Any MNers with horses out there?

[Longlegs1972]

and how do you cope?

I'm getting really down cos I never get the time to spend with mine....

Hi Madoldcatlady. Just stumbled on this 'horsey' thread - didn't know horses were allowed on MN!!
I am an EMRT practitoner (Equine Muscle Release Therapy) - just so you know I have some idea what I am talking about. Is the sore area on both sides of the spine or just one? I assume you were not doing anything dramatic while riding her yesterday? And no other incidents that you are aware of?
If she were mine, in the short term I would massage the area as much as she will tolerate. It is sore, so that may only be 2 fingers doing small light circles, but do what you can. Can you turn her out for a couple of days rest? If not then either lunge or loose school her with the aim of keeping her soft, relaxed and long/low. Just a bit of walk and trot to kep her moving and stop it all stiffening up too much. If by some chance you know any in-hand schooling techniques, then that can be used too. If it doesn't show signs of improvement over a few days then call in a professional - physio/therapist etc - whoever you have available to you.
And don't use the saddle unless it is checked out by a good saddler obviously.
Good luck.

Oh no Madold Great to have an online 'backlady' (that's what we call ours ) with some good advice. How is she today? I'm sure it won't take long for her to be back to her usual self.

OOh Bamzooki where do you live? I've got the number of a McTimoney practitioner and have left a message for her to call me back.

At bedtime tonight the area is still sore and quite swollen. It's just on the one side. About 4 inches down from her spine, towards where the back of the seat of the saddle was.

I rubbed some arnica cream (good for bruising) into it tonight, but don't know if it will do any good due to the layer of hair under it!

I wont be doing anything with her work wise til this is well sorted. She's such a lovely girl, I feel rotten to have done this to her.

Do you know if I will have to get a vets referral to use McTimoney? And will my insurance cover it if I do?

I'll try a bit of massage tomorrow. I was worried about hurting her more.

Thanks for your messages

Oh, and she's turned out in the daytime at the moment so she can have a good stretch and gentle exercise.

Hi MadOld. I'm in Leics, but travel as far as i can reasonably manage. Prefer not to go more than an hour away cos it makes things with the kids harder. But am always open to suggestion! Where are you - I could always suggest a more local EMRT practitioner if you wanted to go down that route.
Good that you have turnout right now - a lot of people haven't. The arnica is a good idea - keep it up. Also if the area has heat in it still maybe some sort of cold compress would be of help. The massage will help with muscle spasm which I thought was what you had, but it sounds like there is bruising of some sort, so you need to reduce the inflammation too.
TBH I do wonder if your saddle would have caused such an acute local issue on a short ride, when you had used it for longer on previous sessions. Have you checked for obvious 'lumps' in the panel flocking yourself? Could there have been fold in a saddle cloth etc under the saddle when you rode to create a ridge etc?
Did she feel wrong all through the ride on Sat or just at the end?
Could she have been bitten in the field by another horse before you rode her, or something like that?
As far as I know you can either go direct to the McTimoney practitoner (though they will still need you to have got your vet's authority to treat your horse) and pay yourself, but if you want to be able to do it through insurance you will probably need a vet referral. That's how things work for me anyway.
Right now it's hard to judge if any sort of physical therapy would be appropriate - depends if it is more than soft tissue bruising. But don't beat yourself up about it too much. These things happen, and the important part is tht you recognised the problem and are taking steps to fix it. I'm sure she isn't holding it against you!

ex horse owner here...taking DD (just turned 4 !) for lessons on a Friday am...and going to get back into the saddle after 6 years of 'not' !!!! really looking forward to the excruitiatingly sore adductor muscles on sunday morning !!!!

That's a shame Bamzooki, I'm in West Yorkshire.

Well today the soft tissue swelling looks to have almost disappeared. The sore area feels hard to touch compared with adjacent areas. She tenses right up when you apply any preassure to the affected area, no matter how gentle. Even putting the Arnica was traumatic for her, so I haven't really been able to massage at all.

