B Sci Ag (Hons)

“As well as working as an animal nutritionist for 20 something years, I dabble in dressage (am obsessive if you ask people who know me) and now have a second horse at the cusp of Grand Prix. After years of research and training in both these areas, I have finally developed a powerful and unique “Grand Prix Mix” a supplement that acts as an aid in the development of piaffe and passage in all horses currently deficient in these abilities. Now I know one H. K Ryan who will have no need of this supplement, but Heath aside, I envisage a strong and profitable market for this product. Exclusive to the Horse Magazine – please contact the publisher for more details.”

If you found yourself flicking pages to find the phone number for The Horse Magazine to purchase this product then my guess is you are not alone. It is common for trainers of all persuasions – dressage, pacing, racing and western alike, to be tempted to find the solution to their horses performance deficiencies in a bag of feed or bucket of supplements. The price for this quest for a “quick fix” is extremely high. Vitamin E supplements cost up to $600/kg while many vitamin/mineral supplements cost between $3 and $30/kg.

Most of my professional life has been in the field of intensive livestock nutrition, pigs, poultry and dairy, where the first question asked when I suggest including an additive in a tonne of feed is “what is the pay back”? Commercial producers need to know that the product will a) produce a quantifiable response in the animals and b) the benefit will exceed the cost of inclusion. It goes without saying that the product will be totally safe for the animals, thoroughly tested and backed by research and will comply with regulations regarding withholding periods and efficacy. Judging by some of the unlabelled bags of white powder purchased by horse owners, many barely ask the “will it hurt” question?

A dietary supplement should be a non-toxic feed ingredient that has demonstrated health benefits. A supplement may include one or a combination of the following dietary ingredients:
• a vitamin;
• a mineral;
• a herb or other botanical;
• an amino acid;

If a supplement makes a claim, then it should be registered with the Agricultural and Veterinary Medicines Authority. Examples of a claim would be a statement that the product is an aid in the prevention of laminitis or will have a calming effect on a horse. Such products will bear a National Registration Authority (NRA) registration number and state that they are registered. The label of these products includes full disclosure of active ingredients, quantities of each and usually mode of action. Once a product makes a claim and begins the registration process, it is subject to much stricter requirements with regard to compliance and validation of composition – this is a good thing.

Imagine you are buying supplements or medicines for a baby or child. Clearly you want to be confident that what you are putting down the child’s throat has been subject to some testing and actually contains what the label states. In addition, I would want to see the ingredients listed on the side of the container. I may not know what they all mean, but there is a level of confidence that comes with full disclosure.

On the other hand, if a stall owner at a “bring and buy sale” handed me a brown bottle containing some liquid without any labelling or registration and said “Don’t worry love, give this to your child – it is wonderful for colds” – I would run a mile!!! This is not to say that products not bearing an NRA registration number are to be avoided, it is just that I have a higher level of confidence in those that are.

Quick fixes aside, what makes the majority of horse owners decide that their horse requires a supplement. For me, supplements fall into 2 categories:
Aids in prevention of deficiency – minerals, vitamins, electrolytes
Improve performance – joint supplements, muscle supplements, blood tonics, calming agents.

For the majority of horse owners, they need only consider the first category. As horse owners, we have a responsibility to ensure the animal is kept in good health, which demands good nutrition. Australian soils are deficient in a number of minerals and so it is beneficial to the horse’s health for these deficiencies to be corrected through the use of a mineral supplement. This may be delivered via a fortified feed, a mineral block or a powder. Obviously there are literally tens of thousands of horses who do very nicely thankyou without any supplement, but I contest they would look better, be sounder and live longer if they were on a balanced diet – and that is what I want for my horses.
For those of us training and competing horses, there will come a time when we either encounter a problem (tie-up, sore muscles, vague lameness, poor appetite, poor feet, lack of stamina to name a few) or we are looking for an edge – improved endurance, better coat, calmer nature and so on. There are supplements out there that can help us achieve these goals. Many of them actually work.

Let’s consider the process of buying a supplement. Work through the following steps next time you are tempted to spend money on a supplement:

Why do I need it?
What benefit are you looking to achieve from the supplement? Some goals are realistic and some may not be. For example, if you have a horse with shelly, soft feet and you want to improve hoof strength and growth, then you will find products recommending a biotin supplement for just this benefit and most are registered. If you were looking for a supplement to prevent your recently purchased 3yo thoroughbred fresh off the track from being excitable, then you have less chance of success. Why? Because while there are many supplements that provide thiamin, tryptophan, magnesium or perhaps valerian – all valid additives recommended as aids in reducing grain related tenseness in horses, your expectations are unrealistic. None of these ingredients will work if you failed to ride your horse consistently, received good coaching and stopped feeding him high energy feeds because you wanted to put weight on him. In this instance, money spent on the supplements may be better invested in a good coach (or perhaps a more suitable horse). Under the right conditions, calming supplements are a boon for owners of horses who are generally well behaved, but get excited at competitions or are just coming into work after a spell. These products may help take the edge off the horse.

How does it work?
Here again, a well-labelled product will take the guesswork out. Products sold as an aid in prevention of exertional myopathy (tie-up) in horses, will contain Vitamin E, selenium and perhaps electrolytes. Vitamin E is an antioxidant that helps prevent muscle damage. The majority of vitamin and mineral supplements may simply state that the ingredients are an aid in the prevention and treatment of deficiency of a particular active or group of active ingredients – but at least you know.

How will you measure the response?
If you are clear about why you need the product, then you must also be clear about what response you expect to get from it. Some responses are easy to measure – some also impossible. Using the hoof example, you would not expect to see an improvement in the short term. Hoof takes 9 months to grow from coronet to toe so you will need to stay on the supplement for at least 3 months before any detectable improvement is noted. In the case of calming agents, assuming you have changed nothing else, you should see a response within days of commencing the supplement. If it doesn’t work within a couple of weeks then it probably isn’t going to. The effectiveness of a blood tonic would need to be evaluated via a blood test and before and after samples done (by the same laboratory). If you are adding a mineral supplement to the diet of your growing horses, then you will not be able to easily quantify the response, but you will certainly sleep better at night and long term, your horses will be recognized as sound individuals who will be sought after.

Will it swab?
Please don’t fall into the trap of assuming that if it is sold for horses, or is sold as “natural” then it won’t swab. This is naïve. Many of the positive swabs detected by racing laboratories in recent years have been to so-called “natural” products. Most of the herbal products will not swab positive of course, just as most of the non-herbal products won’t either, but here again, a well-labelled product will put your mind at ease. Many products, both herbal and NRA registered, will bear the statement “Administering this product will not contravene the rules of racing.” If you are competing in a sport where your horse is likely to be subject to a swab you- have a duty of care to ensure that everything you put down its throat is “safe” and will not swab. You should contact the manufacturer for verification and double check with your own veterinarian.

Make certain it is designed for horses?
Never, never, never use a product registered for other species on a horse. Also don’t be tempted to apply nutritional research from other species to your horse. Taking research on humans and applying to horses is terribly common but has a fundamental flaw – humans are omnivorous monogastrics while horses are herbivorous, hindgut fermenting monogastrics. Their physiology is completely different. Next time you are tempted to apply popular TV nutritional wisdom to your horse, think how appropriate the reverse would be i.e. you getting down on all fours and grazing grass for 17 hours, and you’ll realize how irrational the idea is.

Is it cost effective?
If you have some understanding of what the active ingredients are – sodium, chloride, potassium and magnesium for electrolytes, biotin for hoof growth, Vitamin E for muscle damage, then you can do some intelligent shopping around. Two of my favourite Vitamin E supplements are a good example. One costs about $593/litre (sold in 236 ml bottles) but is highly concentrated and actually costs about 60c per 500 IU of Vitamin E. The other is a powder, costs $77.80 per kilo but each 500 IU of Vitamin E costs $1.16. The liquid product is more expensive to buy but is more cost effective in the long run. The biggest selling electrolyte mixture in the country has the lowest concentration of salts per 100 grams – it is just really well marketed. A good look at the label can save you a LOT of money.

