Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

My mare has had some belly discomfort after a couple rides and though we
have dealt with what we think are ulcers, I am still really paranoid about
it, so I find myself watching her at night before and after rides. She has
not had another occurrence of colic or discomfort, but, she has trained me
not to sleep, and in the process I have noticed some very odd sleep behavior
in her.

Instead of just locking her knees and falling asleep, she appears to nod off
and her head gets lower and one knee cocks, and all of a sudden she falls on
her face!  She has done this 5 or 6 times a night both before and after two
separate rides.  She always gets back up immediately and starts eating as if
nothing ever happened.  She was picketed at one ride, and tied to the
trailer at another.  Her rope is always long enough to reach the ground, and
she appears comfortable in every other way.  I have been racing this mare
for over a year and have never noticed this before, in fact, I believe (but
can't remember specifically), that I have seen her lay down on the picket at
night.

In retrospect, I realize that quite often in the morning, her knees and
front of her fetlocks are muddy and scruffed.  When I got her in Colorado 18
months ago, she had scars on the front of both her fetlocks, which sloughed
off when she got here in the moister climate.  I always wondered how she
scruffed them up like that...

Any thoughts on a horse who falls down when she sleeps??  My vet husband
says he has never heard such a thing...BTW, this mare rarely trips or
stumbles in general.

Laura Hayes  AERC#2741



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