As were ready to ride on Saturday, I went to stretch her legs before I mounted, as you do to stop the girth pinching, and she didn't offer much of a stretch at all. I didn't think much of it at the time as she's always doing daft things being a baby, but I wonder if she was sore even then? As we set off down the drive she was jogging, this is also unusual for her. She's not a jogger, but she wanted to jog the whole 1/2 hour of so we were out. I checked the saddle and couldn't feel any lumps or bumps.

I know what you mean about it causing damage after a short ride when it had previously been ok, but there was no wrinkle in the numnah, when I took the saddle off there was a corresponding sweat patch on the numnah, with no wrinkle in it. As I groomed her before I rode there was no evidence of a bite or anything and I dont remember her being touchy to brush on her back.

One of life's great mysteries I suppose!

I'm just glad she seems to be on the mend.

I think we will carry on as we are for this week. I'm away over the weekend, and if she's still not right next Monday, I'll have someone look at her. It would be good if you could give me a more local contact if that's the case.

Thanks for all your help and support.

Good luck with your lesson Steppy!

I rode on my Honeymoon in Jamaica after 10 or so years away from horses. I honestly walked bandy legged for the rest of the weekand I'm sure people thought it was for other reasons .

Hi Madold, - good that she is improving. i would keep using the arnica for now if you can tho. I will happily put you in touch with a local EMRT practitioner - but not sure of the etiquette involved with this on MN, as I am quite new to it all really. Any suggestions, bearing in mind I have no idea how to do links!

Oh and good luck Steppy. Am in the same boat myself - it's been a while and my next ride (whenever that will be) will involve a lot of pain afterwards!!
DD gets to ride every week, and to coin a familiar phrase atm 'It's not FAIR!!!'.

We've got two horses and two ponies.

DH has heavyweight show cob which he hunts and used to show at County Level including riding him at HOYS.

We've also got a new (since September) 15hh dun connemara cross gelding. He is now turning 5 and is just hacking at tne moment with the idea of doing riding club, XC, low level combined training etc.

We bought a palomino connemara filly as a yearling and she's just turning three. She will start long reining in the next couple of weeks and will hopefully go to some County shows this Summer.

Our DD (4 last week) was given a Sec A mare for her 2nd birthday by her Godmother. She started hunting on the lead rein before she was three and loves to look after her as well as ride her.

We both work nearly full time and it is difficult to do all 4, especially in the Winter when we are leading them down the lane with head torches.

Still it is all worth it for the good days!

Hi Butkin. You really do have your hands full! I love Connemaras. If I was 2 foot shorter I'd haveone myself!

Your husbands horse sounds like a cracker!

How long before you hope to have turned your lot out? My backs have given up (coming out in sympathy with my mare) and I can't wait til I don't have to muck out any more!

Butkin, you are my inspiration. Good on you !

v v tempted to gift dd (nearly two) lovely section A mare for birthday too, lol. At the moment dd prefers our dog to our horses (we've got two) but she tries to mount the dog so I've got high hopes, lol.

I have an Icelandic mare - currently she's having fun in a large field with a herd of brood mares and youngsters, while I pluck up courage to ride again. She was running with a stallion last summer, but despite his best efforts, she is not in foal .

madoldcatlady, my horses live out 24/7 with access to their stable. It's a great system but it does have it's challenges, my fields are shot because of the amounts of rain we've had and my horses are hairy and muddy and it takes hours, yes hours to get them dry and clean enouhg to put tack on.

...and regarding Scotland, well houses with land are hard to find up here as well as the farmers are very reluctant to sell land and if there's one coming up for sale it goes for a fortune. Howeever, sometimes a whole farm is up for sale and if you can afford it you can buy that and then rent the land out to other farmers (or open up a small livery yard, lol)

Oooooh, I love Icelandics, if it wasn't for the sweet itch problem I'd have one too. Tolt is just the best gait ever ! They are such fun !

I've got used to the sweetitch thing now - she spends summers wrapped up in an anti-midge rug. I made an interesting discovery last summer: she was out with the stallion and other mares on 15 acres of rough moorland, and the entire time she was out there, she didn't need her rug and she didn't rub sore spots on her dock. A friend who breeds Iceys is now wondering if rough moorland grass that has never been planted or fertilized somehow makes the horses less tasty to midges...

