<< Not to long after that we had a bad serious of snow storms and she was
laid
off for a couple of weeks. The first time I rode her after the ground
broke through I did not get 100 ft from the barn before she had another
mild episode.
After then, everytime I took her anywhere she became nervous, as if she was
anticipating another occurrence. I think her nervousness started bringing
it on as she would start to show symptoms nearly as soon as I was in the
saddle. She was a laid back traveler all her life and this nervousness was
very uncharacteristic. >>
This is the classic sequence. Time off with a fit horse leads to the first
episode and soon you're into a syndrome. The trick is to find a way to get in
some muscle fuel depleting exercise. with strong work, tying up the next day
is less likely. If your horse is nervous and anticipates tying up--bringing
it on, then sometimes a couple days of exercise under a light tranquilizer
will break her out of the syndrome. Meanwhile, C E and Se can help, as well
as potassium chloride.
Long ago, I asked Matthew what caused tying up. His answer was relatively
simple: "inconsistent exercise". That has proven out time after time after
time as a practical "truth". There are a lot of papers written about the
syndrome at the muscle cell level, but often I think they're looking at
results, not causes.
I often wonder how close we get to what is called compartmental syndrome in
humans--muscle expands faster than the fascia surrounding it can accommodate.
Medical descriptions of this syndrome match those for tying up in horses.
ti