You should apply these steps whether you are buying a bucket of supplement, a bag of feed or a herbal product. Next time you buy garlic granules consider why you are doing it, how does it work, how much and how long should I feed it and is granules the best form to get it in. Would fresh crushed garlic be better? Ditto for my personal favourite – seaweed meal. I am yet to see a product label on seaweed meal declaring its composition and stating how much iodine it actually contains.

Bottom line – do horses need supplements? Most paddock ornaments don’t but anyone who competes and trains regularly, or who wants their horse for a long time, not just a good time, will require their horse’s diet to be supplemented at some time in their career. Don’t be tempted by bags of white powder or green plant matter without any label. Remember the baby analogy. You have a responsibility as a horse owner to be completely informed as to the composition and mode of action of anything you put down the animal’s throat.

I have to confess that I find most veterinary lectures boring. But not the one at the German FN’s Bundeschampionate Seminar – that one was amazing!

It was really an extraordinary presentation from the famed German equine veterinary expert, Professor Stadler. Here it was laid out, black and white, good training  (that means correct, progressive, gymnastic training) is not ‘correct’ because this or that ‘expert’ thinks it is correct, it is correct because it promotes the physical welfare and long-term soundness of the horse…

I guess it should have been obvious, but I had just never ever thought about it – vets have been crucial in the development of civilized training techniques, and not just famous modern vets like Gerd Heuschmann, but right through the Ages…

Not surprisingly, the Professor started with the Ancient Greek, Xenophon, pointing out that his essay had aimed to outline a training regime that inflicted ‘the least damage to the horse that is being used…”

He passed quickly over the Age of Chivalry, merely noting that at times the horses of the Medieval Knights looked a little like some of today’s dressage horses…

The professor pointed to some of the more extreme training methods of early ‘masters’ like Grisone and Newcastle, and suggested that the aggressive attitude to the horse was a result of the belief that horses were sentient beings and ‘the animal as an intelligent being is responsible for its actions and obstructiveness must be punished.’

The cruelties of the Baroque Age (1575 – 1770) were replaced by the civilized values of the Age of Enlightenment (1750 – 1780) where, led by the teachings of de la Guérinière,    the horse came to be viewed as a graceful work of Art. Great value was placed on elegance, beauty, unconstrained movements and discrete aids.

François Robichon de la Guérinière published École de Cavalerie in 1733, a work that stressed three key points: 1 – Knowledge of the horse, 2 – Adequate training, stabling and grooming and  3 – Maintenance and promotion of health.

This new attitude went hand-in-hand with the establishment of the first schools of veterinary medicine: the University-Riding-Institute of Göttingen opened in 1734, followed by the Écoles Nationale Veterinaire of Lyon (1761) and d’Alfort (1765), then the Rossarzneischule Hannoer in 1778. Horses had become valuable so veterinary schools sprung up to keep them sound…

The nineteenth century saw contradictory threads. “The riding masters of the 19th century proposed very different approaches, from the very horse-friendly to positive torture.” (S. G. Solinski, Rider, riding, horse; The basics of the modern riding horse, 1993) Trainers like Baucher and Fillis used maximum flexion and absolute head elevation.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, this debate had crystallized in Otto de la Croix’s Natural Equestrianism (1901). He pointed to the extremes, Paul Pfinzner’s hyper-flexion and Fillis’ high elevation: “The time has seldom been more favorable for a detailed evaluation of the natural basics of the art of riding. Almost simultaneously we have hyperflexion and high elevation, and the riding world remains clueless who is right.”

It wasn’t just the vets who were trying to keep the horses healthy, the military also had a vested interest in their welfare, this led to the publication of the legendary Heeres-Dienst-Vorschrift or HDV 12, the Cavalry rulebook, published in 1912 which became the basis for the modern German training scale. When it was published the aim was more utilitarian: “Teaching riding must result in a reduction of temporarily unusable horses.”

The HDV 12 was revised in 1926 and 1937 by Hans v Heydebreck, Felix Bürkner and Richard Wätjen – all famous names in German equitation, all cavalry officers, all great dressage riders and trainers.

The goal was now: “By preserving and promoting its natural abilities, the horse will be brought into a shape and carriage that allows full development of his strength.”

Look at Bürkner riding, now we see the ‘classical (natural) style’ in action with an optimal, relative head elevation.

Also influential in refining the HDV 12 were a couple of influential vets: the anatomist at the Hannover Veterinary School, O. Zietchmann and a Veterinary Officer at the Cavalry School Hannover, Udo Bürger, the author of that classic, The Way to Perfect Horsemanship (1939).

What emerged was the scale that we all should know off by heart: cadence (rhythm), suppleness and rein contact – the 1st stage of training – and impulsion, straightness and collection, the 2nd (advanced) stage of training. The goal of all these principles is the maintenance of equine health.

This approach is enshrined in the 1997 FN resolution: “Dressage means gymnastic schooling and careful education of the horse to develop its natural talents, to improve its performance, to maintain its health and to achieve harmony between horse and rider.”

Professor Stadler showed a number of photos of horses illustrating their natural head carriage, and suggested that the:

Goal of classical training =

Body carriage with functional muscle tone:

With natural muscle tone at the correct level for the work load

And this involved:

Slow development of elevation or as Udo Bürger put it:

“Carriage will develop by itself as a consequence of schooling.”

However the schooling has to be correct schooling, and Professor Stadler pointed to the ‘modern’ riding style which he described as a ‘significant deviation from the natural head-neck carriage.’ This style of training led to a body carriage with dysfunctional muscle tone, which if practised for a long time leads to lameness. It also produces movement with the foreleg elevated, the back stiff, a protracted hindleg, and ‘dissociative movement’. Where, Professor Stadler asked was the FEI code of conduct, which stipulates… at all times the welfare of the horse must be paramount and must never be subordinated to competitive or commercial influences.’

The Professor went once again to Xenophon for an historical take on ‘clashing aids’:

“…if the rider holds the horse back with the rein and at the same time asks him to go forward, the horse will be irritated and will throw the chest forward and lift the legs higher because it is hot-tempered, not agile.”

Here we have the crucial connection between the psyche of the horse, the suppleness of its muscle tone, and resultant orthopedic health.

Jean-Marie Denoix and Jean-Pierre Pailloux in Physical Therapy and Massage for the Horse: Biomechanics – Exercise – Treatment point out that ‘emotional equilibrium is as important for optimum sporting performance as the physiological fitness of the anatomical structure’ – this is well-accepted for human athletes, but not always understood in relation to horses. Denoix and Pailloux establish that the pre-requisite for healthy forward movement is a favourable psychological environment, and that the cause of pathological orthopedic conditions are poorly coordinated movements that are executed too fast or slow. The causes of poorly coordinated movements can  be diseases, limb disease, ataxia – and these are easy to see, the horse is lame.

Psychological stress results in dysfunctional muscle tone and tenseness. Because the horse is a flight animal, fear is expressed by contracting the muscles. The causes of dysfunctional tenseness can be environmental stress, or the demands of the rider, as when the horse is put in an inescapable aversive experience ‘jerk and spur’. Dysfunctional tenseness can also be caused by significant deviations from the natural body carriage. The function of the muscles in movement is contraction followed by elongation. If this process is incomplete, the muscle    remains in contraction and the musculature hardens, this produces a wrong tension leading to poorly coordinated movements.

Is the goal of dressage an atonic [lacking muscle tone] horse? The professor asked, of course not. With the correct level of tension and the maintenance of an appropriate level of relaxation, then antagonistic muscles do not spasm, and the horse shows well coordinated movement, resulting in increased performance capacity. The alternative is a worn-out horse.