I just like horses that can live out 24/7, especially as I can't ride every day at the best of times. And the "tolt grin" is officially recognised by Icey afficionados: it's the expression of most people's faces the first time they experience tolt!

Ooh lovely to hear about everyone's horses and ponies We were thinking of buying a little po for our children a few years ago (one my dd had been riding at the riding school when it closed) but they ended up with a new baby sister instead.
Regards to turning out, the gelding will hopefully be out by April, but the mare will be a few weeks later, not quite as hardy. Hopefully it will be a bit drier by then (?)

I'm in the same boat as Rochwen re: muddy fields. I'd say that if you turn your nags out now you'll spend more time getting their legs clean and dry than you do mucking out Keep them in!

Our field is really muddy this year which is very unusual. The last few winters I've hardly needed my wellies but this year the mud is over my ankles. The ponies live out all the time but they've no mud fever or foot problems because we've had a lorryload of bark laid around the shelter so that they always have a good dry surface to stand on. Their hay rack is on 'dry land' too and we used bark to raise the floor level in the shelter before putting a bed down so it is always dry and drains well. Luckily the man we rent the field from has a brother who is a tree surgeon!

I'm lucky in that my horse lives a 20 mn hack from the beach - a weekly splash in sea water seems to help keep thrush at bay.

Hi Mad Old (are we on first name terms!)and Rochwen.

We keep the horses on the other side of the village and only rent 7 1/2 acres. Our Winter paddock is in a real mess but we are still turning out at least 5 if not 7 days a week.

I get up at 6am each morning to turn them out and to start mucking out until time to take DD to pre-school.

In the evening all 3 of us go down and we use the car to shuttle up the walker backer (if you know what I mean).

DD is in charge of filling water buckets and doing the feeds (she knows exactly what they all have).

We do all the heavy stuff. We only tend to ride at weekends although a lady in the village hacks out on the cob during the week to keep him fit for hunting.

He is retired from showing now (aged 19 - had him since he was 4/5).

We hope to have them living out by last week in March but worried that it won't be dry enough.

DD loves her Sec A mare - a great choice. She likes to do gymkhana and pretends to be Frankie Dettori or Micky Fenton whilst riding. She really needs lessons as, although only 4, we lead her off the cob and her seat is great but her steering isn't!

How old was your dd when you started her riding, Butkin?

R - She used to ride around on my old arab when she was about one (with us holding her on of course).

For her 2nd birthday her Godmother gave us the Sec A mare that her kids has learned to ride on - on permanent loan.

She started off with us holding a foot until she got steady in the saddle. At 2 1/2 she won her first show class!

Just before she was 3 she had a couple of mornings hunting on the lead rein (led from the ground of course).

By 3 she was trotting and doing a little cantering (although we don't have a school so this is kept to a minimum on set aside).

By 3 1/2 we started leading her off on our cob - saving us having to walk! She also
competed at gymkhanas last year - she likes the ones where you trot and refuses to do the walking games! Her speciality is musical sacks (like musical chairs) where I throw her off her pony and she outsprints the less agile older children.

The key thing has been that she loves her riding and we don't over face her by going out in bad weather or if she says she doesn't want to go.

She really just likes going down the yard and picking out her feet (her favourite job - we have to lift the ponies legs), leading her up and down the yard and generally mooching around her.

The best thing we bought was a Tiger Cub saddle - specially designed for little people with a handle on it.

It helped her get her balance - especially before she was really strong enough to lift herself at the rising trot.

Now she uses the reins but still holds the handle as well to give her confidence whilst trotting on our hacks out.

She's never ridden in a school and is completely happy riding around fields and woods (what she calls hunting!).

Aw, Butkin, your dd sounds fab, that was so nice to read
Had a lovely few days up here, really warm, the horses have enjoyed the feeling of sun on there backs again feel bad putting their rugs back on though.

Hi MadOld. How is your mare doing now?