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[RC] Stretching & Rolling - k s swigartSheila Larsen said: Your horse stretching may not be anything but him wanting to feel good. Was reading in an article about stretching the following: "...seen a horse stretch like a cat, within front legs out in front of him and his croup high in the air. ... By changing the position of the different fasciculi of the muscle through sliding in the interfascicular spaces you're improving the blood supply. A lack of blood supply leads to discomfort ...that's why you will see horses stretch spontaneously." I used to think this about my horse as I started noticing her doing her cat stretch. I would say to her, "Ooooh, good girl, nice stretch." And say to myself, "look how smart my horse is, she is learning to stretch before and after exercise." Until the behaviour stopped (completely, I might add) after I treated her ulcers. After which it twigged, "Hmmm...maybe she was doing it because she had gastro-intestinal discomfort." Rolling, and wanting to roll can also be a sign of GI discomfort; so, knowing what I know now (about how subtle the signs of ulcers can be), if any of my horses starts showing signs of REPEATED, "I want to stretch" or "I want to roll" (not the "you just pulled the saddle off and I have GOT to scratch my back" kind but rather the, "you know, I would just like to lay down here for a minute and maybe roll over" kind) I would seriously consider this an indication of low grade intestinal discomfort and investigate it further before it got to the point where it became high grade intestinal discomfort and I had no choice but to address it as an emergency. I consider, "my horse likes to roll" or "my horse likes to stretch" to be a possible early warning sign of ulcers, and I would spend the money on an endoscope (which, BTW: is less than the cost of one endurance ride if I count all the costs) to check it out...and I would discuss with my vet doing any other diagnostic procedures (like a rectal? ultrasound?) that could be performed to rule out any other things too. If all the tests came back negative, then I have some reassurance that it really is just, "you know, my horse likes to roll." Fairly cheap insurance. But even then, if I found the behaviour becoming more prevalent, or more pronounced with work, I would back off on the work and see if it abates, because if it does, this would be an indication to me that the work was causing some discomfort in my horse. Generally speaking I divide rolling into three different categories: 1.) The horse throws itself down and thrashes around in obvious serious discomfort (the kind of rolling that raises alarm flags among all horsemen). 2.) The horse (usually after a bath or a ride but also just after waking, etc.) sees/runs to a nice soft spot, drops eagerly and gets every spot on its body dirty as quickly as it can :) jumps up and shakes itself off (the kind of rolling that scratches an itch, gets rid of flies, or just generally feels good all over). 3.) The horse kind of looks around for a good spot, slowly sinks to its knees, rolls to its side with maybe a bit of a groan, stays there and rests for a bit, and then decides, maybe it ought to get up. It is this third kind of roll that I would watch closely, because it is an indication to me of some discomfort. A discomfort that may be totally resolved by the roll and therefore of little note. But if it becomes repeated behaviour I would start to think that I probably ought to do something more about it than just watch. In this particular instance, ironically, it is what is "normal" (or common) for the horse that might raise a red flag. If my horse did it once at a ride that was a bit more than what I usually do with it, but it got up and seemed to be fine, I would probably put it down to, "the horse is just adjusting to the additional work that it isn't used to; it used a bunch of muscles that it doesn't normally and is working out the kinks." Whereas, if the behaviour persisted or the horse "always" does this, then I would want to check it out further...or at least to back off on the work until I could get the behaviour to go away. kat Orange County, Calif. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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