Suppleness of the individual muscles, muscle groups and the entire body, are a result of: education, repetition and training. Once this suppleness is learned it is always attainable. If it is not learned in the first month of training then it will not be achievable in the future. Suppleness is a psychological as well as physiological, or as Bürger put it: ‘innocence of mind must always precede suppleness of the body.’

The Professor was firm that the ‘modern riding style’ of working the young horse with tight head-neck carriage was the way to a tense horse and dysfunctional muscle tone. He suggested that as a result in modern times there were more examples of poor piaffe/passage than we saw with the Old Masters. But Professor Stadler was really at pains to show that the result was not only awful images and poor piaffe and passage, but also health problems.

This is no modern insight. La Guérinière in the eighteenth century asserted that ‘sadly even quite good horses can suffer bone and tendon injuries – impatient ‘trainers’ attempt to school them too quickly and destroy them.’ Again: ‘Strength and natural perfection are lost and disappear through over-working and exhaustion with  too strenuous and prolonged exercise. The horse will develop joint and tendon sheath swelling, spavin and other diseases.’

Of more recent times, Professor Stadler pointed to the article in The Veterinary Journal (April, 2010), Identification of risk factors in dressage horses by Rachel Murray. The study found that lameness was the most common disease or injury in the dressage horse and that elite horses tended to be off work longer. The work indicated that 24% (557 out of the 2532 in the study) of dressage horses may become lame in a two year period. The most frequent problem was suspensory ligament and tarsal joint diseases, while 20% of dressage horses suffered from back pain.

Another paper, Identification of risk factors for lameness in dressage horses (Murray, R.C., Walters, J.M., Snart, H., Dyson, S.J. and Parkin, T.D.H. 2010) found: ‘It has been noted that extravagant moving young horses prepared for sale or young horse classes have a high incidence of hind proximal suspensory desmitis.’

In a paper in 2006, Rachel Murray noted: ‘During the stance phase of the stride, the hind limb is loaded, with the tarsal joint in flexion and metarasophalangeal joint (MTPJ) in extension, resulting in loading of the suspensory ligament.’

In the mid stance of the extended trot, if the movement is not correctly supported by the horse’s back, then the suspensory ligament is loaded, but the same problem can also occur in the collected movements, As Udo Bürger noted: ‘premature exercise in piaffe and passage-like steps without suppleness, results in pathological changes in the suspensory ligament.’

Despite the views of some that the classical principles were hopelessly outdated and super-ceded by the ‘modern’ techniques, the professor showed that they were more needed than ever. In fact, the cavalry horses, schooled often by less-than-expert riders, lasted longer than the modern dressage horse! Cavalry horses in times of peace on average lasted in service until they were 15 years of age, and then went on to an additional 3 years of civil duty. In other words, they were sound and useful up to the age of 18. Modern Warmblood horses studied between 1974 and 1982 and 1986            and 1996, had an average working life of 8 to 10 years.

The Cavalry Report of 1929 found that out of 37,000 horses, there was a wastage of 436 or 1.18% of the total, while Orthopedic disease affected 32 or 7% of that group, and that the horses had a mean age of 10.2 years. On the other hand, Sedensticker, (1999: Abgangsursachen entschädigter Pferde einer Tierversicherung aus den Jahren 1990-1995. Diss. med. vet., Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover) looked at 30,000 horses between 1990 and 1995 and found a wastage of 519 horses (1.73%) and of that group an enormous 233 – or 45%! – suffered from Orthopedic disease. The modern horses had a mean age of 8.7 years.

And yet the solution to this modern wastage is there in the training program:

Cadence, rhythm   >   well coordinated movements

Suppleness   >   optimal economical muscle use

Contact   >   elastic response to the aids

Impulsion, swinging    >    shock absorbing

Straightness    >    even-loading

Collection   >   load reduction of the front quarters

What then is the solution? Professor Stadler says there is nothing wrong with the FEI rules, or the FEI ethical guidelines, it is just the discrepancy between these noble ambitions and the reality. He pointed out that on the entrance door of the Versailles School of de la Guérinière, one could read: ‘Where art ends, violence starts.’

One of the Seminar participants, Dr Schüle, felt that the Professor’s depiction of the ‘modern riding style’ lumped too much together. “Not all the riders train in the same way, there are different lines and many train in the correct way – look at the European Championships in Rotterdam and the riding of Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin, that was very correct. There are two types of ‘modern’ riding and one of them is correct.”

But Professor Stadler was not backing away from his criticisms:

“What I criticize you see very often at the lower levels. While lots of riders practice the sport very well, most horses are prepared in the wrong style.”

“We have demonstrated in non-laboratory conditions how air temperature, humidity and wind velocity influence the spread of influenza viruses. It puts us in a much better position to understand an actual outbreak of influenza in horse populations, under natural conditions,” said Dr Navneet Dhand, the principal investigator of the research project.

The team analysed data from the 2007 equine influenza or ‘horse flu’ outbreak in Australia together with data provided by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology for the same time period.

The researchers discovered horses were more likely to get infected on days when relative humidity was low and less likely to get infected on days when the maximum daily air temperature was between 20 and 25°C.

The findings were published in PloS One, the Public Library of Science, on 21 April.

“The results will be invaluable in modelling the spread of influenza viruses in the unique Australian environment and landscape,” said Simon Firestone, the lead author of the paper and a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Veterinary Science.

Notably, horses on premises downwind of those on nearby infected premises were more likely to become infected. The risk was higher on days when wind speeds were greater than 30 kilometres per hour, substantiating numerous anecdotal reports of the windborne spread of equine influenza.

“This gives an important indication of how weather conditions can affect the spread of the equine influenza virus and therefore allow us to better predict the outcome of a future incident of the virus in Australia,” said Dr Dhand.

The equine influenza outbreak occurred in 2007 following a breach in the quarantine of infected imported horses. Nearly 70,000 horses on over 9000 premises in NSW and Queensland were infected at a cost of over $350 million. The disease was eradicated within five months, mainly due to the fast introduction of a complete ban on horses being moved.

“By having a better idea of how the disease spreads, our findings will help animal disease authorities reduce the cost of outbreak management as well as the social impacts of the outbreak,” Dr Dhand said.

Although the study results are only valid for equine influenza viruses, they could have implications for understanding the spread of influenza A viruses, providing opportunities for collaborations between veterinary and human public health scientists to better understand the transmission of influenza viruses.

The research was conducted by a team which also included Professor Michael Ward, Chair Veterinary Public Health, and Associate Professor Jenny-Ann Toribio, both from the University of Sydney, Dr Barbara Moloney from the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Dr Naomi Cogger from theMassey University’s Epicentre (New Zealand).

It was a part of a jointly funded project supported by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation’s Horse research program, and the Animal Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases.

A veterinarian collecting a blood sample from a horse for lab testing during the 2007 equine influenza outbreak in Australia. Photo from: NSW Department of Primary Industries.

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Are you ready for a Young Horse?

Emma Mason helps you answer the question…

Some of us are lucky enough to begin our eventing career in the hands (hooves?) of an older, seasoned campaigner, affectionately referred to as the ‘schoolmaster’.  This horse may not trot like Totilas, and he may knock a rail or four in the showjumping, but he knows that the red flag is on his right and the white on his left, and could canter around the Werribee cross-country track without his rider.

Yet there may come a time when you feel ready to be the teacher, the expounder of knowledge.  And so the ‘young horse’ journey begins…

It’s an experience that can be incredibly rewarding – but has the potential for disaster.  So, with the help (and I use that term loosely) of my cheeky five year old gelding, Poker Face aka Harley (Wirragulla Hamlet/xx) this series of articles will attempt to minimise the potential for disaster and subsequent feelings of despair that can accompany the training of a young horse.

We’ll look at a schooling session in dressage, showjumping and cross country, followed by a ‘guide’ to the young horse at his first competition – if there can be such a thing!  But this month we’ll address the very beginning:  The selection of the horse, the vet check, the need to correctly fit the saddle and, importantly, whether taking on a young horse is the right path for you to venture down.

