WIN! £4,000 OF AMAZING PRIZES UP FOR GRABS! The UK’s best-selling equestrian monthly Issue number 563 March 2017 n Your horse’s social life – revealed n Robert Whitaker’s jumping tips n Behind the scenes at the Animal Health Trust n Bandaging step-by-step photo guide
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YOUR HORSE’S SOCIAL LIFE REVEALED!
›››››››››››› EQUINE REHAB:
how lungeing can help
SPACE INVADERS Teach him to respect your personal space
ROBERT WHITAKER’S
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Mar 2017
JUMPING TIPS
Meet the cutting-edge vets
PART THREE In this feature. . .
As told to Kelly McCarthy-Maine. Photos: Bob Atkins. With thanks to Coral Keen and her team, coralkeeneventing.co.uk
Our trainer
Wiltshire-based Coral Keen decided on eventing as her full-time career as a teenager. A decade later, she has represented Team GB on Nations Cup teams, is on the World Class Development programme and has many of her homeproduced horses on the Equine Pathway.
Our model
Purchased as a four-yearold, Coral has produced Zoe up to advanced level eventing. A 16.2hh bay mare, Zoe is hugely talented with plenty of scope and movement.
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➤ Making the most of varied terrain
In the saddle
➤ Schooling in the open ➤ How hacking can help your horse gain confidence
SM OOT H
operator Take your training out of the arena with event rider Coral Keen’s simple hacking exercises
R
iding out makes a nice change from the routine of working or jumping in the arena. Building your horse’s confidence and his trust in you is a gradual process. The more often you can take your horse to a new place and work him in the same methodical way that you do at home, the more confident your horse will become and the more secure your partnership will feel. Hacking is a brilliant way to build this trust and confidence together. I’m extremely lucky to have access to the chalk hills of Salisbury Plain. My philosophy with horses and schooling doesn’t change just because I’m out on the plain. I work methodically and avoid surprising the horses, no matter where I am, whether that’s training at home, preparing for a lesson or warming up for a competition. I try to keep everything I do with them really black and white, keeping my body language relaxed and the message clear for the horses. It’s a simple thing but it really works.
TOP TIP
It’s important to be disciplined and stick to your programme whe n riding out – yo u won’t progress with your trainin g if all you do outs ide the arena is have a jolly.
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Behind the scenes at
the Animal Health Trust The veterinary world is advancing at the rate of knots and the Animal Health Trust, Horse&Rider’s 2017 charity of the year, is where much of the magic happens. Lucy Turner visited to find out more
Photos: Bob Atkins
Horses are referred to the AHT from around the country in the hope that the cause and a solution can be found 72 HORSE&RIDER
Ask a vet
W
The dummy rider
hen I think of equine charities, centres full of rescued, abused horses and ponies who need to find loving homes spring to mind. And while a huge part of equine charity focuses on horses and ponies in need, not all of it does. What I hadn’t considered was the amount of charity work that goes into making sure our horses stay happy, healthy and sound for years to come – that’s where the Animal Health Trust (AHT) comes in.
Specialist help
The Animal Health Trust has a referral clinic and Sue Dyson uses a nerve block to the majority of the horses who come to the Trust investigate a lameness problem are there for a lameness examination – with expert in orthopaedics, Sue Dyson, heading up this area of work, they couldn’t be in better hands. As horses in the hope that the cause and a solution can be found arrived for their appointments and were led onto – I’ve often heard it said that if Sue Dyson can’t fix the yard by their owners, I couldn’t help but sense a your horse, no one can! hint of apprehension in the air. The girls on the yard The vets have state-of-the-art equipment at their welcomed them warmly and made the horses feel disposal to help them reach a diagnosis, including at home straightaway, and the vets were kind and a dummy rider for horses who aren’t safe to sit on, sensitive, as well as ultra-professional, but still which allows the vets to see whether the horse is there was a sense of unease. affected differently when he’s ridden. Once the It soon transpired that for many area of pain has been located using nerve and of the horses who come here, it’s joint blocks, the location is imaged using DID YOU a last chance saloon. Often they X-ray, ultrasound, bone scan and, in more KNOW? have ongoing lameness issues complicated cases, MRI. The AHT has the use that, so far, no one has been able No imaging technique is 100% of X-ray, ultrasound, to resolve, so they are referred sensitive, so the vets use X-ray, bone scan and MRI here by vets around the country ultrasound and bone scan to investigate problems, as they can all show up to help diagnose different things. For X-ray, there needs lameness to be at least a 30% increase or decrease problems. in bone density for the problem to be visible. And when vet, Laura Quiney, carried out some research on the sensitivity of bone scan, she discovered that in some horses, quite major bone changes weren’t picked up. MRI detects almost all problems, but it’s incredibly expensive, so the vets try to get to the bottom of the problem using other techniques first. MRI is most commonly used for foot pain, because up to 80% of forelimb lamenesses are in the foot, and because it’s not possible to use ultrasound to image the tendons and ligaments in the foot due to the thickness of the hoof capsule.
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Web extra
As told to Georgia Guerin. Photos: Bob Atkins. With thanks to Hartpury College Equine Therapy Centre for their help with this feature, hartpury.ac.uk
Watch the Hartpury Therapy Centre staff demonstrate different therapeutic exercise tools bit.ly/HR_LUNGEING
Our expert
Dr Kathryn Nankervis BSc MSc CVPM is Principal Lecturer in Equine Therapy at Hartpury College. She oversees all treatment at the Therapy Centre and was instrumental in its setup and development. 94 HORSE&RIDER
Management know-how
Getting the
right moves Helping your horse to move in the right way is an important part of a rehab programme, as Dr Kathryn Nankervis explains
O
nce your horse has benefited from veterinary treatment and physical therapy in whatever form was deemed most suitable for him, he’s ready to learn how to use his new body. The aim is to support the recovering injury, while prompting the development of more efficient muscle balance and movement, so it’s likely to incorporate a number of different methods of exercise, with the overall programme gradually increasing the difficulty and intensity. In addition to using high-speed and water treadmills (in part two), further therapeutic exercise, which can include
Behind t h scenes a e t Hartpury College PART TH REE lungeing, long-reining and in-hand walking, is a key part of a successful rehab programme. When your horse is undertaking a rehab programme, you’re aiming to retrain his body to be able to access and harness the range of movement of key joints to the best of his ability. To do this, we need to find a method of exercise that encourages him to use a new and improved posture and pattern of movement, then reinforce this within short, but frequent, exercise sessions. By keeping the sessions short and sweet, and by focusing on quality over quantity and duration, we make sure to avoid fatigue.
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