Horse&Rider Magazine – January 2018

The UK’s best-selling equestrian monthly

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WAYS TO PREVENT

GET READY TO GO

XC

4canter exercises to improve his

✱ COURSE-WALKING ✱ WARMING UP ✱ WHAT TO WEAR

Is your horse

stressed?

SUGAR AND STARCH

+

are they really bad for your horse?

Spot the signs eliminate the causes

Long-reining • How it can benefit

your horse • Getting started

Kissing spines All you need to know

19 this winter

IPN Consumer Magazine of the Year

Issue number 574 January 2018 n 27 ways to prevent injury n How to spot equine stress n Get started with long-reining n 4 exercises to improve your horse’s canter n Tim Stockdale’s jumping tips

W IN BACK ON

ways to stay motivated

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Jan 2018

JUMP BIGGER with

TIM STOCKDALE

p u g n i Go

In this feature. . .

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Perfect your approach ➤ Introduce larger

As told to Lucy Turner. Photos: Bob Atkins. With thanks to MS Amlin for their help with this feature, amlinplus.com

orse? Tim h r u o y h wit ce ger fences ig b g h confiden n it li k w c d a t n t a r a afely Want to st progress s u o y s lp e h Stockdale

OUR EXPERT

Tim Stockdale has been a key figure in the world of showjumping for many years. Having discovered a talent for the sport at the age of seven, he’s represented Great Britain on more than 50 occasions.

OUR MODEL

Max Swanne rides Union Jack, a five-year-old stallion who is competing at 1.10m.

40 HORSE&RIDER

In the saddle

fences in a safe, structured way ➤ Build your horse’s confidence

J

umping bigger than you or your horse are used to can be a nerve-racking experience.

What if you’re not ready? What if your horse isn’t ready? And how high is too high for you both?

Remember that jumping big fences isn’t everything – good technique is far more important.

However, there are situations when you might want to challenge yourself or your horse – for example, if you’ve been jumping at the same level for a while and want to try moving up, or if you’re bringing on a young or inexperienced horse and would like to progress his training.

When you’re walking towards a step, you don’t speed up, you maintain the same speed, rhythm and balance.

Jumping is just the same

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HORSE&RIDER 41

Too close for Our expert

With thanks to the Animal Health Trust for their help with this feature, aht.org.uk

Laura Quiney BVSc MRCVS is Junior Clinician at the Animal Health Trust. She’s particularly interested in lameness, poor performance evaluation and equine diagnostic imaging, especially radiography and magnetic resonance imaging.

comfort

Kissing spines has a reputation for causing severe back pain. But for many horses diagnosed with this condition it isn’t necessarily bad news, as vet Laura Quiney, from the Animal Health Trust, explains

A

diagnosis of kissing spines usually fills owners with dread, as we’ve all heard of horses who have the condition who’ve become too dangerous to ride – sometimes permanently. Called impinging spinous processes by vets, it’s a relatively common condition that can affect the vertebrae in your horse’s back.

Spinous processes are pieces of bone that extend from the top of each vertebrae and in a normal horse there’s a space between each. However, in horses with kissing spines, these spinous processes touch or overlap.

It’s true that kissing spines can cause a lot of pain, but did you know that many horses with kissing spines suffer no discomfort at all? Often it’s an incidental finding while investigating another problem. So if your horse has kissing spines, it’s not all doom and gloom.

Causes of close spinous processes

Horses with short or dipped back conformation will inevitably have spinous processes that are crowded or close together. Crowding doesn’t necessarily lead to kissing spines or pain, however the flexibility of your horse’s back may be reduced. It’s unlikely that this will affect his ability to work unless he’s competing at a high level, although this stiffness may predispose him to back muscle or ligament pain, or damage to the joints of his spine or pelvic region.

The back is a dynamic structure and the closeness of the spinous processes will also be determined by back posture. For example, when your horse is ridden in a correct or long and low outline, the spinous processes probably have a larger gap between them than when he’s ridden incorrectly, with his head above the bit and back hollow or dipped.