The Decision

As familiar to the horse community as the story of Cinderella, is the fairytale of Wendy Schaeffer taking young Sunburst from $600 Thoroughbred to gold at the Olympic Games.  But it is important to recognise that this ‘happy ending’ was largely the result of Wendy’s experience, dedication and hard work.  So be honest with yourself – do you, as a rider, have an adequate level of knowledge to pass on to a young horse?  Is your balance and seat established enough to sit through a green horse’s games and / or mistakes?  (A youngster will likely be far less tolerant than his older counterpart of having his teeth re-arranged if you get left behind over a fence).  And do you have the time and patience required to take on a baby horse?  An older horse may be able to be ridden once or twice a week and then taken to a show, whereas the young horse needs consistent work in order to learn.

In many cases, the young horse is not unlike a toddler:  They don’t know how to share, they love to play in the dirt and everything goes in their mouth regardless of culinary value (only to be unceremoniously dropped to the floor).  Harley, for instance, takes great pleasure in ripping the fly masks off every horse in reach.  Said fly mask usually ends up in one of the minefield of holes that Harley has dug, having diligently copied the antics of the resident German shepherd.  His childlike behaviour is a reliable constant; even the distraction of a show fails to curtail his usual transgressions.  You can almost hear the groan of the unfortunate horse that scores the yard next to Harley at a show.  He or she can expect to have their rugs twisted and pulled, their feed bins flung high into the air and their water sent splashing over the ground.

The Right Horse

One of the first questions you should ask yourself (presumably just after “Am I prepared to neglect my children/partner/other animals in taking on this young horse?” and “Is my ambulance cover up to date?”)  is “What is my aim with this young horse?”  If the answer is Olympic selection, the quality of the horse’s paces should be a key consideration:  A walk that displays a good “over track” (ie the horse’s hind hoof print lands at least in, if not ahead of, the place of his front hoof print), and a good canter (ie has a clear ‘three-beat’ rhythm and an uphill tendency) are important, as there is not much room to vastly ‘improve’ the horse’s natural way of going in these gaits.  The trot, on the other hand, can often be developed as the horse becomes stronger and more engaged.  Having said that, if your horse possesses a ‘sewing machine’ trot, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle right from the start.

The jumping ability of the young horse can be tricky to assess:  At times, the horse you go to inspect may not have seen a jump before, so you clearly can’t pop him over a 1.30 m fence to test his scope.  When I’m trying out a green horse, I’m interested in whether the horse wants to be careful – does he have a ‘conscience’ and try harder to clear a fence after he’s knocked it?  I’m also keen to see whether the horse has a good ‘back end’ – that he lets go behind over a fence.  I’m more concerned with this than his front legs – if he’s a little ‘dangly’ in front to begin with, this can generally be improved, whereas teaching a horse to be loose and free behind is much more difficult.

However, wearing the green and gold is not everyone’s ambition.  You may wish to take on a young horse as a “project”, with the goal being either financial (if you plan to eventually sell him for a tidy profit) or perhaps emotional (the satisfaction of successfully piloting a green horse through the grades).  In this case, the horse’s temperament is a pivotal factor:  Ideally, he should be quiet, and not easily spooked or rattled.  His willingness to learn, to try new obstacles and exercises, is more important than jaw-dropping movement and a pretty face.  Be wary, also, of thinking that you’ll “change” a horse:  Certainly, with consistent work, he’ll become stronger and learn new skills, but if he’s “fizzy” or “stressy”, he’ll probably always be a bit that way inclined.

Seeking the help of your instructor or a knowledgeable friend when selecting the horse is strongly advised – this person will know whether your level of riding matches the needs of a particular horse, and will be able to assess the horse without the rose-coloured glasses that often distort the judgment of the avid buyer.

Finding the horse

There is certainly no shortage of horses for sale in the 3 – 7 year old age group, and your local paper, trading post, Horse Deals magazine and a growing number of horse sales websites will attest to this.  Each horse will, as a general rule, sound like the most perfect animal ever to grace the Earth in its advertisement.  It is important to prepare additional questions to ask the vendor over the telephone in an attempt to uncover any transgressions that this advert happens to skim over.  Your questions will be influenced by your ambitions for the horse, but I tend to ask, among other things:  Why is the horse for sale?  Does he have any vices? and Does he have any blemishes/scars/soundness issues?

If the horse sounds promising, and you decide to go and ride him, always insist that the vendor (or someone on the vendor’s behalf) ride the horse first, no matter how quiet the horse is alleged to be.  Take your instructor along on either this or a subsequent inspection, and get their honest opinion – what do they think of the horse?  Do they, as your trainer, believe you have the experience necessary to bring on this particular youngster?  If the horse is from the racetrack, make an effort to contact his strapper or track work rider to find out what his attitude is like, and if he is ‘cold-backed’ or has any other undesirable qualities.

Above all, trust your own instincts.  Almost immediately after you begin riding the horse, you’ll get a ‘feeling’, an indication as to whether he’s the one for you.  Don’t be afraid to let this guide your decision.  If the horse makes you at all fearful or uneasy, he’s probably not suitable, even if your instructor enjoyed riding him.

The Vet Check

If the young horse has ticked all the right boxes, and you’ve decided, much to the chagrin of your bank account, that you’d like to go ahead and purchase him, the final step is to arrange for the vet inspection.  This is highly recommended, even if the vendor has assured you, as they invariably will, that the horse “has never had a lame day”.  While this vet exam won’t provide you with a warranty, it should minimise the risk of discovering a problem later down the track.

Along with many other horse owners on the NSW Central Coast, my vet is the personable Dr. Brett Jones, who is almost as famous for his bagpipe skills and pursuits on the Oztag field as for his proficiency as a horse veterinarian.  Brett kindly let me interrupt him on a Sunday afternoon (as he nailed ladders to his shed wall in true handyman fashion) to ask some questions about the pre-purchase vet inspection:

1. What sort of general information does the inspection reveal?

It’s probably best to answer this by outlining what is involved in a pre purchase examination:  While the precise nature of the examination will vary between vets and the circumstances of the day, Equine Veterinarians Australia have a general “order of proceedings” that would be followed by a vet doing a pre purchase exam.

A full five stage examination involves:

1. The Preliminary Examination. (Clinical exam at rest).

2. Examination during walking, trotting, turning & backing. (Probably including flexion tests)

3. Examination during & immediately after exercise. (Watching the horse being lunged or ridden)

4. Examination in period after exercise. (As the horse cools down/recovers from exercise)

5. The final examination during walking, trotting, turning & backing. (Generally a repeat or abbreviated repeat of stage 2)

Logistics may dictate that it might not be possible to perform all five stages on every pre purchase exam.  There is also the option of further investigation with X-rays, airway endoscopy (scoping), ultrasound, blood testing for medications etc etc.

2. Does your approach to vetting a young horse differ from, say, an older, seasoned campaigner?

The actual examination might not vary much – but the interpretation of the results may be shaped by the horse’s age and previous workload, the intended future workload and ambitions of the buyer.

People buying young horses are naturally looking for them to have a long performance career. How long it performs for, and how far the horse makes it up the performance ladder is determined by many things, such as its (and the rider’s) natural athletic ability and temperament, how well the horse and rider are coached, how well the horse is ridden, how well it is looked after in relation to feeding, husbandry etc, and, amongst other things – whether or not it stays sound.

You would prefer a young horse to start with a clean slate, and not have to make predictions about whether a blemish in conformation, way of going, or on x-rays etc is going to affect the goals of the purchaser. Of course not every imperfection that is discovered is going to add significant risk, and opinions on the same blemish will vary between vets.

With, say, an older horse with a consistent competition record, you do tend to be more forgiving of some conditions that are obviously stable and long standing, especially if the work level is likely to be less than what the horse has been doing.

It can be tricky.  Obviously the idea of a vet check is to hopefully highlight issues that could be of added risk to the horse’s future suitability, but it can sometimes be too easy to can a horse on the first abnormality found and then walk away.

