My horse always, always rolls when he gets
home. He rolls all the way over, at least twice. He also stays
on his back with legs in the air, and "wiggles" around (best way I can describe
it) in between rolling all the way over - just like a dog, really. It's
his way of working his kinks out, I am sure. Then he gets up and shakes,
again like a dog, to shake off the dust. It doesn't matter if it's
been a short ride of 15 minutes to adjust new tack, or a 20 mile ride, or a
4 day road trip. Same ritual, but correspondingly longer in respect to the
length of time he's been away from home (really, I'm not kidding!) He's a
smart horse, I think.
I love to watch him when we get back from a "long"
trip -- he runs around, alternately shaking his head and cantering, stopping to
roll, inspecting his "herd" I think is what he's doing (an older
TB/QH mare, 2 TB colts, and a yearling). He's a gelding but he wasn't
gelded 'til he was 4 years old, so he still thinks he's hot stuff. He's 17
now, mostly Polish, Arabian. In case you can't tell, I love him more
dearly than any horse I've ever owned, and I've owned horses for 50
years.
... Or, alternatively, maybe what he's
doing when he rolls is just getting rid of cooties!
<grins> That may be closer to the truth...
One thing I forgot to mention regarding a horse
with ribs out of place. I just learned from one of my other groups a
method that a woman who also does massage therapy uses. She will spray
the horse with water and not squeegie off so the horse gets itchy from the
running water and will lie down and roll. She does this about 5 or six
times, until the horse rolls all the way over instead of just half way.
It helps to put the ribs back in place.
Ingenious!
cindy
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