Recently Filly has been getting very tight in the hind quarters. Her stride became shorter and she felt a little lamer than usual. As a result we called Dustie out, our osteo. She agreed that she was very very tight in the hind quarters, possibly as a result of tipping a lot of her weight back to take the load off the front legs. Dustie suggested several stretches I could do with Filly to loosen up the muscles and also suggested massaging her.
I then spent several days on the internet looking up massagers. Eventually I settled on an Equissager . Fortunately the distributor was only 40 minutes drive away so I went and picked one up.
Back at the farm I introduced this new monster to Filly. She was not impressed even before it was turned on. As she is a curious horse I decided that the best course of action was to play the touch it game with her. I got Ritchie to hold the equissager which I just treated as an object for her to put her nose on. This was not the only object in the game. Cones were used as well. To get her to understand what game we were playing I sent her to a cone to touch, then a jump wing, then a cone, then the equissager. After several rounds of this, and much snorting, she put her nose on it.
We then turned it on and played the same game, not asking her to put her nose on it, but just near it.
This game overcame her basic fear of the object, but we still had to touch her with it. To get to this stage, with it off, was just approach and retreat until I could rub her hind quarters with it.
As for turning it on, this was again approach and retreat. Turn it on, if she went to pull away leave it on until she shifted her weight towards it. Immediately turn it off. Soon she learnt that she could control the noise by moving towards it so it was less scary.
Now the big test. Turn it on and put it on her hind quarters. A moment of tension in her body then it was like she collapsed in a big relaxed puddle on the floor !! She absolutely loved it. Almost immediately her head went down, she licked and chewed and then gave the most enormous yawns showing she was coming off adrenaline.
This was not the habituation over however, it took several more sessions before I could get it on her shoulders for example. But once there it evoked a similar response.
This just emphasiseis that you cannot make assumptions with horses. Just because one area is fine by them does not make another area ok.
Bonitao was even more skeptical of it, but again lots of patience and we got there. Just to make things even more interesting I tried massaging him at liberty the other night. This really made me concentrate on my timing and feel. It was successful however after only around 5 minutes or so.
Dustie is coming over tomorrow afternoon for another checkup. I'll report back on what she says.
I then spent several days on the internet looking up massagers. Eventually I settled on an Equissager . Fortunately the distributor was only 40 minutes drive away so I went and picked one up.
Back at the farm I introduced this new monster to Filly. She was not impressed even before it was turned on. As she is a curious horse I decided that the best course of action was to play the touch it game with her. I got Ritchie to hold the equissager which I just treated as an object for her to put her nose on. This was not the only object in the game. Cones were used as well. To get her to understand what game we were playing I sent her to a cone to touch, then a jump wing, then a cone, then the equissager. After several rounds of this, and much snorting, she put her nose on it.
We then turned it on and played the same game, not asking her to put her nose on it, but just near it.
This game overcame her basic fear of the object, but we still had to touch her with it. To get to this stage, with it off, was just approach and retreat until I could rub her hind quarters with it.
As for turning it on, this was again approach and retreat. Turn it on, if she went to pull away leave it on until she shifted her weight towards it. Immediately turn it off. Soon she learnt that she could control the noise by moving towards it so it was less scary.
Now the big test. Turn it on and put it on her hind quarters. A moment of tension in her body then it was like she collapsed in a big relaxed puddle on the floor !! She absolutely loved it. Almost immediately her head went down, she licked and chewed and then gave the most enormous yawns showing she was coming off adrenaline.
This was not the habituation over however, it took several more sessions before I could get it on her shoulders for example. But once there it evoked a similar response.
This just emphasiseis that you cannot make assumptions with horses. Just because one area is fine by them does not make another area ok.
Bonitao was even more skeptical of it, but again lots of patience and we got there. Just to make things even more interesting I tried massaging him at liberty the other night. This really made me concentrate on my timing and feel. It was successful however after only around 5 minutes or so.
Dustie is coming over tomorrow afternoon for another checkup. I'll report back on what she says.
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