For me it is a balance. You want to try to highlight potential risks, thereby helping someone avoid future grief, while at the same time I would feel I had done a buyer a disservice if they walked away from an otherwise perfectly suitable horse because of an insignificant finding.  A crystal ball would be handy…

3. What’s your take on the necessity of X-rays?

I knew you were going to ask that.  You could add to this scoping, ultrasounding, blood testing and the like.

The more information that can be gathered on a horse, the better – if it allows the buyer to make a rational decision that they are comfortable with.

All these things cost extra money. It becomes a question of budget, how much information the buyer wants, and what risks they are willing to take.

It should be noted that the absence of changes in an x-ray does not guarantee soundness.  Conversely, the presence of x-ray changes need not necessarily mean that you walk away.  Nonetheless, they can convey useful information about potential risks if there are changes, and perhaps just as importantly add peace of mind to a buyer if there are no changes.

X-rays can also be useful as a benchmark for future reference. If a blemish is noted in, say, a 4 year old and is still there unchanged as a 9 year old when the horse is being sold for big bickies, it may be viewed more kindly, assuming the horse has stayed sound.

4. Does your role as a veterinarian extend to commenting on issues that aren’t strictly “veterinary”, such as the horse’s type & temperament?

I am not a riding instructor, and feel that my opinions are best kept to those veterinary, but rightly or wrongly, it sort of does.

Generally I would try to limit my judgments to veterinary issues as I find “type” can be a bit subjective and hard to define in terms of certificate talk.

Temperament can be a tricky thing to judge from a vet check perspective.  Often, once a price has been agreed, the seller will stop riding the horse, and the horse stands in a box or yard for a couple of days before the vet check.  He’s then taken out of the box for the vet check and trotted on a loose lead in an open area. You can’t really blame the horse for thinking “Yippee”.

Also, a horse’s temperament on the ground could be quite different from the way it behaves and responds to being ridden, or the way it interacts with other horses.

That being said, if I feel that the horse presents a danger, especially to an inexperienced buyer, I would have a good talk them.

Nonetheless, if the horse is lovely and quiet then why not make the buyer feel proud of their new purchase!

Fitting the saddle and other considerations

The responsibilities of a prudent horse owner do not end with the horse’s arrival home.  As soon as possible, it is essential that the saddle – be it new or old – is correctly fitted to your horse.  I was fortunate to be able to chat to the master of all things saddles, Mr Tony Flynn of Brighton Saddleworld, who shared some wisdom on this important issue:

Having the correctly fitting saddle is just as important as you and I having correctly fitting shoes. We all know how uncomfortable a pair of shoes just a half size too small can be. In the case of a saddle, the rider’s entire weight is transmitted through the stirrup bar when the rider rises to the trot. If the gullet is too narrow then the projection of the rider’s weight will cause significant pinching in the muscle area below the wither. This will usually cause the horse to hollow out, and will fail to round up in the desired manner. To offset this hollowing the horse will usually have a raised neck and head carriage.

Different rider shapes, height, weight and widths, means that no one saddle is usually suited to each and every rider. It is important when considering purchase of a saddle that the prospective purchaser should try a number of demonstrator saddles before purchasing. First ensure that the demo saddle fits the horse. When a saddle is too tight for the horse not only will the horse be discomforted but, the balance of the saddle will move to the back of the saddle causing poor rider position. When you sit in the back of the saddle it is the same as sitting in a lounge, your legs will pop forward and you lose the shoulder, hips and heel vertical line which should come naturally. Similarly the reverse will happen when the saddle is too wide for the horse.

When buying/trying a saddle don’t expect to experience the same sensation as one might expect with a fine dining experience where you are always aware of the flavour and texture of your favourite foods. If after trying a saddle on more than one occasion, you are not conscious of the saddle, then it is possibly right for you, but if your mind is always on the saddle then it is probably not the right saddle for you.

Next month

We’ve only skimmed the surface of the considerations and commitments involved in acquiring a young horse, but hopefully the above has provided some insight!  Next month we’ll concentrate on dressage training which is appropriate for the youngster…

Happy riding,

Em

This article originally appeared in the March 2010 edition of The Horse Magazine

The HORSE
Readers of The Horse, have, without knowing it, long been acquainted with Rupert the Racehorse. He first starred as a foal in a feed ad (our own horses are always pretty handy when it comes to finding models), and has made the odd appearance in the pages of THM ever since.
Rupert was the ultimate lucky buy. Roz and I were at William Inglis’ Oakland Junction Thoroughbred Sales, looking for mares suitable to breed to Warmblood stallions for dressage horses. We loved Cava Lass the minute we saw her, she was such a good looking, nice moving mare, but since she was in foal to the fashionable Rubiton, we figured she was going to be way outside our budget.
When the bidding stalled at $2,300, Roz gave me a nudge that practically broke a rib. I waved at my friend Peter Heagney who was waving the gavel on the auctioneer’s platform, and for $2,400 she was ours.
And dutifully foaled an elegant little bay colt – Rupert.
When he was about 18 months old, Peter Heagney rang me. ‘You know the mare you bought – her first foal has just won three races, including one in the city!’ All plans for Rupert to go eventing went out the window, and with the assistance of Cranbourne trainer, Nevin Eades, he became Rupert the racehorse. Perhaps not a top racehorse, although if he’d bibbed instead of bobbed at the opening meet of the Spring Carnival, at Caulfield, he would have been a city winner. Still he won nearly 150 K, more than paid his way, and gave us a bit of fun along the way.
Last prep, Rupert said he’d had enough, after over 70 starts, he was finished being Rupert the Racehorse, it was time for a career change.
Once again, Rupert’s need dovetailed with the magazine’s – what a perfect specimen for a great new series, Re-Educating the Racehorse…
So, we contacted one of the more talented (not to say photogenic) of the local riders, Vanda Morgan and asked if she would be Rupert’s re-trainer. Luckily Vanda said she had the time, and we were away.
We wanted to treat the series as much as possible as if we were part of that great legion of Australian horse riders who find their equestrian partner on the track – so we did what any smart purchaser should do – asked a good equine vet to check the horse out.
The VET
Dr Hugh Cathels is an equine vet with a ‘hands on’ style all of his own – and Hugh is no armchair theorist, he is a successful trainer of trotters and gallopers in his own right, and in keen demand on the performance horse scene on Victoria’s horsey Mornington Peninsula.
What should we be looking at when we consider buying a racehorse to re-train for one of the equestrian disciplines?
“ You should be looking at age of horse, how many starts it has had, ability of the trainer, gentleness of the trainer, gentleness of the horse. Generally speaking the more starts they have, after a certain point, the more worn out their knees and fetlocks are likely to be. However, generally speaking, the more starts they have had, the more likely they are to be tractable. A horse that is good enough to have 75 starts has obviously got a bit of athletic ability and is obviously likely to be fairly tractable – but he is also likely to be a little worn out.”
“ Ideally you would like a four year old without much ability, one that has won three races out of 20 starts – when they get up to 70 plus starts that is equivalent to an eventer who has had five years on the circuit, and they do wear out, they are not machines.”
“ Assuming the conformation is good, and they are not going to have 75 starts if their conformation is not good, then look at the horse, look how it moves, and flex its joints – especially its knees and fetlocks, and see how much flexion they have.”
Do you have a problem with what the trainer has given them – say anabolic steroids?
“ You are not going to know because it is very hard to tell, but there are some trainers who tend to spell their horses on anabolics. The cutoff point for anabolics is about 30 to 60 days so it is viritually impossible to give a horse an anabolic while it is in work, and if you’ve got a sound horse it is going to be in work for two thirds of its racing life, so it is not likely to have a lot of anabolics.”

