Re: SPOOKED AT MUSCLE SPASM ??

[Cyberpony <Cyberpony@aol.com>]

In a message dated 98-04-12 19:41:21 EDT, you write:

> << Suddenly he bucked violently (only once)

John & Heidi~

I had this happen to me just yesterday!!!  I had just come through a gate,
opening and shuting it while still mounted.  We stepped away from the gate and
(pow) my horse exceutes a nice (moderate) buck.  Just one.  Then he walked on
with his back humped a bit.  After a few strides he relaxed his back, let it
down and appeared to be fine.  My first thought (no "vision") was some sort of
a muscle spasm that dissipated.

My horse (and his mother) have always been cold backed.  I'm used to this
happening on occasion, but not in the middle of a ride.  My only thought was
that when I was putzing around with the gate (and leaning to one side) my
horse had to use extra back muscles to counter my lopsided weight and that is
what brought on the spasm.

I don't buy the bee sting theory: (1) a welt would have probably developed.
(2) after the initial sting there is the residual stinging sensation that
would cause John's horse either to buck some more, turn his head to the sight
of the sting and try to remove it with his nose, or swish his tail to get the
insect off.  Since John didn't mention any of these things, I'd have to rule
out the bee theory.

For me this was just sort of an interesting aside to our training ride.  But I
feel for John and his 67 year old body.  It's no fun meeting the road like
that, no matter how old your body is.   :-(     I hope you were wearing a
helmet!

A thought just occured to me.  While I was grooming my horse that morning I
found a muscle and response that interested me.  When I scrubbed his rump
about four inches down and to the left of the top of his tail he would raise
his back.  The location was right were that butt muscle (that goes straight
down the back of the leg) ties in at the top (wish I knew the correct name for
the muscle).  The back raising response interested me so we repeated it a few
times.  I thought, "oh boy, this is a good exercise to strengthen back and
tummy muscles."  Could I have stirred things up with that and it came back to
haunt me during our ride?

~Nora & Tucker
Ocoee, FL