Nevertheless, he seemed happy enough...'for him' & knowing that he'd been very good to ride previously, I began riding him. He was FABULOUS to ride although I hadn't asked anything of him; we'd just been quietly hacking around the roads & the neighbour's farm. He was VERY girthy & I was having to raise the front of my saddle to fill the hollows behind his shoulders & withers. As long as I did the girth up one whole at a time, he could cope...JUST! (Not without LOTS of face pulling, head snaking & shaking, tail swishing, moving around, etc. But that was 'just him'. The worst he ever did was get a bit 'humpy' when I first got on, on about our 4th ride. I just pushed him forward & off he went, jig-jogging as he ALWAYS does when we first set off.
He was a bit touchy around the poll & his hamstrings were sometimes really tender. When I massaged his bum, his whole back end would quiver & he'd literally sit down. I put all of this down to his 'melt down' in the float & figured we would need a good chiropractor or similar to bang him back into shape. Something his size, throwing all it's weight on that giraffe neck, would HAVE to do damage!
About a month after he arrived, I went out for a ride & he just didn't feel 'right' the whole time. He was quite lethargic & not at all himself! That night he came down with a decent bout of colic. I gave him a couple of weeks off & we had another couple of rides before I turned him out again to concentrate on the Kaimanawa muster. I figured I would deal with his problems at a later date, right now, he could sit in the paddock & (hopefully) put on some condition.
So that's what he did for a couple of months; just hung out & spent time 'being a horse' while getting to know the rest of my horse family.
I decided a month or so ago that it was time to get back on him so I got him shod & climbed aboard. He was no different to what he'd been when I last rode him & I was quite pleased that he was so cruisy after some time off. I STILL wasn't happy with his back, neck etc though!
After being back in work 3 days, I decided to go out for a farm ride with my friend. Manny had been particularly grumpy when I was saddling up but he was fine once I was on, so off we went. As I rode over the one-way bridge, he eyed the white line on the road suspiciously & snorted which was most unlike him but I squeezed him on & he walked on obligingly, only stopping briefly around the corner to stand stock still & bug-eyed, looking at the neighbour's cattle. MOST unlike him!!! I could actually feel his heart beating underneath me. He felt like he was having a panic attack. I just sat quietly & as he started to 'come back down to earth,' I asked for his attention again & on we went. I put it down to him being 'full of himself' after a couple of days of riding & I ignored him. He was also getting a fair amount of feed as I was still trying desperately to get some condition on him.
When I caught up with my friend, we started our usual circuit up the hill. Manny was feeling a bit 'weird' but
seemed ok. As we got halfway up the hill, he got a bit tense when we were tramping through some fairly deep mud. Before long, it was all too much for him & he started humping & kicking out. I growled at him & carried on but after the third episode, when he wasn't settling & was rapidly feeling worse, I decided the smartest move would be to get off. He then proceeded to hump & throw himself around while dragging me down the hill. I had intended on getting back on once out on the road where it's solid ground rather than knee deep mud but given his rapidly declining behaviour even being led, I changed my mind. This was NOT Manny!!
That was IT! If he was a client's horse, I would have advised them not to ride him & get him fixed so why the hell was I ignoring EVERYTHING in front of me?! I decided to start with booking the physio & taking him off lucerne (which I suspected was contributing to his behaviour).
He had a session of Equissage with the physio which he absolutely LOVED & I was on my way to addressing his problems. He had a second session a week later & didn't seem quite as sore as he had been on the first. He received accupuncture this time too which he wasn't so keen on. He also had a visit from the dentist ( Kristina Naden - Dentist ) & had attention paid to the many hooks & ramps that were making him favour one side for chewing. FINALLY, I was getting onto getting Manny comfortable!
Until....
Kylee Bennett from Hot Spots Thermal Imaging posted about one of her cases on her Facebook page on the 13th of August. She drew attention to a horse with unusually hot spots around the lymph area of his loins. She mentioned it was caused by diet effects on the lymphatic system & how eating grass basically made the horse's muscles sore. This was a 'grass affected' horse, as described by Jenny Patterson on her website - Calm, Healthy Horses .