“ I don’t think the long term effect of anabolics is any big deal. The only thing is if the horse has been on anabolics throughout its racing career, then in its first or second year out of racing, they tend to drop off in terms of muscle – especially if they are tossed in a paddock and only given hay. It’s a problem if they are ‘under nutrionalized’ when they come out of training but if they go ‘cold turkey’ out of the anabolics, and you keep the feed up to them, and put a bit of work on them, it is not a problem.”

“ I think steroids is a cheat’s way to train. I don’t use it for any of my trotters, or any of my gallopers either. There’s plenty of ways to train better without having to use them – I don’t encourage anyone to use steroids. If you can train, you get better results without using them. They are used for people who over-train their horses and can’t keep them eating, or don’t feed their horse enough when they spell it.”
“ Any horse that goes out for a spell usually drops off for a couple of weeks, and then puts on weight. The trainers and the eventing people who spell horses – and are impatient – say ‘it’s not eating’ so they give it a shot of anabolics and it starts to eat straight away. If they were patient and waited another week, the horse would start to eat anyway. It is just a lazy man’s way of training a horse.”
What about Pentosan?
“ Pentosan/Cartrophin, doesn’t have many side effects at all, but it can be said that it might increase your chances of a horse bleeding during a race, to my knowledge, that’s about the only side effect that is documented, however it is also a slight pain killer, not a very effective one – probably a quarter to a tenth as effective as bute – but racing or eventing with cartrophin all the time, then you probably make that wear and tear issue come on quicker because you are racing a horse that without it, would be sore. By giving it a slight pain killer during its racing or eventing career, you would probably bring on degenerative joint disease a bit quicker in spite of what the blurb says about how it is supposed to help heal it. In the racing industry, they tend to give pentosan/cartrophin two days before a race which is not what it was designed for, but it does have an effect there. It’s designed to help joints recover, so it should be given while they are spelling, and if that’s the case, it probably helps the horse.”

What’s you preferred regime when they come out of racing?
“ If I have a preferred regime to turn a racehorse into an eventer or a showjumper, is to keep them yarded or stabled and in light work. Preferably not stabled all the time – stable at night, yard in the day, and keep the nutrition up to them so the weight doesn’t drop off, and give them their introductory lessons to their new profession at a slow rate. I don’t think you have to toss
them out into a paddock after they finish racing – in fact I think it is better if you keep them in light work. Teach them to jump, teach them the equestrian way of doing things, and they do a lot better.”
So you looked at this ancient racehorse, Rupert, what does the future hold for him?
“ Rupert has had 75 starts which for a Thoroughbred, is a lot. He has got appley front fetlocks, he has got surprisingly little change in his knees – his knees have fairly good conformation and have stood up to the 75 starts. However his fetlocks have reasonably marked degenerative joint disease, which shows up as appley joints – which means there is more bone sticking out the front of them, and they have got an increased amount of fluid in them. The easiest way to tell how degenerated they are is to flex them, and see if there is any pain involved.”
“ In this case there is very little pain involved in flexing both of them, the joints have been reasonably well managed, but he has got restriction in flexion in both of them. The near side fetlock joint has got about 50% of its normal flexion, which is not very good, the off side fetlock has about 80% of its flexion, which after 75 starts is probably very good.”
“ The chances of Rupert having a long eventing career, are, in my opinion, not very good. The chances of him having a showjumping career, are better. The chances of him having a Pony Club or Adult Riding career are pretty good, he’ll put up with that amount of degenerative disease as a Pony club horse without any problems in my opinion.”
Now it is time for a family confession. Rupert is a wind-sucker. The only horse on our property that has ever shown evidence of the ‘vice’ but there you are. One day, when he was a yearling, he taught himself to windsuck and has been a moderate wind-sucker ever since – which doesn’t seem to have interfered with his racing career.
Is the windsucking an issue with you?
“ I hate them. I think windsuckers are hard to keep weight on, but worse than that, show young horses how to windsuck. But if you are not worried about either of those two things it is an easy thing to manage, it’s just a pain in the butt. You get your fences eaten and a horse that you have to feed more and more often.”
And the prospective buyer should get a vet to look at the horse first?
“ I don’t think anyone should buy a horse without having a vet have a look at it. I don’t know if you need x-rays, I would leave that decision up to the vet. I suggest the buyer goes along with the vet, looks at the horse at the trainer’s place. Get the vet to do flexions on the legs, talk to the potential buyer about it, discuss the ability of the horse to perform with joints as they are, and discuss the likely long term effect, and how they are likely to degenerate with his new use. The vet doesn’t have to do a lot else – just a fairly accurate prognosis, and how to manage any problems. Later if they buy the horse, then yes, they can and should work with their vet to manage any little problems. Any good vet will help you do that – and enjoy doing it.”

The First EXERCISES
Andrew McLean talks about the Thoroughbred ‘panic attack’ in a separate box, but we are all familiar enough with Andrew’s basic philosophy to know that somewhere fairly soon there is going to be a bit of STOP / GO / PARK.

Indeed, this all shouldn’t be entirely unfamiliar to Rupert since he grew up with this sort of education from the first time he had a halter on his head, and we’ve tried to keep it operative whenever he has been home from the trainer.
So Vanda started right in there again, making sure that Rupert was light and responsive on the ground, keeping the aids really direct and simple, re-inforcing the message of stop – go – park.
Next month, Liz Owens, animal nutritionist with Ridley Agvet, and advisor to the Australian Olympic team, will discuss feeding the horse off the track, but even after a few weeks we were starting to see changes in Rupert’s outline – and he was gradually starting to put on a bit of weight. Craig Barrett will also give the professional performance horse trainer’s views on what to look for when buying off the track….

Why do therapies seem to work – when they don’t?

by David W. Ramey, DVM

But you’ve got to be wrong – my horse was an absolute wreck until the (herbalist – manipulator – naturopath – horse dentist – faith healer… ) fixed him. Seeing is believing.”
Well actually no.

David Ramey is a general equine practitioner and has been in private practice since 1984 in Agoura Hills, California, and deals with show, pleasure and performance horses. He is the author of nine books on horse care, the most recent of which is Consumer’s Guide to Alternative Therapies in the Horse. In this article he explains, that sometimes what looks like a cure is nothing of the sort!

This is, at least in part, because there are many subtle ways that honest and intelligent people can be led to think that a treatment has been effective when, in fact, it has not (this holds true for both the giver and the receiver of the therapy) (1).

False claims and assumptions of effectiveness of treatments are a problem whether the treatment that is being assessed comes from scientific medicine, old folk remedies, fringe treatments described as ‘alternative’ or ‘complementary’ or the pure magic dispensed by faith healers.

Many dubious treatment methods remain on the market purely because satisfied customers offer testimonials to their worth. Essentially, these people say, “I tried it, my horse got better, so it works!”

Even when disease signs do improve following treatment, this, by itself, cannot prove that the therapy was responsible for the improvement. Without proper testing of a treatment’s true effectiveness, it is ethically questionable to offer that treatment to the public, especially if money is going to be exchanged.

Mistaking a correlation with a causation is a basic fallacy of logic known as post hoc, ergo propter hoc (‘it happened after so it was caused by’). People have a tendency to assume that when things occur together, they must be connected, although it should be obvious that this is not necessarily true.

For example, many people who drink diet soft drinks are overweight. Does this mean that the diet drinks cause obesity? When people count on their personal experience as the sole method of evaluating the success (or failure) of a therapy, there are many variables to consider and it is virtually impossible to determine cause and effect.

Without comparison to a similar group of patients, treated identically, except that the allegedly curative element isn’t given, individual givers or recipients of a therapy can never know if things would have gone just as well without that element.

The question then becomes, ‘Why might care givers and their clients who rely on anecdotal evidence and uncontrolled observations erroneously conclude that the therapies that they dispense and receive work when they may not?’

There are several good reasons.

The disease may have run its natural course. ‘Time heals all wounds.’ Many diseases take care of themselves. Provided that a condition is not chronic or fatal, the natural tendency of a living system is to heal itself.

