Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Tying-up post from earlier

My heartfelt thanks to all who have taken the time to discuss this problem
and offer suggestions. Your experience with your horse jibes with what I
would have expected, Shawna. I thank you for such a detailed description of
your change in feed patterns. Rather than repeat what I have just written to
someone else by private post, this is the response I had to the question
"Why rice bran? What's wrong with rolled oats?"

> I use the oats as a treat (especially with my main girl as she loves
them).
Rice bran has a flavor that they just love and they will even drink if I
sprinkle a little over the bucket of water. The only other grain they get is
about 8 ounces of CPurina's Complete Advantage which uses beet pulp as it's
base. Sometimes if I make the mix too watery, I may add about 4 ounces of
wheat bran to thicken it up a bit.
I learned with my main endurance horse who had a terrible episode of tie-up
that they have run
controlled studies of diet as related to horses who tie-up. They found that
a diet high in fat (and my vet tells me, protein) and low in carbos is
excellent for those who have a propensity for the syndrome. In fact in the
study, they actually gavedesigned and fed high fat diets using different
types of fat including Rice bran, vegetable oil, and can't remember what
else. In every case except one there was no
recurrence of episode, and in the one, it was less severe, so since reading
this study which my vet passed on to me, I have included a bit of rice bran
with their mash. 4 ounces is not a
lot for my herd but for Engelita, I give 8 ounces (still not enough to be a
problem) daily with soaked beet pulp and vitamins and other supplements.<

The DMG is a good suggestion. I have found that the warm-up is vastly
important and I take the time to walk the first mile on any trail ride with
Engelita. I think that with Kit, though, it may not be as much a question of
diet but I think the stress of the trip coupled with standing in a stall
without turnout had a lot to do with her problem. After all, her entire life
has been one of field and stall with large paddock. I will be bringing her
home in a few days and will let you know how she progresses. Hopefully, we
will be back to riding a couple of 50's before the season ends. For now,
it's some good R & R for the girl.
Pat



.


> Shawna Pearson lpearson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 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
>
>
>
>
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 Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=