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[RC] Stretching & Rolling - k s swigart

Sheila Larsen said:
Your horse stretching may not be anything but him
wanting to feel good. Was reading in an article about
stretching the following: "...seen a horse stretch like
a cat, within front legs out in front of him and his croup
high in the air. ... By changing the position of the
different fasciculi of the muscle through sliding in
the interfascicular spaces you're improving the blood
supply. A lack of blood supply leads to discomfort
...that's why you will see horses stretch spontaneously."

I used to think this about my horse as I started noticing
her doing her cat stretch.  I would say to her, "Ooooh, good
girl, nice stretch."  And say to myself, "look how smart my
horse is, she is learning to stretch before and after
exercise."

Until the behaviour stopped (completely, I might add) after
I treated her ulcers.  After which it twigged, "Hmmm...maybe
she was doing it because she had gastro-intestinal
discomfort."

Rolling, and wanting to roll can also be a sign of GI
discomfort; so, knowing what I know now (about how subtle
the signs of ulcers can be), if any of my horses starts
showing signs of REPEATED, "I want to stretch" or "I want to
roll" (not the "you just pulled the saddle off and I have
GOT to scratch my back" kind but rather the, "you know, I
would just like to lay down here for a minute and maybe roll
over" kind) I would seriously consider this an indication of
low grade intestinal discomfort and investigate it further
before it got to the point where it became high grade
intestinal discomfort and I had no choice but to address it
as an emergency.

I consider, "my horse likes to roll" or "my horse likes to
stretch" to be a possible early warning sign of ulcers, and
I would spend the money on an endoscope (which, BTW: is less
than the cost of one endurance ride if I count all the
costs) to check it out...and I would discuss with my vet
doing any other diagnostic procedures (like a rectal?
ultrasound?) that could be performed to rule out any other
things too.

If all the tests came back negative, then I have some
reassurance that it really is just, "you know, my horse
likes to roll." Fairly cheap insurance.

But even then, if I found the behaviour becoming more
prevalent, or more pronounced with work, I would back off on
the work and see if it abates, because if it does, this
would be an indication to me that the work was causing some
discomfort in my horse.

Generally speaking I divide rolling into three different
categories:

1.) The horse throws itself down and thrashes around in
obvious serious discomfort (the kind of rolling that raises
alarm flags among all horsemen).

2.) The horse (usually after a bath or a ride but also just
after waking, etc.) sees/runs to a nice soft spot, drops
eagerly and gets every spot on its body dirty as quickly as
it can :) jumps up and shakes itself off (the kind of
rolling that scratches an itch, gets rid of flies, or just
generally feels good all over).

3.) The horse kind of looks around for a good spot, slowly
sinks to its knees, rolls to its side with maybe a bit of a
groan, stays there and rests for a bit, and then decides,
maybe it ought to get up.

It is this third kind of roll that I would watch closely,
because it is an indication to me of some discomfort.  A
discomfort that may be totally resolved by the roll and
therefore of little note.  But if it becomes repeated
behaviour I would start to think that I probably ought to do
something more about it than just watch.

In this particular instance, ironically, it is what is
"normal" (or common) for the horse that might raise a red
flag.  If my horse did it once at a ride that was a bit more
than what I usually do with it, but it got up and seemed to
be fine, I would probably put it down to, "the horse is just
adjusting to the additional work that it isn't used to; it
used a bunch of muscles that it doesn't normally and is
working out the kinks."  Whereas, if the behaviour persisted
or the horse "always" does this, then I would want to check
it out further...or at least to back off on the work until I
could get the behaviour to go away.

kat
Orange County, Calif.





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