Shawna Pearson [EMAIL PROTECTED] First of all, I just registered to Ridecamp and I can't figure out for the life of me how to post and reply!! So I'm using the Guest Form until someone enlightens me. Given that I'm sure any info I provide will be highly regarded now!
I have a 6yo Arab Geld. who tied-up a handful of times this past spring. Since then I've done some research and have made several changes in feeding, conditioning, etc. If a horse ties-up more than once it's likely that they have a chronic form. And since my gelding kept doing it for no apparent reason, I decided to treat him as if he has a chronic form. There are some really good articles on www.thehorse.com (look up Exertional Rhabdomyolysis) and also a good one in the May edition of Trial Blazer magazine. The first thing I did was to quit feeding grain and switch to a pelleted rice bran (Empower, made by Nutrena) which is minerally balanced (unlike some traditional rice brans). I was only feeding 2-3lbs. of 10% sweet feed per day when he began tying-up -- which is perplexing to me since last summer, when I was conditioning the crap out of him, he was on 6lbs/day... Anyway I reluctantly made the change in mid-April and now he gets 1.75lbs of rice bran on off days and up to 3lbs on working days. I also add about 1/3 cup of corn oil/day. What I love most about the rice bran is that my horse is like a different horse! He's so much more relaxed and easy to work with. He still has the great work ethic and energy -- he just doesn't waste it on naughty bucking fits and cantering in place! After this whole fiasco I was supplementing like mad -- per the vets recommendations. He gets Vit E/Selenium, DMG, Mega-Mag multi-vitamin, 1.5 T of Morton's Lite salt (on off or light work days, Endura-Lyte on work days). Talk about a money-pit. If I didn't love the horse so much I'd bail! I'm slowly tapering off of the DMG, mostly because it's so costly, but also I believe it is not allowed during competitions. I've always done this, but warm-up and cool-down is EXTREMELY important. I hand walk for 5 minutes and ride at a brisk walk for 10-15 minutes before beginning any faster or lateral work. Remember stress is another factor, so warming up can help this. I also bought the biggest rump rug I could find to make sure his whole hindquarters are kept warm on cold, windy days. The vet recommended that I work this horse EVERYDAY. In an ideal world I would, but I've only been able to manage 5-6 days/week -- some of which is only hand-walking warm-up and then a quiet longe session. I also try not to stall him at all -- Sometimes the bugs are just too bad and I'll stall the horses for 2 hours am and pm. Hope this helps! It's sure helped me because we haven't had a single episode since I implemented these changes. Good luck. -Shawna =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