ALL of Manny's symptoms were there, listed under categories of severity;
Mild Symptoms
- Tight & tense
- Girthy
- Difficult to bend
- Tight hamstrings, short stepping behind.
- Bunny hops at the canter
- The saddle doesn't fit
- The physio finds lots of sore spots & treatment requires multiple visits
- He seems to have ADD
- Weak, shaley hooves
- He hardly ever lies down
- He has no topline & is hard to keep weight on
- Sometimes bolshy & bargy
- Doesn't like to be touched / brushed
- Touchy around the ears (I'd put this down ot his neck being 'out').
- Pulls back at the slightest thing (Ooohh...& I have another horse who started doing this a couple of years ago).
- Races around the paddock for no apparent reason (Aah, yep, he's a TB full of feed & no work. Hehehe)
- Acts weird when you put a cover on (If you count threatening to chew your head off & kick it in all at the same time as 'weird').
- Overly reactive &/or claustrophobic (Think floating).
- Flies back out of the float
- Sweats in the float
- Uncharacteristic, violent, 'out of the blue' behaviour
- Overly agressive towards you or other horses (YUP!! He's nicknamed Super Nanny Manny as he's managed o beat Chance into submission; something everyone else has failed at!)
- Exhibits stallion like behaviour (He's a bit 'colty' in his behaviour & I'd been wondeing if maybe he was cut a bit proud & that's why he's sometimes a bit 'odd').
I also began to recall other horses I'd known with similar really weird, unexplainable behaviours. On a coulpe of occasions the horses had been blood tested, thinking that magnesium & selenium levels must be low. Sometimes they were, sometimes they weren't & sometimes addressing deficiencies made a difference but sometimes, even that didn't work & other reasons were sought for the behaviour.
After speaking with Jenny & kicking myself HARD a few hundred times for not having done more about this sooner, I've now set about a complete lifestyle change for Manny (& a couple of my other horses too). It's been a revelation to find that all of these things are just little pieces in a great big puzzle. I no longer have to address these things one at a time, if I'm strict with his diet, a lot of these things will fix themselves.
I have made few changes to date other than remove the prepared feeds from his diet & replace them with extruded barley & SALT (he was already getting lots of meadow hay chaff, oil & Eezybeet). He is still on grass & hay & I haven't yet begun adding the Premium NZ Horse Minerals & Alleviate C, as recommended by Jenny.
And so Manny's Diary begins...this is so I can keep track of progress, set backs & 'triggers' so I can hopefully keep Manny on an even keel & maybe even get him trucking & floating again. That would be the ultimate for Manny but I'll be more than satisfied if I can just get him sane & pain free & keep him that way.
This is Manny 23rd of August, 2010.
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| I was able to remove his cover while he was eating for the first time ever. |
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| You DON'T go near Manny when he has food! Except today!! :-D |
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| Manny; no topline. Yech!! He's well fed, drenched, etc... |
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| He's remarkably calmer since having salt added to his diet. |
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| 3 days since we started the salt & his tail is noticeably more centered, though his tail hair is still favouring the right. |
Today...
All was still well this morning. He lay down & slept yesterday, for the first time that I recall. Just like yesterday, he wandered in quietly for his feed & he was quite happy to let me take his cover off & brush him while he was eating. I got NO reaction! This is absolutely unheard of for Manny, even on a good day! This salt thing is AMAZING!
This afternoon was a little different; he came galloping in for his feed & I got 'ears back' as he raced through the gate for his feed. It wasn't quite as big a reaction as usual though. Then there was the 'approach while eating' test...he was quite snarky but it was at "Manny on a good day" level. Still, I'm not disappointed. It's early days yet & I haven't taken him off grass or started the minerals yet. Today was the first bit of sun we've had in DAYS too. I wonder if that had anything to do with it?
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