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I think the question here is wether they are stretching or smelling. If
they are running with nose on the ground or extremely close to it , it
is probably smelling. Whereas you can definitely see the other kind of
behavior whether it is stretching out neck muscles or trying to breathe
easier is debatable. A long time ago I posed the same question th this
forum as I had noticed my Arab gelding starting to do this at the canter
- especially uphill. I had my attention drawn to the fact that it might
be stiffness(a young horse starting to work hard and with naturally high
head carriage) or ,as sometimes it was combined with bucking , a saddle
fit problem. I spent some time checking the whens and wheres he did it
and the stretching carried on for a while - only when doing extra hard
work - and almost completely disappeared when he adopted a naturally
lower head carriage towards the middle of endurance rides and training.
I think he worked out for himself that it is extremely tiring to run
around with a hollow back. The bucking stopped totally when I changed
saddles as he had broadened out much the saddle was pinching !!. My new
horse , a young mare just started this year, has also started the neck
stretching exercise now - even though she doesn't naturally have a high
head carriage . Just a learning curve , and a good one imo.
Cindy and Shaliekah(the apple of Mom's eye now)
Afrox National Contracts Department
P.O.Box 879 , Germiston,1400
Tel 011 871-1006
Fax 011 873-4623
E-mail : natcon@afrox.boc.com
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