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Re: [RC] Wither Question - Chris Pausnot always. Depends on the severity of the problem.
here's some info from a saddle fitter's website:
A correctly fitting saddle will cut out about 60% of natural blood circulation to the saddle area on a horse’s back – this is a “ best case” scenario, and even in this situation regular massaging of a horse’s back is obviously going to have huge benefits for that horse.
Imagine how much worse the situation is for a horse with a badly fitting saddle – in some cases so much of the circulation gets shut down that the hair follicles die (causing white patches), and in really severe cases the muscle tissue under the skin can die or be permanently damaged. When the saddle does not fit well the horse will also tend to become stiff and hollow in his back, in his effort to “get away from” the pain. As I explained before stress imposed on one part of the horse’s (or person’s) body will lead to a kind of domino effect, where that stress / soreness extends into other parts of his body as well "Whisper words of wisdom, let it be." The Beatles
Chris ----- Original Message ---- From: "Curtis, Laura (LauraCurtis)" <LauraCurtis@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Monday, November 6, 2006 4:21:18 PM Subject: FW: [RC] Wither Question But if it’s not too late, if you remove the source of the problem, the white spots will disappear, right? That was my experience, but I just hand a start of white hairs before I stopped using the saddle that was the problem.
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Burnett, Elly
The reason for the white is because the skin cells are so damaged that they no longer have any pigment. It's the same principle behind freeze branding of animals. It gets very technical, but I do not believe the nerves are affected from this--the lack of color is because of damage to skin and hair follicles. But the fact that there are white spots mean there is significant damage to at least the skin.
Elly
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