Thus, before you can say that a therapy works, you have to show that the patients that are listed as improved exceed the proportion that would get better without any treatment at all (or that they get better faster than if they were just left alone).

Unless records of successes and failures over a sufficiently large number of patients with the same complaint can be evaluated, a treatment cannot be deemed to have been better than just leaving the condition alone.

Many diseases are cyclical. Conditions such as arthritis, allergies and gastrointestinal problems have ‘ups and downs.’ Most people look for treatment during the downturns, when things are the worst. Thus, treatments have an opportunity to coincide with upturns that might happen anyway.

Without valid controlled studies, it’s easy to misinterpret improvement due to a normal cyclical variation as a valid therapeutic effect.

The placebo effect. You may believe that the placebo effect does not exist in animals since they don’t know what treatment they are getting. However, their owners do. Recent research shows that up to 70 per cent of medical/surgical patients will report good results from techniques that we know today are ineffective (at the time of the treatment, both the patient and the physician were convinced that the treatment was effective) (2).

Furthermore, the pages of history are filled with examples of what, with the benefit of hindsight, seem like crackpot procedures that were once enthusiastically endorsed by physicians and patients alike (3). This sort of effect has apparently never been evaluated in the owners of animals but it is certainly reasonable to suspect that it exists, especially when evaluating such nebulous things as ‘better performance’, ‘improved disposition’ and ‘increased healing’.

To overcome the placebo effect, it is essential that tests be conducted in which patients are randomly assigned to groups and that the patients (or their owners) be ‘blind’ to whether the treatment being given is active or placebo.

Furthermore, the therapists who are doing the evaluating should also be ‘blind’ as to which patients are receiving treatment. Hence the term ‘double blind’, which is the gold standard of research that is based on results of treatment. When a clinical trial is completed, blinds can be broken into active, placebo and no treatment groups that can be statistically evaluated. Only if the improvements observed in the active group exceed those of the two control groups can the therapy be deemed effective.

Some allegedly cured problems are psychosomatic to begin with. One of the difficulties in trying to measure whether a treatment works is that some complaints can be alleviated by support and reassurance. An owner of an animal that is otherwise in good health may still be concerned that his or her animal’s perceived ‘poor performance’ may be due to some undefined physical problem. Supplying reassurance and support to the owner in such a case is obviously worthwhile but it is not necessarily medical or scientific.

The downside of catering to the desire for medical diagnoses for vague psychological complaints is that it promotes pseudoscientific thinking while providing virtually unlimited opportunities for medical quacks, who are often aided by the use of pseudoscientific devices and treatments to which treatment ‘success’ is then attributed.
Symptomatic relief vs. cure. Short of coming up with a cure, most owners want to make sure that their animals are not in pain or discomfort. Much research in people shows that the perception of pain is partly a sensation (like seeing) and partly an emotion. If the emotional component of pain can be controlled, benefits may be perceived even if the physiological basis of pain remains unaffected.

Anything that can allay a client’s anxiety, redirect their attention, foster a sense of control over the problem or lead to a reinterpretation of the signs of pain can help the patient cope with the problem.

Animal owners want to ‘make sure’ that their animal isn’t suffering. Pain clinics in human medicine put such symptomatic strategies to use every day (4). If clients perceive that their animals suffer less as a result of treatment, that is great, but it is important that such symptomatic treatments not be confused with actual cures.
Hedging your bets. Many animals receive more than one treatment at the same time. Often, that means that one treatment or another can receive a disproportionate share of the credit for improvement.

When ‘alternative’ or ‘complementary’ treatments are combined with scientific therapies, credit may be given where credit isn’t due.

Misdiagnosis. Many animals owners are afraid that their animals have conditions that they clearly do not have. Take well-publicized and relatively recent concern about Equine Protozoal Myelitis, for example. Many owners appear ready to ascribe any sort of vague sign of decreased performance or minor, intermittent gait problem (for example, stumbling) to a serious underlying cause. Combined with the apparent large incidence of exposure and the relative difficulty of obtaining an accurate diagnosis, many horses who are treated for EPM clearly don’t have it.

Of course, conventional diagnostic techniques are not infallible. A mistaken diagnosis followed by a trip to an ‘alternative’ therapist can lead to a glowing testimonial for curing a grave condition that never existed.
Furthermore, if conventional techniques fail to come up with an acceptable reason for the perceived problem, owners may gravitate towards alternative practitioners who can almost always find some sort of ‘imbalance’ to treat. If ‘recovery’ follows, another convert is born.

Psychological distortion of reality. Distorting reality in the face of a strong belief is common (5). Even when there are no improvements to be had, people who have a strong psychological investment in a therapy can convince themselves that the therapy has helped. According to a psychological theory known as cognitive dissonance (6), when experiences contradict existing attitudes, feelings or knowledge, mental distress is produced.

People tend to resolve this conflict by reinterpreting (distorting) the offending information. To have received no relief after committing time, energy and money to a treatment can create such a conflict. Rather than admit to themselves that the treatment has been a waste of time and money, many people will find some redeeming value in the treatment.

Many other self-serving biases can help to defend strong beliefs (7). Core beliefs in the effectiveness of a therapy are frequently vigorously defended by warping perception and memory. Practitioners and clients tend to remember things as they wish they had happened. They may be selective in what they remember, overestimating successes while ignoring, downplaying or explaining away failures. The scientific method of investigation evolved in no small part to help reduce the impact of this human tendency to jump to conclusions that agree with the proposed theory.

Finally, an illusory feeling that things have gotten better can also be due to demand characteristics that are found in any therapeutic setting. People normally feel obligated to reciprocate when somebody does them a good deed. Therapists, for the most part, sincerely believe that they are helping their patients and it is only natural that their patients would want to please them in return. Without realizing it, these obligations are enough to inflate the perception of how much benefit has been received from a treatment (8).

Individual testimonies of effectiveness should count for very little in evaluating the effectiveness of a particular treatment. Many false leads can convince intelligent, honest people that cures have been achieved when they have not. Thus, it is essential that any treatment be tested under conditions that control for placebo responses, compliance effects and judgmental errors before it can be deemed to be effective.
Any therapy that is supported only by testimonials, self-published books and pamphlets or items from the popular media must immediately be considered suspect. Even a single positive outcome from an experiment done in a carefully controlled fashion can always be a fluke.

If a practitioner of any therapy claims to be persecuted, is openly hostile to mainstream science, can’t supply a reason why the therapy might work that agrees with known principles or promises incredible results, there is good reason to be suspicious of that individual.

To people with an animal that is, or is perceived to be, unwell, any promise of a cure is intriguing. As a result, common sense can easily be replaced by false hopes. In this vulnerable state, the need for careful analysis and awareness is especially necessary. Unfortunately, it seems that instead, an eagerness to accept any alternative that offers some hope often takes over. Both givers and receivers of therapies should always be aware of the intellectual dangers of trusting personal experience and of the reasons why things sometimes seem to work (even when they don’t).

References
1 Beyerstein, B. ‘Why Bogus Therapies Seem to Work’, Skeptical Inquirer, 1997; 27(5): 29-34.
2 Roberts, A.H., et al. ‘The Power of Nonspecific Effects in Healing: Implications for psychological and biological treatments’.
Clin Psych Rev 1993; 13: 375-391.
3 Barret, S. and Jarvis, W. The Health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America. Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, 1993.
4 Smith, W., Merskey, H. and Gross, S. eds. Pain: Meaning and Management. SP Medical and Scientific Books, New York, NY, 1980.
5 Alcock, J. ‘The Belief Engine.’ Skeptical Inquirer, 1995: 19(3): 14-18.
6 Festinger, L. A. Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, CA, 1957.
7 Beyerstein, G. and Hadaway, P. ‘On Avoiding Folly.’ Journal of Drug Issues 1991; 20
(4): 689-700.
8 Adair, J. The Human Subject. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, MA, 1973.