62 HORSE&RIDER

Alternative causes of back pain

Just as a diagnosis of kissing spines on X-ray doesn’t necessarily mean pain, back discomfort doesn’t always mean your horse has kissing spines. Tension, pain or stiffness in the back is common in ridden horses, and because signs of discomfort are more obvious when horses are ridden, it’s often assumed that the back is the primary problem. However, in the majority of cases it’s secondary to another problem, such as... an ill-fitting saddle that may cause back pain because of pressure points if the panels bridge (make contact at the front and back, but not in the middle), or it pinches, or tips backwards or forwards. If the saddle tends to slip to one side then, as well as leading to uneven weight distribution across the muscles of the back, the panel on the opposite side to which the

Ask a vet

Many horses with kissing spines suffer no discomfort at all

saddle slips may press on the spinous processes, causing pain a heavy rider, one who has poor balance, or one who struggles to ride their horse in a correct or long and low outline may also induce back pain

DID YOU KNOW?

When ridden, horses with pain elsewhere in their body may hold their back stiffly and resist bending one or both ways.

Lameness when ridden can also cause some horses to display conflict behaviour, such as bucking – this can be an important sign of pain if your horse didn’t previously buck when ridden. Negative associations between ridden exercise and lameness may also cause your horse to resent being tacked up, girthed or mounted, despite having no primary back problems

While an unevenly flocked saddle may tip to one side, research carried out by the Animal Health Trust has identified hindlimb lameness as the major cause of saddle slip.

pain elsewhere in the body, such as lameness. Tension or pain in the back is often one of the first signs an owner notices when there’s discomfort somewhere else in the body. Lameness appears to alter the biomechanics and movement of horses’ backs, which can lead to muscle tension, pain and muscle wastage as a result of reduced muscle use.

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HORSE&RIDER 63

19 ways to

STAY MOTIVATED

this winter

When it’s dark, wet and cold, spending time at the yard can feel more of an obligation than a pleasure. Here are H&R’s tips for making winter work for you

1 Attend a lecture demo by a professional rider. Equestrian centres can be chilly, so wrap up warm in plenty of layers, pack a blanket for your knees, and don’t forget some paper and a pen so you can jot down useful exercises. You’re sure to leave brimming with inspiration for your next schooling session.

Photos: Bob Atkins, Adam Fanthorpe, Stefan Holm/Shutterstock.com

2

It’s easy to end up wandering aimlessly around the school, thinking about what’s for dinner. Instead, create short, focused schooling plans to keep your riding on track.

Aim for no more than half an hour, including five minutes for your warm-up, five minutes to cool down and two targeted exercises. Ask your instructor if you need help.

56 HORSE&RIDER

3 There’s nothing more miserable than being cold and damp, so step away from this season’s new rug collection – your horse probably has more than enough as it is – and invest in some warm, waterproof kit for yourself. Opt for technical, thin layers rather than bulky jackets, as these can be stripped off gradually if needed.

4

It may seem counter-intuitive, but spending time away from the yard can help you to appreciate it more when you’re there. As long as your horse has plenty to eat and is warm enough, he won’t complain about having a night off while you’re on the sofa with a cup of tea, binge-watching your latest TV addiction.

Mind matters

5 Go to a top-level show, such as Olympia or the Liverpool International, and take note of how the showjumpers shave seconds off their time and the dressage riders prepare for the perfect entrance down the centre line. Some shows grant spectators access to the warm-up arena, too, so you can get even more tips. Plus, there’s also the opportunity to spoil yourself with some retail therapy and a few drinks in the champagne bar.

6

After a summer of shows, evening hacks and generally getting out and about with your horse, winter can bring you back to earth with a bump. But a change in season doesn’t mean you have to stop having fun. Make use of local facilities such as all-weather gallops, box up to try new hacking routes or take advantage of the lifted restrictions and go for a beach ride. Having a diary full of activities will make winter fly by.

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HORSE&RIDER 57

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