Equine wellness
Equine
Your natural resource!
wellness
special issue:
RESCUE & REHAB
Nature’s repellents Five feed-through solutions to keep bugs away
BUCK the documentary Legend Buck Brannaman shares his secrets
PlayingNICE! How to help unsocialized horses
NIX THE ACHES Nipping arthritis in the bud
What’s in his
hay? Flower Remedies for rescues
Display until August 16, 2011 $5.95 USA/Canada
VOLUME 6 ISSUE 3
Equine
extravaganza
Cavalia returns with a stunning new production
Tips to combat common
skin diseases
EquineWellnessMagazine.com equine wellness 1
Contents 50
56
features 14 Nature’s repellents
You don’t need chemicals to repel flies, fleas and mosquitoes. These five natural feed-through solutions are good for your horse and safe for the environment.
18 Is he herd bound? Part two
It’s a common and challenging issue. But increasing your awareness of herd dynamics and developing a more effective leadership role can help it become a distant memory.
22 Equine extravaganza
After captivating over two million spectators in North America and Europe with its first show, Cavalia has returned with a new production that promises even more excitement and beauty.
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28 Playing nice
Modern breeding practices mean many foals are improperly socialized and unfamiliar with herd etiquette. Here’s how to help an unsocialized horse integrate comfortably into a herd environment.
38 From the inside out
The skin is like a window on the body, and its health reflects what’s going on within. A holistic and proactive approach is the best way to combat common equine skin diseases.
50 Buck: the Documentary
Celebrating equestrian legend Buck Brannaman.
54 Essence of healing
Do you share your life with a rescue horse, or one that has suffered trauma? Gentle yet powerful flower remedies can assist in bringing him peace and balance.
56 A spirit of compassion
The Cowgirl Spirit Rescue Drill Team is a unique organization. It began as an equestrian drill team but soon expanded its focus to rescuing and rehabbing slaughter-bound horses. Here’s how it happened.
60 What the hay?
So you took steps to get your hay crop analyzed. That’s good. But what do the results mean for your horse?
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38 Columns
Departments
10 Neighborhood news
8 Editorial
26 The natural horse paradigm
21 Heads up!
32 Holistic veterinary advice Talking with Dr. Joyce Harman
46 Wellness resource guide
35 Hot to trot 36 A natural performer 42 From agony to ecstasy 53 Book reviews
63 Marketplace 65 Events calendar 66 Classifieds
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65 Did you know?
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Is he herd
bound? Part two
It’s a common and challenging issue. But increasing your awareness of herd dynamics and developing a more effective leadership role can help it become a distant memory. By Karen Scholl
I
can’t remember ever conducting a clinic or speaking at a horse expo where the question of how to deal with herd bound behavior hasn’t come up. Aside from spooking, it’s one of the most common and frustrating challenges people face with their horses. Unlike other behaviors such as trailer loading or being needle-shy, herd-bound behavior can surface at any time and with any horse. Even the most “seasoned” horse, when certain conditions arise, can suddenly decide to return to what feels safe. So what does all this leadership stuff have to do with herd bound horses? Everything! When a prey animal has a thought, whether it’s for survival (herd bound) or comfort (barn sour), he will automatically check in with the established leader. When
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equine wellness
he does not perceive a leader, he will naturally make his own decisions. It can be very difficult, especially for women, not to take it personally when the horse doesn’t check in with us. Why would they? Just because we pay for everything, clean up after them and feed them? Sounds like kids!
Posture, pressure and physical touch Leadership is a learnable skill! Even if being a leader is not your true nature, think of it as learning the language of horses – their language being one of posture, pressure and physical touch. I’ve seen children as young as five and adults as old as 75 learn to earn that leadership role with their horses, with the result that they feel even closer and more connected to them. I get pretty excited about that!
The true solution to resolving herd bound behavior is to develop a broader basis of communication by following a program specifically designed to influence the horse’s mind. When a horse views a person in a position of leadership, he will bond with her as if she were another horse. As you can guess, this doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s not something anyone can “train” a horse to do for you. It’s common for a horse to understand and respect the trainer, but demonstrate a whole different behavior with the owner. That’s why I describe my program as one that teaches people leadership skills with horses – when you think about it that way, the horses already know it!
Respecting space Learning to effectively communicate with horses from a position of leadership involves a lifetime of study, but don’t be disheartened. There’s one thing you can start with that will have a tremendous and immediate influence on any horse: conditioning him to respect your personal space. This sets the entire tone for the relationship. Imagine two horses meeting. Both will posture, sniff, then squeal/strike/kick/nip – whatever it takes to move the other away. Leadership is instantly established in what seems like a brief and insignificant moment, but that moment has a tremendous effect on all future interactions between these two horses. Like children, horses will continually test the boundaries. It’s not about a horse “getting it” but a shift in our awareness and an expectation that a 1,200-pound animal does not need to be so close that you can feel his hot breath on the back of your neck.
Too close! Initially, this can seem counterintuitive to a close relationship, but horses hardly ever hang on each other or stand so close they can touch at any given moment – that’s the nature of humans or other predator species. This is why puppies sleep in a pile, while foals sleep on their own. This closeness-equals-love is so prevalent in human nature that I’ve nicknamed it “the hugging position”. We want to keep the horse so close that we could turn and hug him at any time! But in horse language, we’re telling him that because we’re letting him stand in our personal space uninvited, we are below him in the pecking order, diminishing our role as leader in his mind. This is one of the most significant opportunities we have to move up the “leadership ladder” with a horse. When we keep him at a distance from us, we make the very first shift in our newly forming position as leader.
Saddle fit tips
Tip #2 – Wither clearance Is your horse reluctant to move forward? Are mysterious white hairs or sores appearing around the withers? You may not have enough wither clearance. Wither clearance…it’s a concept that’s often misunderstood. We all make sure our saddles don’t pinch the horse’s withers, but few of us truly understand exactly what “wither clearance” means. Many of us learned in Pony Club that a saddle should have two to three fingers clearance on the top of the withers. But we were never taught that there also has to be clearance on the sides of the withers. This is crucial is because when the horse moves, his shoulder blades rotate up and back. The saddle must have an opening (clearance) on the sides of his withers to accommodate the shoulder rotation.
Signs of soreness If there is no clearance (or space) on the side of the withers, the horse’s movement will be restricted. It will be impossible for him to experience free range of movement through his shoulders. A horse whose saddle pinches his withers may be reluctant to go forward. Other more extreme signs of insufficient wither clearance are patches of white hair (not scattered individual white hairs) or sores on the top or sides of the withers.
Check the shoulder To see how much your horse’s shoulder blade rotates back when he moves, stand beside him and mark his shoulder blade with a piece of chalk. Then have a friend stretch your horse’s front leg forward and mark the new position of the shoulder blade. You will see how much farther back the shoulder blade is now positioned. Ideally, you should have two to three fingers clearance on both the top and sides of the withers. To determine adequate clearance on the sides, measure from the point just above where the stuffing of the saddle starts. On a mutton-withered horse, you may get as much as four to five fingers clearance.
This article is courtesy of Schleese Saddlery Service, partner in Saddlefit4Life and the United States Dressage Federation. Saddle balance is one of 36 points analyzed in a Schleese saddle fit session. The company offers onsite personal saddle fit evaluations, saddle fit demonstrations, trainer education days, female saddle design, saddle fit to the biomechanics of movement, and comfort and protection against pain and long term clearance.
schleese.com or info@schleese.com equine wellness
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