This article first appeared on the World Equine Veterinary Review Web Site and is reproduced with permission. Check out http://www.wehn.com/WEVR

What have Saintly, Kibah Tic Toc, It’s A Knockout and Custom Made all got in common. Winners? Yes. Very fast gallopers? Yes. Stayers? Yes. But apart from that they have all returned successfully after tendonitis of the Flexor digitorum superficialis.
Our management of ‘bowed’ tendons has changed over the last fifty years. Gone (hopefully) are the days of pinfiring the tendon and turning them out and forgetting about them for twelve months, and then when you bring them back in only fifty percent of them would stand up to a preparation or two.
Nowadays, with ultrasound, advancements in physio techniques, but most of all the use of controlled and graded exercise, you can win a gold medal or two (in Matt’s case, one for each tendon).
A tendon is a bundle of elastic fibres, made up mainly of collagen, which attaches a muscle to a bone. Ligaments are similar structures but go from bone to bone. Their structure is comparable to a bungy rope, that is a whole heap of elastic parallel fibres make up the overall tendon. Now when fibres tear then that is called a strained tendon. Tearing of fibres sets up inflammation within that tendon and that is called tendonitis.
A ‘bow’ in the tendon describes the shape or the profile seen when the tendonitis of the superficial digital flexor tendon, is very severe or chronic.

Just because you have a few dodgy strands in your bungy doesn’t mean that you can’t use that bungy, or that the bungy is obviously broken. But, if fat boys keep using that bungy then a few torn fibres will become a few more then a lot, until the thing snaps all the way through.

It is the same with mild tendon strains. The initial signs are only minor, a little bit of heat, swelling and pain on palpation, and usually no sign of lameness. It is quite a common mistake of riders and trainers to notice the heat and swelling, but because the horse is not sore then they continue work as per usual. This usually leads to further fibre tearing and a worsening of the inflammatory response until finally help is sought – usually a fortnight or so late.
Diagnostic ultrasound is extremely useful in evaluating tendon injuries. You don’t need an ultrasound necessarily to diagnose tendonitis, once you’ve seen a few they are pretty easy to diagnose. But the ultrasound machine gives you a very good picture of the exact location, size and severity of the tear. It is therefore very useful in monitoring the progress of healing of the tear.
So if your prize pony has strained a tendon why do so many people consider it a curse? Two reasons. Firstly tendon injuries take a long time to heal and secondly, depending upon management, there is a reasonably high rate of recurrence.
One of the main reasons they are slow to heal is the poor blood supply to tendons. Next time you are chewing on the gristly tendon of a lamb shank, take the time to look for blood vessels in that tendon. If you’ve got really good eyes you’ll see only one little blood vessel in the very centre of the tendon. This means that all the supplies for cell division and tendon repair come from one tiny little vessel or diffuse in from surrounding tissues. The fibres that are torn are replaced with a different type of collagen to the original collagen. The replacement collagen (scar tissue) is not as stretchy as the original, so going back to bungy jumping, its like repairing a slight tear in the bungy rope with strands of bailing twine. Obviously this is going to be the weak link in the structure.

THERAPY
1: Acute Stage (0 – 48 hrs)
The main goal of the initial therapy is to minimise inflammation. Inflammatory products cause more damage and more fluid or oedema to build up, the more of this, and the longer it hangs around, the more scar tissue is laid down.
Ice Cold therapy for twenty to thirty minutes four times a day has a very good anti-inflammatory effect.
Bandaging A good pressure bandage with plenty of cotton wool applies counter pressure to any swelling that is present and keeps the tissue planes collapsed to prevent the undesirable build up of fluid within the tendon.
Rest Box rest is essential to limit any further damage.
Pharmacological Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (such as bute and finadyne) at the higher dose rates are essential to limit the initial inflammatory response. Ultra short acting corticosteroids can be used in the first forty-eight hours only. Corticosteroids are very potent anti-inflammatories but if used later than this they will slow down the rate of healing. Hyaluronic acid, BAPN and PSGAG’s have been injected in and around the lesions but there is insufficient proof of their benefits.
2: Sub-Acute Stage (Day 2 – 21)
The main aims of this stage are to stop the spread of inflammation to normal tendon, reverse the acute inflammation, minimise permanent damage and start the repair process to maximise orderly and functional tendon repair.
Hot & cold therapy. This can be achieved by using sweat wraps in between ice treatments. A good sweat wrap is to put a layer of glad wrap under your pressure bandage. Continue this for up to six days. The idea being to remove as much of the tissue fluid before the fibroproliferative phase begins. Once this phase begins it becomes more and more difficult to remove this fluid as it is converted into scar tissue.
NSAID’s: Bute should not be continued for more than three weeks.
Laser therapy and Therapeutic ultrasound: Both are very good at increasing the rate of healing and limiting the amount of scar tissue. It is well worth while to source either of these machines and hire them for at least three months.
Controlled exercise: It is now time to start the tedious part of recovery from tendon strains, and that is a gradually increasing amount of controlled exercise. Two ten minute hand held walks are a good place to start. If the prize pony is a highly strung three quarter fit Thoroughbred who has just had his first two days off in three months and was locked in his box, then it might be worth your while to sedate him for your first few walks.
Surgical treatment: Options include tendon transplantation, carbon fibre implantation and fragment injection, tendon splitting and superior check ligament desmotomy, all of which involve a lengthy period of rest, a fair amount of cost, a graded exercise program and its questionable whether success is due to the surgery or all the other things you do.
3: Remodelling Stage (> day 21)
The main aim of this stage is to guide the repair process to produce a functional tendon i.e. minimise scar tissue, keep the fibres aligned as well as possible and maintain tendon gliding function.
Continue with the laser or therapeutic ultrasound. No need to continue bandaging. Keep confined until around day sixty.
Controlled exercise The regime must be tailored to the individual horse, the severity of the strain and the facilities and time schedule of the owner/carer. Scar tissue reaches 50% of its eventual strength six to eight weeks after the initial injury, so only light exercise until sixty days.
It is essential in the program that every step is a slow and gradual one, so that overloading and fatigue do not occur. Light exercise means up to forty minutes of hand walking. The next step is to ride the horse at the walk for about fifteen minutes a day, this would be at around three months after the initial injury (day 120). Then shortly after starting to ride is a good time to have another ultrasound. At any time during this program if signs of inflammation occur then start anti-inflammatory treatment immediately and organise another ultrasound.
At around three months it is time for the big move to life outside the stable. This is a delicate step as most of our steeds will be dying to buck and gallop around after three months in that tiny stable. So try exercising him as the day before, sedate him and feed him in the small day yard that hopefully you have access to. It is also helpful to have an old ploddy companion pony always within sight to keep him company.

By day 150, hopefully, all going well we are up to about an hour’s walking (now how many walk pirouettes can you practice in an hour!?) then we are allowed trot. Starting at five minutes and adding five minutes every two weeks until day 210 when we can add canter increasing by five minutes every two weeks. By day 270 we can gradually increase to jumping a little bit and by day 330 we can maybe go to a combined training day, where we are sure to win the dressage test because we have had ten months of nothing but flat work!!

Before any step up in the working program it is advisable to check the progress of healing via an ultrasound examination.
The use of hills is a very good way to develop cardiovascular fitness as well as musculoskeletal strength. It removes the need for speed in order to get the heart rate up. This is a good thing as the faster you go the harder it is to judge the onset of your horse’s fatigue and the more likely you are to re-damage the tendon.
Swimming: Swimming is very good for development of cardiovascular fitness but as there is no loading on muscles or tendons it should only be used as well as the above program. Water-treadmills are excellent for rehabilitation after tendon strains but they cost hundreds of thousands and so eliminates use by mere mortals.
As you can see if you have a tendon injury and you want to give it your best shot, then in the next twelve to eighteen months you will turn into a paranoid perfectionist, who times every ride to the second and notices every change in the skin temperature on the back of your pony’s legs. But for the chance of achieving our goals in the sport it is amazing what we’ll do.